I Breastfeed to Stay out of Debt

by Amy Nichols

I was a typical 20 year old until I found out that I was pregnant. I was living in a house with 6 of my friends; one of them was my boyfriend. We moved out and got our own place immediately. With both of us working we were barley making it by.

My mom had tried to nurse my youngest brother who at the time was only 3 years old. She suggested I think about trying to nurse my child in hopes that it would keep us out of bankruptcy. I decided that I would try to do it for 6 weeks until I went back to work then I was going to have my mom, my mother in law, and my husband and I to alternate buying formula.

Well the day came that I gave birth to my beautiful daughter. We started nursing within the first hour after birth. After I had my hour with her they took her to the nursery and said they would bring her back in an hour. When I got to my room and settled in I asked my nurse if she was going to get my baby for me, and she said I had to get some sleep and they would bring her to me in 3 or 4 hours.

I was upset and crying after she left and pretended to sleep so that I could have my baby in my room. I did not know that I could demand her to bring my baby to me. She was just being lazy and I was a new mom, who was I to argue. She finally brought my daughter to me and I tried to get her to nurse and she refused. I later found out they had given her a bottle in the nursery instead of bringing her to me, even though her bassinet was labeled Breastfeeding only.

We had a lactation consultant come in and help us try to get my daughter to nurse. She had me pumping and then using a bottle of formula to get her started. She would get me all set up into a nursing position with me holding my daughter in one arm and my breast with the other hand.

My husband was then shown to put a couple of drops of formula onto my breast and then hold the bottle next to my breast and get her to take the bottle for a couple of swallows. He would then pull the bottle away and we would stick the breast in her mouth and she would latch on after two or three tries. We were released from the hospital with a bunch of formula bottles, and a very odd way of nursing. Every one hour and 45 minutes my daughter awoke to eat around the clock.

My husband was home with us for the first week so he helped me at every feeding. We knew he had to go back to work and I could not feed her like this myself. We started to just put a little formula on my nipple and see if we could get her to latch. She finally did. I did this for about a week and then just started to try without the formula on my nipple. She took to it and has not had a drop of formula since.

Needless to say I did not give up when she was 6 weeks old. I decided to quit work and stay at home. I took in three children to watch so that we could afford the bills.

I did have to do my two weeks notice so that I was not burning any bridges and if I had to work I could always go back to my old job. My only Regret is that I did not think to use my own milk instead of the formula. I had more than enough. I could have feed a small village with all of my milk.

My daughter is now two years old and still nursing. She is rarely sick. I also recently was able to stop taking care of others kids and be a mom to my daughter and her brother (7 weeks old).