Some women wean their baby early and later they regret their decision. The decision to restart breastfeeding has its own repercussions. The baby may not start breastfeeding easily. It will take more time and effort to restart breastfeeding. In such cases they have to express milk manually or mechanically.Many mothers consider stopping breastfeeding their babies early due to various reasons. Resuming work is one of the reasons why many career oriented mothers decide to stop breastfeeding. This decision to wean the baby early leads them to cope with guilt. Discussed below are some of the concerns of mothers related to weaning the baby early.
I had stopped breastfeeding. I would like to start again
Sometimes mothers decide not to breastfeed their babies for whatever reason. The same women might change their minds after sometime, but are worried that their milk may have dried up. If you have weaned your baby early and regret the decision, you can take heart. Women, whose babies are between four to seven weeks old, can be reasonably successful at relactating.
Will restarting breastfeeding be a problem?
You cannot bounce back and forth on a decision like this. You should be certain that you want to resume
breastfeeding. Relactating is not going to be easy. It will take some time and a lot of effort. For the first few weeks, relactating can be quite stressful for you and the baby. You will have to feed her very often and may have to express milk manually or mechanically. In addition, your baby's appetite may not be satisfied with the amount of milk you produce, so you will need to supplement her diet with
formula.
What is an alternative to weaning the baby early?
Working mothers who are coping with the dilemma whether to wean the baby early or not have no reason to worry. They can exclusively breastfeed the baby when they are on their maternity leave. Once they start working, they can breastfeed their babies whenever they come back from work and during the time when they are with their babies.
Whenever the mother is away at work, babies can be fed on the
expressed milk. If expressing and storing the breast milk is not possible, formula can be introduced in the diet of baby. Such mothers can opt for extended breastfeeding. They can feed their babies for two years or longer than that to avoid the guilt of not being able to breastfeed her fulltime. Your baby may take some time to adjust to this pattern but gradually she will get used to it.
Also, when solids will be introduced in the diet of baby, supplementing her diet with formula will not be required. Therefore, mothers would not have to regret in this case as baby will not lose much in this kind of feeding pattern.
Breastfeeding is very important for the healthy growth of the baby. Therefore, do not even think of weaning her early unless it is extremely necessary to do so.
Working mothers can adjust but it is more challenging when
breastfeeding is not possible at all for some mothers. In some women when breastfeeding is not at all possible due to some reasons, the feeling of guilt cannot be avoided. Most of the mothers fear that their bonding will get affected. But do not worry; there are other ways too through which you can bond with your baby. Spend time with her telling her stories, singing songs to her, hugging her, cuddling her etc. There are many things that you can do with your baby that will help you to improve your bonding with her which can also help to get rid of the guilt.