Tonya,

I can so sympathise with you. I felt completely pressured into breastfeeding when my son was born ... maybe "brainwashed" would be a better word for it then "pressured". The doctors and nurses stopped just a little short of telling me I would basically be dooming my child for life and would be the most horrible mother in the world if I did not breastfeed. I was twenty-three, single and pregnant with my first child ... what did I know?

So I tried it ... for a month. It was sheer hell. He was basically starving, and neither one of us ever got any sleep. Finally, after four weeks I could NOT take it any more, and gave him a bottle. He drank the whole thing, and slept through the night. I was almost hysterical with relief, rage and resentment.

Not a single person ever told me that it was ok to stop breastfeeding if it isn't working. Everyone pretty much blamed me, implying I was stupid or doing something wrong, and everyone just kept smiling indulgently and told me to "keep trying." Had I just refused in the first place, or quit after a few days, the first month of my son's life would have been SO MUCH better ... for both of us.