"Welcome to the Milk Mama Diaries Carnival (December). For this month, we want to honor breastfeeding for having enriched our lives and blessed us, maybe even empowered us, in a way that only breastfeeding can. Please scroll down to the end of this post and check out the other carnival participants."============
Breastfeeding has many benefits, all of which are gifts that I enjoy and am very thankful for. But there is one thing breastfeeding has done for me that I am super happy about... and that is my breastfeeding-supportive husband.
True, his great love for me made him support my idea to breastfeed. But this is a man who was not really breastfed, nor were his siblings. This is a man who used to still feed from a bottle when he was already attending preschool (to drink chocolate milk). This was a man who grew up used to fast, processed and junk food.
Now, why am I talking about junk food now?
Well, because a lot about how we parent our sons now stem from breastfeeding.
My husband never had to be the one to register for our first brestfeeding seminar, but he did. He refused to read "What to Expect" and yet took the breastfeeding talk to heart, raised his questions then.... and months and years later, would even correct me when I faciliate group discussions on breastfeeding.
He could have insisted on formula when our firstborn wasn't pudgy. He could have blamed my milk whenever our son got sick. But always, he'd be the first to say, "thank God, you're breastfeeding mahal."
And after that, he also came around to the notion of not raising our kids in fast, processed and junk food. He has learned to celebrate our son's lean body since he knows he's fed well (and right) and focus instead on our son's speed, smarts and general well-being.
Hubby need not go to breastfeeding events with me, but he did, and he's learned more and more. Again, my group refers to him as an honorary LATCHer 'coz he's almost as visible as I am.
We could go to just any doctor but he'd understand, and sometimes wait with me, as I consult with breastfeeding-friendly ones.
And now, at work, he's the first to tell pregnant colleagues and expectant dads to TRY breastfeeding.
I believe, the fact that he embraced the beauty and natural-ness of breastfeeding helped him open up to Waldorf education and homeschooling.
I could go on and on and on, saying basically the same things about my best breastfeeding supporter, but it will really just boil down to him being a breastfeeding dad. Someone who doesn't have issues about a running child nursing from his wife. Someone who knows he has to share and doesn't have first dibs (for now). And that is the best gift I can think of that breastfeeding has brought into my life... it did not just change me, it also changed my husband. And in his own way, he has set himself on a journey of breastfeeding advocacy.
I will be forever thankful to God for that.
Merry Christmas, you all!
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Do take the time to check out all the posts in this month's carnival:
Shaps- Beyond Being Thin
Gretchen - Breastfeeding Gifts for Christmas
Carol - The Gift of Miracle
Jenny O.- The
Gifts of Breastfeeding
Anne - The Gift of Breastfeeding
Nats - We Wish You Merry Nursing
Jenny R. - If the Magi Were Queens
Em - The "Breast" Gift
Isis- Got Milk?
Armi - Breastfeeding Gifts
Liv - My Breastfeeding Journey
Laya - Time in a Drop of Milk
4 comments:
Aren't we lucky to have supportive husbands? It's nice to hear about husbands who are not ashamed to encourage other women to breastfeed. Galing ng training mo!
My hubby also says the same thing when the kids get sick - "buti na lang breastfed sya." It makes a lot of difference having them by our sides :)
so true. my husband's line naman is "buti na lang breastfed siya. kaya ituloy mo pa yan till' she wean by herself" :)
I couldn't agree more! We are so lucky to have very supportive husbands. Mine isn't the showy one who I could take along meetings. I think I was able to snag him into one LLL meeting and that was it. But he always got my back when people are going against me with regards to breastfeeding. He's my #1 cheerer!
Thank God we have supportive husbands. My husband is my number 1 supporter. He has learned a lot because he has seen me doing it. Although we are both in the medical field, we are not always the most well-versed ones when it comes to breastfeeding. But because of the whole experience, we have become better at what we do.
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