©iStockphoto.com/AjayShrivastava

In celebration of World Breastfeeding Week 2010, we asked mothers to talk about their breastfeeding experiences—the hard parts, the best parts, surprising parts, even what it’s like to breastfeed in public. We discovered some universal truths.

How did you overcome any breastfeeding difficulties?
“One of the things that I found really helpful was a video. I was in the hospital at the time and they suggested I watch it before going home. It was pretty naff but it had a good mix of people talking, demonstrating, and graphics that showed how the nipple fits into the baby’s mouth…The second thing that…

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My daughter Katie sprained her ankle today. While she gave up breastfeeding long ago, her cries reminded me of something I appreciated with each of my children: Breastfeeding was soothing. It was comforting. It had a powerful ability to calm a child in pain or discomfort. One friend calls breastfeeding a “magic ability;” another calls it a “super power.”

I have used this super power many times over the years, breastfeeding each of my babies during and after their vaccinations. Sadly, for my firstborn, Ben, our first pediatrician didn’t allow breastfeeding during the actual needle stick. Comparing my son’s reaction during…

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I love that my son and I share a bond that is exclusive to us. I had no idea how intimate, rewarding, and sometimes challenging breastfeeding would be.

I love being able to give my son the most natural and purest form of nourishment; chock-full of vitamins, minerals, protein, antibodies, and cool stuff like stem cells and cancer killing cells. I love being able to provide not only nourishment but comfort when my son is sick, sad, or scared. I love that breastfeeding makes me more aware of what I put in my body, so that I take better care of…

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If only I had known that most moms and babies need to learn to breastfeed. Now I understood, but it was too late. I had stopped pumping long ago and had given up any hope of actually breastfeeding my baby long before that. I assumed that my inverted nipples meant breastfeeding wasn’t an option for me.

Naïve? Unfounded? Uninformed? Yes, yes, and yes.

If only I knew then what I know now, my breastfeeding story might be very different. Instead, it goes like this:

I was confident in my ability to give birth, and equally sure that breastfeeding would not be part of…

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©iStockphoto.com/SaferTim

When was the last time a celebrity breastfed a baby, cooked breakfast, breastfed a baby, packed lunches, drove carpool, breastfed a baby, worked her ‘second job’ (breast pumping twice during the work day), drove carpool, breastfed a baby, cooked dinner, read a bedtime story, washed and ironed clothes, breastfed a baby—all in the same day and without help?

With thousands of U.S. women attempting to do all of the above and more, for Gisele Bundchen Brady to tell Harpers Bazaar UK, “I think there should be a worldwide law, in my opinion, that mothers should breastfeed their babies for six months,”…

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Tommy has a fever. Even though it’s been almost two years since he’s napped regularly, he’s asleep before dinner, a little sweaty ball in his big boy bed. Earlier this year, I would have known just what to do to get the fever down and return life to normal: breastfeed. Now that he’s weaned, I time doses of acetaminophen and ibuprofen and encourage fluids and rub his back and give him smoothies and read books—all the time wondering what more I could be doing to help.

I remember breastfeeding so fondly: looking down at his face as his entire body melted…

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©iStockphoto.com/naumoid

Motherhood is full of funny moments—seeing your baby bounce to the beat of her favorite song or make a spaghetti wig during dinner. The same is true of breastfeeding. When you were a new mom feeding your baby 8, 10 or 12 times a day, chances are you experienced a funny moment or two.

We’ve pulled together 10 of the funniest, most laugh-inducing “benefits” breastfeeding moms are likely to experience, and share with you one reader’s personal experiences (congratulations Lara, mom to Zoe, for winning our July 2010 writing contest).

10. You’ll have to wonder: Breastfed baby or drunken sailor?
You may have…

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