reflections on a nursing strike

i sent this message to a cousin who was also dealing with a nursing strike. it was hard to balance being realistic with being optimistic. when it comes to breastfeeding, attitude has a lot to do with it, so a positive attitude goes a long way to having a positive nursing experience. there is always hope. what doesn't work today might work tomorrow. and there are endless approaches to try, as there are that many babies in the world making their moms nuts! unfortunately, the strike never broke for us. I pumped for a while and eventually stopped because it was a lot of effort for not a lot of output (i'd hand express for 30 minutes for an ounce at the end). but it took a while for us to get to that point. if i had it to do over again, i would have taken a day off after a few days and dedicated the day to me and her in the hopes of re-establishing a positive association with the breast. i'll never know for sure, but ani got 4 teeth in 4 weeks, so i assume she was associating her tooth pain with being at the breast. on that day off, i would have given her something for the pain and just hung out with lots of skin-to-skin. maybe i would have avoided the bottle all together, or tried the bait-and-switch method that worked for my sister-in-law and niece. at the end of the day, ani got 13 months of breastmilk, the first 10 from me directly when i was home, the last 5 via pumping exclusively. it was stressful, but stressing just made it worse. all you can do is give it a good college try and hope for the best. but if you're convinced it won't work, you'll create a self-fulfilled prophecy.