Feelings of failure: Early weaning

Breastfeeding Review : Professional Publication of the Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia
|December 7, 2017
PubMed

... it was horrible - a difficult, painful and agonizing process. ... Nothing I tried made it anything but torture. Finally, my son got a mouthful of blood, and I gave up. I felt like a failure. It added to my depression, made me question my ability to mother, and caused my infant to lose too much weight. (The American Dietetic Association's) position paper has no loopholes for us 'failures', no compassion for those of us too poor to rent an electric pump ... Could you please let us off the hook? (Saban, 2002, p. 24) I can't say what a devastating experience failing to breastfeed Bianca was for me. I was left feeling like I'd failed her as a mother, and even as a woman. I found it difficult to talk about, and was loath to bottle feed Bianca in public.

Related Concept Videos

Attachment01:20

Attachment

Attachment is vital for infant development, as warm social interactions support growth and well-being. In a classic 1958 study by Harry Harlow, the significance of warmth and comfort in forming attachments was examined. Harlow separated newborn monkeys from their mothers and provided two artificial "mothers": one made of cold wire and the other covered in soft cloth. Despite the wire mother offering food, the infant monkeys preferred the comfort of the cloth mother, demonstrating that...
581
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development

The sensorimotor stage, the initial phase of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, spans the first two years of a child's life. During this period, infants actively engage with their surroundings, building cognitive awareness through direct interaction with the world. This interaction is primarily based on sensory perception and motor actions, allowing infants to gradually understand basic physical properties and predict how objects interact within their environment.
Exploration...
1.9K
Sources of Self-Esteem I: Family Experience01:18

Sources of Self-Esteem I: Family Experience

Self-esteem, a crucial component of psychological development, is significantly shaped by familial experiences. The early parent-child relationship serves as a foundational influence on a child's self-concept, with long-lasting effects extending into adolescence and adulthood.Parental Behaviors and Early Self-Esteem FormationEmpirical studies have identified four principal parental behaviors that foster healthy self-esteem in children. These include expressions of acceptance, affection, and...
199
Relationship with Parents: Attachment01:28

Relationship with Parents: Attachment

Parent-child interactions lay the foundation for how we understand relationships throughout life. These interactions are not uniform across families; instead, they are shaped by a range of environmental, emotional, and behavioral factors unique to each caregiver-child dynamic. Social psychologists study these early relationships to understand how patterns formed in infancy influence social functioning and interpersonal behavior in adulthood.Attachment Theory and Early Relational ModelsJohn...
275