(no subject)

[pat]

I just finished two WWF posts. The first is about the icon controversy, which I would have ignored except that it cropped up in Making Light. The second is a very personal one --- that I think is nonetheless important -- about "Why I am not a lactivist." It came out of the fact that the icon controversy, and some of the nastiness about the debate, was triggering a lot of emotions in me regarding the first few weeks of my eldest son's life. I've been sitting here writing it and crying, but I think I needed to do so. I put it over there rather than here because there are several good friends who do not read my LJ but who do read WWF.

Comments

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

Thank you /so/ much for both of those posts, especially the second. I sometimes think that if tallin hadn't had four siblings and a mother who supplemented occasionally, I might have gone down that same path instead of starting the supplementing when I did (and then I found out much later that the stress of trying to hold down full time student status due to my visa was probably making my milk dry up - I wish someone had told me that excessive stress would do that to a person /beforehand/, but that wasn't in my midwife's agenda, I suppose.)

[geekchick]

Er, just to be clear: my annoyance is with the Making Light post, not yours.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I figured as much... yeah, my comment, way down in the thread was that as a woman and a mother I didn't feel in the least attacked by what LJ was doing.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

What pisses me off the most about the lactivists of my experience is that they don't *care* how much damage they do.

I'm glad you wrote it. Thank you for the privilege of reading it.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I think more women who've had to use formula for various reasons need to start talking about it, to counteract the nursing radicals. And yes, stress is a really big problem when you're trying to nurse -- which makes you even more stressed, etc.

It always amazes me that women who should know firsthand how hard it is to be a new mother can be so vicious and uncaring.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

They don't seem to get the link between the mother's welfare and the baby's either. If nursing is driving you insane (literally in my case) not supplementing is far worse for the baby's overall well being.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads-up, as I don't generally read WWF. :)

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I didn't feel that I had anything relevant to say about the personal story related in your "Why I am not a lactivist," post, but I found it both moving and ... 'informative' seems not the right word, but good for giving me additional perspective on issues I don't know anything about. I seemed like a difficult thing to recount, as you mention here. Thank you for doing so.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

There's an LJ feed of it at madameverdi_rss, if that helps. :) I don't really read *any* off-LJ blogs, but I added that to my friends list so I see when she posts to it.

[geekchick]

Yeah, thought you'd know what I meant, but wanted to make sure it was clear. =) Deleted the original post because after taking a step back from my initial reaction to it I thought it sounded overly dramatic. I still have issues with the presentation in that post, but perhaps now I'm sufficiently detached to be qualified to discuss it. ;)

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I think it's good that you managed to write about your breast feeding experience. I'm horrified at the way "Breast feeding has a lot of value and should be attempted" has become "if you're not breastfeeding, you're evil".

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree. I'm not sure that the hardline attitude helps gain any adherents to breastfeeding -- that is, who weren't planning to do so before -- and it causes a fair amount of misery.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. Post-partum depression has just started being talked about in the past ten years or so -- and only in the last couple of years have I seen people talking about post-partum psychosis. Before that, I'm not sure I would have felt comfortable talking about what I went through.

I'd better not get started on what I think of Tom Cruise...