On Breastfeeding: Some Doctors Just Don't Get It!

I went to see a lung doctor last week due to my incessant coughing. As a breastfeeding mom, I'm a little hesitant when meeting doctors especially our local ones (I live in Laguna; most of our doctors are old-school, some I believe don't even attend medical seminars anymore. lol) since I have to remind them again and again about my breastfeeding and why they should be a little more thoughtful about the medications they are about to prescribe to me. It can get really exhausting, you know.

And so I went into the motions: scheduled an appointment, lined up and waited patiently to see the doc, got myself weighed and BPed, checked once by the doctor, x-rayed, lined and waited yet again, checked for the second time and alas, the result: it was asthma.

I was diagnosed with asthma, doc suspected that I have somehow developed it since I didn't have it in my entire 30 years until now. He further explained that it might also be the skin allergy that I'm currently nursing. No gross description here, just your plain super red patches of skin like I was scratched by a very angry cat. lol :)

Then he went on the "prescribing" part which made me really nervous since we were dealing with allergies and I heard that most allergy meds are not good for breastfeeding moms. I reminded him again about my breastfeeding however, I think that time got him a little annoyed by my reminders. The doc asked, "Ilang taon na?" ("How old?" referring to the baby) I told him the baby is a year old. He then blurted incredulously, "Ayaw mo pa pabutawin?"

I gave him the dagger looks.

I mean, don't they get it? Breastfeeding kept my baby away from any medical maladies. It has managed to bring my baby to a year old without any frantic calls to our pedia or unexpected trips to emergency rooms. I know the difference, my firstborn was bottle-fed and every month we were faced with different medical issues from high fevers to constipation. When I gave birth to my son, my secondborn, I chose to breastfeed even if I have the option (and the reason) to bottle feed him. It was a personal decision, and a fierce one. There's no way you can make me wean him just because some doctor is lazy enough to think of something safe for this breastfeeding mom to take.

Endofstory.