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Welcome to Breastfeeding
Stories for Mothers for Breastfeeding. The stories that you will read
below have been submitted by parents who would like to share their
breastfeeding struggles and successes with you.
Some of the parents have allowed us to post their email addresses along
with their stories. This means that they welcome your questions and
comments, and would like to help you to succeed at breastfeeding your
baby.
If you would like to submit your breastfeeding story for use on this
site, please
email Mothers for Breastfeeding.
Submitted by
Apryl at
nebwriter75@yahoo.com
The only exposure I
had to breastfeeding before having a child of my own came in the form of
two neighbors. One I didn't know very well, she gave piano lessons to
many of my peers, she was considered weird for breastfeeding her walking
child while giving lessons. The other I knew very well as she was my
best friend's mom and lived next door to me from 1979 to 1994 when I
left home. I respected her very much and she was my role model really
for extended breastfeeding.
When I was 21 I had my
first child. I knew I wanted to breastfeed. My daughter spent the
first 21 hours of her life in the NICU (due to a fever) and I spent the
first 21 hours of her life trying to nurse her and having a hard time
due to "inverted" or "flat" nipples. It was a hard and frustrating time
for both of us, I made the mistake of giving her a pacifier her first
night. But somehow after five and a half months my daughter had tasted
nothing but the milk my body made just for her.
When my daughter was
18 months old she sat on the balcony of our apartment struggling to take
her shirt off, I helped her, and she said to her stuffed red Teletubby
(Po) "Mih?" She was asking her Teletubby if she wanted to nurse. My
daughter patiently put Po to one of her little nipples. After a few
minutes she said sweetly, "O-ha sigh?" Which was what she said to me
when she was ready for the other side. It was the first thing she ever
pretended, she was pretending to be a nursing mom, she was pretending to
be me.
I continued to
breastfeed my daughter on demand until she was four years old. I was
living in Nebraska and heard on the news of a woman in Iowa who had her
six year old son taken away because she was still breastfeeding him. I
reluctantly prepared my daughter for the end of milk from my boobies....
Although my daughter,
now 7 1/2 years old, and I are very close, she is truly my best friend
in the whole world and she confides so much in me, we love each other
like no love I've ever known before.... our relationship changed when
I weaned her. I wish I could have let her go as long as she wanted, she
would probably be nursing yet today. If only our culture were more
supportive and less critical of something that is a completely natural
and loving part of both motherhood and childhood.
I am now after all
these years expecting my second child in three weeks. I cannot wait to
meet her face to face after holding her within my body for these nine
months. I look forward to the nursing relationship we will have with
one another. All those moments when you look down at your child's face
against your breast, and no matter how old they are, two hours old or
two years old, it is the same little face and the same little squeezing
fingers, the same milky smile, and the same feeling of awe.... Being a
woman, being a mother, there is nothing else on earth like it.
Submitted by Julie at
Juls64@aol.com:
For the record (if you're
taking a poll), we had a great experience at the
hospital. After a long labor and Carly was vacuumed out, I was
not able to have her placed right on me after birth. Then with my blood
pressure dropping and a few other things, I ultimately didn't even hold
her until about 3 hours after she was born. By the time I got into my
room it was about 10:45 pm. My nurse
immediately asked me if I wanted to feed her to which I said yes and did
I want a Lactation Consultant to come by. I questioned if they were
still there and apparently, they work from 7AM to midnight. The woman
came in, Carly latched right on and she was great. We had a different
woman come and check in with us the next two days and they were all very
helpful. And from our childbirth classes we learned that at
our birth hospital, it's assumed that you're
breastfeeding unless you tell them otherwise. I don't know if that's the
policy at some of the valley hospitals, but it's the rule there. So my
experience was very positive from that standpoint.
I also experienced something I didn't really expect today. I was working
at Disneyland today and brought my pump with me. Now, I know Disneyland
is the ultimate in kid friendly and maybe it's because I'm now a mom and
never noticed before, but they are EXTREMELY mommy friendly as well. I
found a Baby Care Center on Main Street (I think there are others in the
park but I can't say for sure) and when I needed to pump, I went in
there actually looking for a restroom to do my thing. They have a whole
curtained off area with big wicker, comfy chairs for nursing moms and at
one end of that room was another little curtained off area. I suppose
it's used by Moms who want more privacy but it's where they showed me in
to so I could express. There was a chair, little table and a plug to
make things really easy. It was great! In the baby care center, there's
also a row of high chairs for feeding. I didn't go into the back, but it
looked like there was a huge room for diaper changes, and while I was in
there, I heard several Dads come in to change their babies. I thought
that was great that there's a friendly place for Dads to do their share
and not just the changing stations in the women's restrooms. They also
were fully stocked if you needed to buy diapers, formula, baby food,
bottles, diaper creme, pacifiers, etc. I was quite impressed. And the
women working in there couldn't have been nicer. While I generally don't
care if I'm sitting on the restroom floor if I need to pump, it was
quite a nice surprise to feel so "pampered" in such a nice surrounding.
Again, maybe it's just that I'm a new mom and never knew this existed
before, but this definitely was beyond the call of duty and greatly
appreciated by me. I thought I'd share that with you if you didn't know
and to pass on to other moms for future reference.
Submitted by Nil at
b-j-n-anderson@sbcglobal.net:
I had always just assumed
I would breastfeed for at least a year. I had watched a friend and a
cousin breastfeed with apparent ease so forwent any type of class and
just did some reading to prepare. I was counting on my doula and the
hospital nurses to assist as needed. I should have gotten a clue from
all the many lactation consultants that came up when I did a web search
for doulas. I also should have gotten a clue from the many times I read
“don’t give up” in baby books when referring to breastfeeding.
