Listening to your "Mother's Intuition"

There are so many confusing signals, advertisements, pieces of advice, words-to-the-wise, articles, radio discussions, podcasts and forum posts out there, telling us how "best" to raise our children.

I have found, with my two children, that the only decisions I have regretted making regarding their health & upbringing were the times that I listened to something or someone while disregarding my own "Mother's Intuition"or in other words, ignoring what my heart was telling me.

My Mother's Intuition has saved my children's lives on occasion. It has averted dangerous situations, kept them happy and smiling, and frequently been proven true by one study or another at some later date.

I keep informed, of course, and have books on natural remedies, and read books and articles on parenting and children, selectively sorting out what I think makes sense and what I think is utter nonsense best left to rearing canines.

I breastfeed until the children quit on their own. I follow my hunches. I know that I know my children almost as well as they know themselves and what is "normal" for them. I believe in myself and my babies as we labour together when they are born. I trust our dyad to know instinctively what we need to do at all times, in all situations.

I have at times glimpsed the fact that "my heart" is actually my children themselves, the ones who made me into a mother, and who truly do know in their hearts what is going on with them, what they need, what is best for them.

The result is that I never feel defensive, haunted, or guilty when questioned about my parenting, my extended breastfeeding, or most anything I have done in my career as a mother while mothering from my heart, that is to say, following my children's cues and signals and really listening to them.

The other times will likely trouble me forever.