How Successful Is Human Breastfeeding?

Twenty-five years ago, I was so excited over the birth of my first daughter. I planned to do everything right – just like the baby books said. My excitement over my daughter’s arrival soon turned to disappointment as it became clear that I was unable to nurse her. I had no real understanding of how to nurse her except what I had read in books. I had never seen anyone breastfeed before, but it seemed easy enough. All you have to do is hold the baby up to your breast and the baby knows what to do. She was hungry, but I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. Finally, I gave up and started bottle-feeding her. I felt like a failure. I knew breastmilk was better than formula for babies, but I could not get the hang of it. Today, I understand why I was not successful in breastfeeding. I was young and inexperienced with no family to help. Even if I had family around, it was not something acceptable to discuss. At the time, I had no support system (other than my husband) or someone to show me how. I felt like everyone was judging me for what was supposed to come so naturally, but wouldn’t.
According to the article, “Human Breastfeeding Is Not Automatic: Why That’s So and What It Means For Human Evolution,” written by Anthony A. Volk, nursing is instinctive and automatic for most mammals. However, some primates are different. Successful breastfeeding is a learned skill for primates such as humans and apes. Apes in captivity learn to nurse by observation and do so rather quickly, without problems. Even though humans require more time to learn the breastfeeding technique than apes, they still face