I’ll do many things differently if I’m blessed with another child, but
that’s where I was when my beautiful son came into the world via an
unwanted C-Section. (That’s another story.) I held him for the first
time about 1 ½ hours after he was born and attempted breastfeeding
around 2 hours after birth. My doula and nurse both helped and, although
he seemed to have trouble opening up his mouth enough for a good latch,
after several minutes of trying the doula and nurse seemed satisfied he
was nursing well and left me to it.
He nursed for quite a while and for the four days in the hospital, he
exclusively breastfeed. But it didn’t take long before both my husband
and I began to be suspicious that he wasn’t getting much, if anything,
when he nursed. He would latch on with a very small mouth (which no
amount of coaxing seemed to change) and suck and suck, but I didn’t hear
swallowing and never saw any evidence that he was getting any milk. Each
shift brought a different nurse and we asked each of them to look and
help. They all asked if he was peeing – we thought so since there were
little yellow smears in his diaper-- but no nurse or doctor asked to
actually look at a diaper. Each nurse gave different and conflicting
advice on breastfeeding. Some offered or strongly suggested a bottle –
at least glucose water.
One nurse said I should try to pump. Hours later a pump arrived in the
room – but without the necessary plastic attachments. It took until well
into the next shift for anyone to bring the rest of the equipment and
get me set up. No instructions about pumping (how often/how long/the
benefits) were given. I pumped a little and was thrilled to see a small
amount of colostrum. At that point, given the inadequate amount of
information and support I had, I mostly just wanted reassurances and
proof that my breasts were capable of producing...something! We finger
fed Nils the colostrum but didn’t do much with the pump, as I was still
BF regularly. But, it was beginning to hurt – a LOT! I knew he wasn’t
latching on properly but I couldn’t seem to figure out how to fix it and
all the differing suggestions from the nurses were not helping. The
hospital had no lactation consultant on staff. Oddly enough, I got the
most help from a unit secretary who had some training in lactation
consulting. She stopped by with paperwork and stayed an hour to help.
She even called my home a week later to check on me – an angel! I
finally called my doula and got a number of a Lactation Consultant to
call. The LC wasn’t home so I left a message suggesting that we meet on
Monday (2 days hence) thinking it would just be a fine tuning of what we
were already doing.
Meanwhile, Nils started to get jaundiced (no one mentioned that lack of
food could contribute to that). My milk was slow coming in – per the
C-section -- and I had a big, hungry boy who wasn’t getting much food. I
was suspicious – but didn’t really know for sure. I should have trusted
my instinct.
We went home from the hospital on Saturday – nursing faithfully every 2
hours for 20 minutes (one of the many recommendations from “helpful”
people). I’d have to pop him off after 20 minutes and he didn’t want to
stop. On Sunday, we had a meltdown. Nils was crying -- I was crying – My
husband must have gotten scared because he called a LC from a business
card handed him in the hospital by the Pediatrician. Ellen was at my
house in 30 minutes and arrived thinking she was coming to fix a latch
problem. What she found was a distraught mother and a baby so hungry he
was jaundiced and too sleepy to eat. If he did get latched on he just
fell asleep and wouldn’t nurse. In the hospital I had firmly resisted
the bottle believing that once he got a bottle, he would never go back
to the breast. She took matters in hand and said we had to get some milk
in him and she thought the fastest way was a bottle. I fell apart. I
desperately wanted to feed and nourish my son but thought the bottle was
the end of our breastfeeding relationship. She said calmly “Oh no – you
can get him back to the breast”. So after much reassurance and
education, I got set up with a pump (I should have been pumping
regularly in hospital to get my supply in), bottles (a huge relief to be
able to feed him finally), a pumping/feeding schedule, and suggestions
on how to get him on the breast.
Remember the other LC I called? Well after all this, she called me. So I
figured the more help the better. She came over and suggested all the
things the first LC had, and also was very confident I could get him
back to the breast. At this point, I was so traumatized by past failures
we were just using the bottle. I couldn’t bear to hear his cries of
frustration with the breast. She gave me the name and number of a woman
whose son didn’t bf until 7 weeks! I was amazed. After calling and
speaking with her I determined that I would try for 8 weeks.
Well – it took 8 weeks for him to even show any improvement in his
latch. I couldn’t hear him swallow until 10 weeks and he only did a full
nursing (no bottle following) at almost 11 weeks. It was probably three
months before I felt confident and he was exclusively breast-feeding. To
get there I pumped every 3 hours so I could feed him expressed breast
milk, tried infant chiropractic adjustments to help with his tight jaw,
and we attempted to breastfeed about once a day. His latch seemed to
improve the most when he started to open his mouth wide to smile (around
7 weeks). Now, at 11 months, our difficult start seems very remote as he
can nurse while sitting, standing, and nearly standing on his head in a
pike position! When he was two weeks old, I never dreamed it could be
this natural and rewarding. It was so easy to get discouraged. But, in
my case, hanging in there paid off and now we both get to experience the
joy that comes with a natural, relaxed nursing relationship. I sincerely
thank everyone, lactation consultants, husband, family, and friends, who
supported us in finding our way.
If you would like to submit your breastfeeding story for use on this
site, please
email Mothers for Breastfeeding.
This page was updated on
07/11/2004
