Bringing your baby to breast is thought to be the only way that you can bond with your newborn, but what about those that do not bring baby to breast, and are breast pumping instead, are you and your baby destined to never experience any type of closeness?

Unfortunately, some of us for various reasons are unable to bring baby to breast successfully, but we still care and love this baby enough for breast pumping all the breast milk we can. But, just because we breast pump does not mean that we cannot bond. Some of us experience a great bond while we feed this sweet baby, staring into those brand new beautiful eyes, talking softly, and cuddling closely to feel the warmth and smell of that newborn baby. It just takes some creativity, oh, and also the incredible love that you have for this child.

Some believe that you cannot experience the bond without the skin to skin contact, and yet many of us have created ways to experience this also. Bath time is a perfect time to get the skin to skin contact with baby. Each evening before bed, my husband would hand the baby to me and the two of us would coo and smile at one another in the wonderful warm water.

Advocates of exclusive breastfeeding often forget the physical and emotional obstacles that may be caused during the birth of a baby. When a mom is experiencing some of these problems, exclusive breastfeeding often poses an additional problem to an already problematic situation. This in turn causes a distance between mom ad baby, as opposed to creating a bond. If mom is experiencing problems, other feeding alternatives, especially breast pumping, may assist in the bonding experience.

Copyright 2006, Wendy Williamson