Lots of good information, here, Andrea. My experience with La Leche members was negative, however. One day when I was nursing, my son suddenly spat out the milk. It was mixed with blood. My skin is thin and the sucking broke through causing me to bleed. I was horrified. A lactation consultant told me to just nurse more vigorously to toughen them up.

I wound up in the ER in excruciating pain with a high fever and a double breast infection. The doctor said, because my skin was so delicate, if I continued to nurse, they’d keep getting reinfected (even babies’ mouths have bacteria) so I switched to pumping and bottle feeding.

I got a lot of shade from the Le Leche members I knew. Some of them are fanatical. They hadn’t had the same problems I did, so they implied that I had either been doing it wrong or just wanted an excuse to use a bottle. I got more compassion from the doc in the ER.

By pumping, I was able to supply breast milk to my son for several months. The tender Hallmark moment of baby to breast wasn’t happening for us. Bottle feeding my breast milk allowed me to turn what had been a tense, painful, and stressful experience for me and my baby into a positive one. New mothers get a lot of advice but it’s often based on personal experience that won’t necessarily apply to them. You have to pick your battles and do what’s right for you.