Bridal Showers and Breastfeeding

Somehow, wherever I go, people always have a story for me about their experiences with breastfeeding. Positive, negative...it doesn't matter...Just like pregnancy and birth stories, women (and even some men) love to regale me with their tales. And I appreciate them. Most of them...Until today...

My friend's bridal shower. A time of romance, bliss, excitement...and lectures. She's not married yet and her impossibly headstrong, retired-physician-mother-in-law-to-be was discussing pacifiers, prenatal vitamins, and placenta previa. Quite a bit to wrap your head around when your sole concern at the moment is about floral arrangements. The conversation turned, of course, to breastfeeding and the war began...She started with, "Breastfeeding is so easy. Women these days are pathetic. Everyone has an excuse not to do it! In my day, you had the baby and put them to the breast. It was simple. These days, everyone has a problem. This is crazy..."

To which my friend responded (with a wry smile directed at me), "You know...Melissa could probably comment on that...she's a lactation consultant!"

"What is this? A lactation consultant? I've never heard of a crazier thing in my life! What kind of job is that? Why can't women just put the baby to the breast and do what they're supposed to do?" This went on for a while, but I started to tune it out after a few minutes. There was no arguing with this woman until the aunt of the bride-to-be piped in...

"Well, I think the reason that women feel like they don't know what they're doing is that their female supports, like their mothers and grandmothers, were having babies when breastfeeding wasn't en vogue. Formula was on the rise and now those women don't know how to give their daughters any information about breastfeeding because, simply, they didn't do it!"

And you know what? She was correct! No one could argue with that for but one person...

"That doesn't make any sense! I still think it's crazy! And you," she turned to me and said, "haven't answered my question yet! What in the world do you do as a lactation consultant?"

I held off any snide comments that were ripping through my mind, on the verge of exiting my mouth..."Well, expanding on what you just said a minute ago...I put babies to the breast and help those moms 'do what they're supposed to do'".

Silence.

"Oh...Well then...I think they just put dessert on the table. I'm going to see what they have."

With some elbows in my side from friends that were surrounding me, I felt like a hero.