Welcoming a newborn into the world is one of life’s greatest milestones. There is truly nothing greater.
Though, momentous occasions like giving birth can often come with a whole world of other issues, as this woman on Reddit recently revealed.
In fact, she has been so weirded out by her mother-in-law’s bizarre request that she posted about her story on the discussion website to ask for advice. And let’s just say everyone else was just as creeped out as she was…
The woman took to the internet to ask how she could get her 69-year-old mother-in-law to understand that she can’t breastfeed her newborn grandchild. Apparently, her MIL had never breastfed her own, and wanted the chance to try it with her daughter-in-law’s child. Yikes…
To make matters worse, the MIL had also apparently asked her own daughter if she could breastfeed her children too!
As the woman explained in a post deleted in the r/JUSTNOMIL forum that was then posted to the r/JustNoTruth forum on Reddit, her sister-in-law was due to give birth to her first child in six weeks, so the grandma was keen to try and help her out with breastfeeding. And the woman’s sister-in-law was down for the idea!
The woman wrote on the forum that her sister-in-law “read that grandmas help breastfeed babies in some cultures and wants to give it a go.” The woman then added that her MIL and SIL had an extremely close relationship.
“I’m not even that surprised they’re going to try to make the new baby’s arrival as weird as possible,” she wrote, but she never thought her MIL would end up asking her as well!
“Now that she’s got this idea that she’s going to breastfeed ‘her grandbaby’ she’s started to come for me saying that she doesn’t want a stronger bond with one baby more than the other (Dear Husband and my youngest baby is 2 months old),” she wrote.
Though, it gets worse. The woman’s MIL decided that she wanted to be taught how to breastfeed, especially since the woman had breastfed three kids successfully.
With a little practice, the MIL was hoping that she could breastfeed her daughter and daughter-in-law’s babies at the same time. “Her eyes gloss over as if it’s some f***ed up dream of hers to tandem feed them,” the woman explained on Reddit.
Fortunately, the woman’s husband is totally against the idea of his mother breastfeeding his child, and most people in the comments agreed (aside from several comments accusing the woman of being ageist towards her MIL).
“I’m pretty sure that this is not within the bounds of elderly women’s physiology,” wrote one commenter on Reddit.
Another person added: “You can’t breastfeed without working ovaries. So if her ovaries are kaput then she’s not getting anywhere with her idea. She probably doesn’t realise that some grandparents are premenopausal and in their 30’s.
“Found the whole no ovaries = no milk out when I had twin newborns plus had ovarian cancer,” the person continued. “…doctors said once the ovaries get removed means No more breastfeeding. Theoretically it’s been 20-30 years since her menopause so those ovaries….. sigh… just no.”
Someone else chimed in with: “Er…yes, grandmothers sometimes co-breastfeed in some cultures, if they’re still lactating, in their thirties, forties, perhaps even fifties if they still have an older nursling themselves. You and your SIL (and other close women of childbearing age) might also co-feed in those cultures. I think your MIL has got hold of the wrong end of the stick.”
This whole situation is definitely bizarre… What do you think? Is the woman right to be a bit weirded out by the request? Or is her MIL being reasonable? Let us know in the comments!
If you enjoyed this piece, you may like to read about this dad who was shamed across the internet for putting leashes on his quintuplets!
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