Is Breastfeeding Always Best?
Can You Choose the Bottle?
At a mothers' brunch in New Haven, Connecticut, Amy Kimball had plenty to smile about: good company, fresh bagels, and -- best of all -- newborn Alexa gurgling in her arms. But Kimball was close to tears. "I felt as if I'd failed," she recalls. Despite help from a lactation consultant, Alexa wasn't learning to nurse gently -- and for Kimball, feeding her often meant agonizing pain. Her husband urged her to soldier on. "He said, 'Don't you want to do what's right for her?' It felt as though he was guilt-tripping me," she says. So were Kimball's in-laws. Still, she couldn't help wondering: Is it ever okay not to breast-feed?
At a mothers' brunch in New Haven, Connecticut, Amy Kimball had plenty to smile about: good company, fresh bagels, and -- best of all -- newborn Alexa gurgling in her arms. But Kimball was close to tears. "I felt as if I'd failed," she recalls. Despite help from a lactation consultant, Alexa wasn't learning to nurse gently -- and for Kimball, feeding her often meant agonizing pain. Her husband urged her to soldier on. "He said, 'Don't you want to do what's right for her?' It felt as though he was guilt-tripping me," she says. So were Kimball's in-laws. Still, she couldn't help wondering: Is it ever okay not to breast-feed?
On November 11, 2010
