Lactose (In)Tolerant?

Last week, at our final child birth education class, we learned of a "lactation class" offered by Baptist Hospital. Now, my first thought was "how hard can it be to learn to lactate?" I mean, the baby arrives and the mother nurses the baby. What more is there to learn? My second thought was "at least it's a class I won't have to attend." What could I possibly add to a discussion about the proper way to breastfeed?

Well, I was wrong on both counts. There's a hell of a lot more to breastfeeding than meets the eye (at least, my eye). And, Jude quickly made it abundantly clear I would indeed be attending the lactation class with her. We scheduled it for last (Wednesday) night.

Going into the class, my fear was that I would walk in and there would be 18 or 20 women, no men and me. The women would turn and stare as I walked in and wonder if I was some kind of pervert, since I was attending a class about breastfeeding. As it turns out, my fears were misplaced, as almost all of the women in attendance had their husbands with them.

We watched a couple of films and learned four different ways to hold the baby when he breastfeeds, not to mention how to determine if he is latched on properly. Probably the most interesting thing I learned was that cabbage leaves (I'm not making this up) can be placed inside a nursing mother's bra to slow down the production of milk or dry it up entirely, if she's ready to wean the baby. Strange.

The bottom line seems to be that breastfeeding is not quite as easy as it seems, at first glance. It takes patience, practice and a little good luck. We're going to give it a shot, though, and see how it goes.