Description

There are a lot of health benefits to breastfeeding babies, such reducing allergies and diarrhea. Find out what makes mothers decide to breastfeed their new born.

Transcript

Dr. Georgia Witkin: Hi! I am Dr. Georgia Witkin. Kimberly Pauley: And I am Kimberly Pauley. Dr. Georgia Witkin: And I am Kimberly's mother. Kimberly Pauley: And I am the mother of two boys. Dr. Georgia Witkin: Which makes me GG for Grandma Georgia. Kimberly Pauley: So welcome to GG and Me. Dr. Georgia Witkin: We talk about everything. Kimberly Pauley: For the reason I talk to my mother about everything is that she is a professor of psychiatry, professor of OBGYN, she has written ten books on stress and she is a Fox News contributor. Dr. Georgia Witkin: And Kimberly is a lawyer, a columnist, a college professor and pregnant. Kimberly Pauley: So we are going to be talking about pregnancy, please join us. Dr. Georgia Witkin: Hi! Thanks for talking about breast feeding with us, first say hello. Kimberly Pauley: Hi! I am Kimberly Pauley and I have two sons and I am having my third boy. Dr. Georgia Witkin: And breast fed? Kimberly Pauley: And I breast fed the first two, yes. Lisa Gyselen: I am Lisa Gyselen and I am breast feeding. I have a five-year old who is no longer being breast fed but I do have a two-and-a-half old who is being breast fed. Jenny Vynerib: And I am Jenny Vynerib this is Oliver, he is three weeks and he is nursing. Dr. Georgia Witkin: And he looks really happy about it. Jenny Wiener: He is. Dr. Georgia Witkin: Let me tell you that when I gave birth to Kimberly, about 25% of women nursed in the hospital because we were shown and given the option and the end of six months about 15% of women were breast feeding. Now that the information is out there that there are amino acids for the brain that it really cuts down by six-fold the cases of diarrhea, of pneumonia, it reduces allergies in the baby and there is nothing about it that isn't healthy for the baby and contracts the uterus of the mother. Now 75% for women in the hospital, 75% are breast feeding at the end of 6 months, almost 50% are still breast feeding. So was it all of this health information that made you want to breast feed or is it for the fun of holding the babies across. Kimberly Pauley: I think now at least in my experience unless there is a you can't or you hurts you or physically unable to I think its sort of a given that you are going to try. So for me it was never really a question of whether or not I was going to breast feed. It was like I hope I can breast feed because that would be the best thing and it's also it's great for bonding with the baby and I know it's healthy and if can't physically for some reason I will be ashamed, but I know there are good alternatives. Dr. Georgia Witkin: It's such a big change than in the past. Jenny Vynerib: Right I agree with Kim's philosophy on it. In my mind I was going to do it as long as I could. I wasn't going to beat myself up. Physically there was a reason why I couldn't, it was too painful, but it was my plan and luckily it came pretty easily so I went ahead with it. I mean nursing; it is difficult because you are definitely the soul provider for a nutrition for your baby so you can't just as easily you know disappear for few hours in a random time during the day and half someone else give them a bottle. Some people would think it's convenient because you don't always have to be carrying around supplies and bottles and this and that and [Cross talk] Lisa Gyselen: You can't forget anything and you are so forgetful with everything going on with being a wife, a mother, a woman. So not having to worry about the feeding. Dr. Georgia Witkin: Okay do you are really sympathetic to breast feeding, for you even sympathetic having done it. Have you seen people cross the line, have you ever been uncomfortable or what? Jenny Vynerib: Yes I can remember one time being at a friend's house, I was much younger so I wasn't at that stage but seeing a friend's sister walking with her child who had been I don't know if he was 3 or he was just very large in late 2s, but when the child can actually undo your problem and help himself then you know that was -- Kimberly Pauley: I think any extreme is not good. Jenny Vynerib: No extreme. Kimberly Pauley: You know if you are whipping out your breast in a group situation where you don't really know people, if you are breast feeding someone who is almost an adult, you know none of those things are good. Jenny Vynerib: Spread his legs and stretch across the entire couch right. Kimberly Pauley: Yeah none of those things are good, but to not do it because of that, because you are worried about how other people feel is also not good. You are being discrete, you are not making anyone feel uncomfortable, you are asking permission to the person who's house you are at, whether they feel comfortable if you can breast feed. Dr. Georgia Witkin: So part of the etiquette is don't make any mother feel that this is the only right way or that's the only right way we had nutrition now in lots of ways. Lisa Gyselen: Not if you want to be remotely liked I mean this is to be judged, it is hard enough and we all put such pressure on ourselves, last thing you need is to get from other people too. Dr. Georgia Witkin: Recently that was in the news the case where a apparently a woman was breast feeding in Star Bucks and it created quite a sensation because she felt it was her right and some states actually protect her right and other states are not as animated in protecting breast feeding as a civil right. So what do you think the bottom line is, what would you give as your final word of your advice? Jenny Vynerib: My final word of advice is figure out what's best for you and your family and just worry about that and as you long as you give your baby healthy breast feeding its great, personally I chose to do it but does not, it's not for everyone. Dr. Georgia Witkin: How about you Lisa? Lisa Gyselen: I think you always want to try and put the interests of your loved ones first and you always want to try balance that living in a world that's populated by other people so in the case of the Star Bucks, you know if my child is hungry guess what I am going to feed my child whenever wherever I need to. I am also going to try and employ amount of comfort for others as well. It's all about balancing. Dr. Georgia Witkin: By covering in some way. Lisa Gyselen: By covering up yeah I mean I don't think taking out your breast is appropriate. This is not the society we live in where you walk around with no shirt on. So you need to take into account what society some standards are, but obviously your child is going to come first. Kimberly Pauley: Alright great I mean in that case it sounds like she took it to extreme. I don't the exact case but like it seems that the problem was that her focus was more on creating or taking a stand on the issue of breast feeding and where she kind of could do it. If you are creating that kind of atmosphere its probably not best for your child as you want the child calm, you want yourself calm while you are breast feeding. Dr. Georgia Witkin: So get it done in way that it is comfortable for everybody, great. Get it done.