Mama in the City

Oh, lord! I have had the most annoying cold for over 2 weeks now and the whole nose blowing thing is getting rather old. The amount of tissues I've gone through is unreal. So, I sucked it up and headed to the doctors office to get a little check up. I was starting to feel sensitive about all the people giving me the evil eye when I blew my nose around them or the people pointing their fingers saying, 'your sick!!!'. It turns out I have one of those glorious sinus infections that needs antibiotics and is not contagious but more of an inconvenience than anything.

I had to take Josie to the doctors office with me and, as you'd imagine, bringing a toddler into an appointment is a hilarious adventure. Our sweet girl is still charged up from her stay at Children's hospital and wouldn't stop saying, 'hello doctor!' every 20 seconds during my appointment. Luckily, the GP was very enamoured with Josie and didn't mind the constant interruptions of 'hello doctor!' while she did a check up on me. There is absolutely no exaggeration with the every 20 seconds either, the girl was on it!

During my appointment I was very impressed with my GP who just assumed I was still nursing my nearly 2 year old girl when prescribing me drugs. While she was deciding what drugs to order me she was talking out loud and said, 'hmm... no, that isn't safe with breastfeeding..you are still breastfeeding right?'. Major kudos to a health care practitioner who is on the up and up with full term breastfeeding. I feel like one day full term nursing will be the norm and not the exception and a supportive health care provider is so important.

Recently I took an on line survey about my experience with support around my decision to keep breastfeeding past 12 months. The truth is, it wasn't a doctor or a nurse educating me or encouraging me that got me past 12 months of age. Deciding to nurse my youngest till her 2nd birthday was from my own knowledge and my own drive. However, if I wasn't a breastfeeding supporter my experience might have been different. I probably wouldn't know that the World Health Organization recommends normal term breastfeeding as 24 months old and beyond. Which is why I was secretly thrilled when the GP I saw brought breastfeeding into our conversation as Josie toddled around her clinic saying hello.



Did you receive support around continuing to breastfeed past 12 months? Take the survey and help researchers collect information about breastfeeding toddlers and the support you received. http://www.breastfeedingtoddlers.org