Got Milk?
In honor of World Breastfeeding Week, I am going to be sharing some breastfeeding stories. What I love about sharing these is that each women's breastfeeding story is different. They are even different between pregnancies. Breastfeeding is one of those... things.
It can be the most special and beautiful moment between a mother and her child, and it can be the most frustrating and painful thing you've even been through, sometimes in the same day.
I hope you enjoy, and maybe even learn something from the next few blog posts. As always, please reach out if you have any questions, or concerns. If you need some breastfeeding tips, please head over to Harmony Births Instagram. On August 3rd, 2018 at 10am EST, I will be doing a live Q&A with an IBCLC. If you miss it, there will be archived clips on IGTV.
~Desirae
Got Milk?
by Jordan Correia
Now, this might sound a little dramatic but breastfeeding has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to deal with physically and mentally.
This comes from someone who’s never broken a bone, never had surgery, and had an uncomplicated childbirth. So on the physical side, I haven’t been through too much - thankfully. On the mental and emotional side, I’ve dealt with several great losses, one of those being the death of my father during the first trimester of my pregnancy. But breastfeeding was a different beast all together. Breastfeeding is this thing that EVERYONE these days advocates / pushes for (for good reason) but if you don’t breastfeed or you give up too quickly, you may feel like you’re being silently judged... or perhaps not so silently.
Sadly, breastfeeding doesn’t come easy for all of us — no matter how much we want this for our sweet babies. I wasn’t breastfed as a baby and I turned out great ;) very few health problems, strong immune system, decent sense of humor, and seemingly normal in the smarts department. Because of that, I did not plan to breastfeed my future child for the longest time. It wasn’t until I was pregnant and had hired Desirae as my Doula that I really started learning about all of the amazing benefits. I always knew it was good for baby and she gave me a lot of valuable information, shared videos, recommended the breastfeeding class at the hospital, but even this did not prepare me for what I went through.
As a woman, I kind of just thought, “My body will do what it’s supposed to do.” WRONG. It’s work.
It does not just happen. For some mothers it does and that’s really really great, but for so many women it just doesn’t go as smoothly. My little girl was born 2 weeks early and my milk didn’t come in until she was five days old. I quickly became discouraged and had some mini meltdowns because nothing was coming out. In cases like mine, you would typically supplement with formula, but I didn’t even research this or look into what the best formula was as a backup because I expected my body to know what to do. Thank goodness for my doula and the support she gave! DO YOUR RESEARCH, have a backup, research formulas so that in the event you can’t breastfeed sufficiently right away, you have a healthy alternative for your baby until your milk comes in.
When my milk did come in, my baby and I fought endlessly for a good latch. So, another thing to keep in mind is that this isn’t just about you and your ability to produce but it’s also about your baby being able to latch on to you.
If the two of you can’t sync up, it can be extremely stressful.
After two weeks of fighting to make it happen and working with two lactation specialists with no real results, we discovered she had a lip tie. We had it corrected to help with her latch and still no success. After five weeks I couldn’t take it anymore and I started exclusively pumping. Unfortunately, my milk supply is rather low anyway and I’m only able to produce 15-16 oz a day and she’s up to about 22 oz a day at 10 weeks.
Things I’ve learned over the last 10 weeks:
- Be patient with yourself and your baby— you’re both trying to figure this out.
- Be kind to yourself and your body.
- Breastfeeding is all about supply and demand. Breastfeeding or pumping every two hours seems like a lot but it’s what gets your body producing what it needs to meet demand.
- Keep your chest clean. This sounds like a no brainer but even with great hygiene, you’ve still got bacteria living on your skin. When your nipples are cracked and bleeding these bacteria can find their way in and can lead to mastitis or a more serious infection like Staphylococcus aureus. Both of which can interfere with your breastfeeding plans and mom life in general (I learned this firsthand and it was not fun!). Helpful tips:
- Change your nursing bra daily (this isn’t like your pre-pregnancy bra that you could get away with wearing for 2-3 days a week before washing).
- Don’t sleep in your nursing bra. Let your tatas breathe, even if you’re leaking. You can always wash your mattress protector and sheets or just put a towel down.
- Change your nursing pads every 4 to 5 hours even if you don’t seem to be leaking much.
- Babies mouths can carry bacteria too, so, if you want to take it to the next level you can wipe your chest down with a warm wet cloth or a simple water and vinegar solution after feedings.
- Be prepared. Don’t wait until the last month of your pregnancy to figure everything out. Your baby could come early and winging it creates unnecessary stress in an already stressful environment.
- Do your research and then research some more. Research breastfeeding, how to get your supply up and how to maintain it, breastfeeding hygiene, pumping and how often to do it to train your body, diet, formula, etc. the list could go on forever.
- Don’t give up until you’ve tried everything. Twice.
- IMPORTANT - Even if it doesn’t work out the way you planned, pat yourself on the back. Your body is going through a lot and being a mama is exhausting. You’re doing a wonderful job!
SURPRISE ending…even for Desirae
At 10 weeks old, after not breastfeeding for about five weeks (due to fighting Mastitis which turned into an abscess and then into a staph infection) we’ve started to breastfeed!!! Not just pumping and bottle-feeding the breast milk, but actual mouth to breast breastfeeding. I was out longer than planned this past weekend and had brought only one bottle with me. She got hungry so I tried breastfeeding. We’ve been doing it every day for five days now, no problems. I knew I had the milk; I just needed her to latch.
SHE LATCHED! And I cried.
As you’ve seen in my post, I mention Desirae’s amazing support and abundance of knowledge. This is so important when choosing a Doula. Hopefully you’re lucky enough to work with Desirae and create a breastfeeding framework (plan) with her help. But if not, make sure that whoever you choose helps you to create a breastfeeding framework. Desirae has this as part of her package but I didn’t take full advantage of it and put more focus and anxiety into the birthing framework. Don’t make the same mistake! Take advantage of the tool and review it frequently – your ideas and plans may change throughout your pregnancy.