A Long Term Benefit of Ecological Breastfeeding

Several weeks ago, I was at Mass and was sitting behind a family with six children. I know the mom and she and her family are very nice! I was feeling a little nostalgic and teary eyed observing them. At first, I was thinking that maybe I was feeling sad because I wish I had more children. However, then I realized that I was feeling sad about my oldest kids being grown up and away at college!

While watching the kids sitting in front of me, I realized that there was probably no more than 8 years between the baby and the oldest. I suddenly felt very blessed! Because of the natural infertility and child spacing due to ecological breastfeeding, once my youngest goes away to college or onto her future endeavors, I will have had a total of 31 years of children at home with me! This, I would have to say, is one of the best long term benefits of ecological breastfeeding.

When you are in the trenches of breastfeeding your baby and possibly taking care of other children, too, the days can seem like they will go on forever. I definitely remember many, many days like that! However, once your oldest goes away to college or off to work and then your second child does the same and then your third child does the same, the amount of time left with your kids will seem so short! 

I think the spacing of my children was part of God's plan for my family. I had plenty of time to recover after pregnancy and childbirth.  Each of my children had lots of special one-on-one time with me for nursing and bonding before I gave birth to my next child. And my kids all still played together! I know some moms worry about that in regards to children spaced more than 2 years apart. 

If you are on the fence about ecological breastfeeding, know that...if I was given the chance to do it over, I would practice ecological breastfeeding again in a heartbeat!