Welcome to the Milk Mama Diaries Carnival (August). For this month, we join the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action in its "Talk to Me!" theme where participants will share personal experiences, insights or recommendations in communicating breastfeeding intentions and goals to their support system. Please scroll down to the end of this post and check out the other carnival participants.
One of the major decisions my husband and I made when I was pregnant was to exclusively breastfeed our baby. Making this decision was easy—the real challenge I faced was how to start doing it when baby comes. Sadly, I do not have a breastfeeding role model/mentor. I only have a vague memory of my mom breastfeeding my younger sibling but then, she already passed away. And I’m not aware of any female relatives who breastfed—I was only exposed to formula-fed babies. I have read in one of the parenting blogs that the cycle of breastfeeding was broken during our mother’s generation (the Baby Boomers). This was the time when formula was being aggressively marketed—hence, being touted as better and more convenient than breastfeeding. So, how do I start? As all things in life, what you seek, you will find. When I decided to breastfeed, information about it (albeit hard to come by) came knocking at my door through:
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A Friend- of all the girlfriends that I have in my life, there's only one person I know who breastfed (that's you, Len!). Even when I was single, she already shared with us during our reunions about breastfeeding her babies. When I see how healthy and smart her kids are, I told myself that I would give breastfeeding a try. But of course during that time, I was focused more on finding Mr. Right. So when Mr. Right found me, we got married, I got pregnant and then gave birth, Len's tips were invaluable from what brand of pump to use to treating sore nipples (thanks, Len!).
- Books - when I got pregnant, reading books like What to Expect When You're Expecting (Murkoff) and The Complete Organic Pregnancy (Dolan/Zissu)encouraged me more to breastfeed as these books discussed extensively the benefits of breastfeeding to both mom and baby and the risks of not trying to.
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Latch seminar at the Medical City - when I learned about this, I thought to myself—‘a breastfeeding class? Breast milk is natural, hence, breastfeeding should come naturally, right?’ I now know that the answer to that question is 'not really.' Good thing that the books mentioned about the challenges I may experience in breastfeeding. So I took no chances and attended the seminar--after all, it's free. It's indeed another source of very helpful breastfeeding information. I couldn't count the number of times I referred to their handouts whenever I have breastfeeding issues.
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My doctors and nurses at the Medical City and VRPMC - I'm glad I gave birth at The Medical City--it's truly considered as a breastfeeding-friendly hospital. I was fortunate to get a chance to room-in with my baby on the day I gave birth--despite undergoing CS operation. It gave me an early start to bond and breastfeed her. I just observed that although the nurses highly encouraged me to breastfeed, they are no lactation experts as they never taught me how to latch correctly. I just discovered that I was doing everything wrong when I went back to my books and notes from the Latch seminar. But you have to give credit to them for their eagerness and sincerity to help out. My pedia and ob-gyne are very supportive and encouraging as well. It was actually my ob-gyne who showed me what my colostrum looked like when I was feeling helpless thinking that my baby was starving and not getting enough milk from me during the early days. When I saw the thick liquid coming out, I was so relieved.
After taking baby home, I was still encountering some breastfeeding issues (incorrect latching resulting to sore and cracked nipples). Though my hubby was very supportive, I started feeling alone and inadequate that I would not be able to get breastfeeding right. I became timid to ask for help from my friend (as I was already bugging her with lots of questions) and I felt that the information in the books were no longer helping me (this was me experiencing baby blues). This was the time that I turned to the Internet for solace. First, I started reading the forums at www.babycenter.com which led me to www.kellymom.com. These are all enlightening sites and it gave me a lot of insights to the issues I was having plus more information! But I still felt something was lacking--I needed to relate with someone closer to home. That was the time when I stumbled upon www.chroniclesofanursingmom.com. It felt like I hit a jackpot! I was not alone in my breastfeeding journey anymore as I was reading the blogs there. It compelled me to join my first milk mama diaries carnival last May. There, I 'met' more moms like me and I felt like I belong to a some sort of a breastfeeding community.
In this day and age, communication is no longer limited to just a few media. Internet has become a powerful tool in reaching out to millions. You can relate to the experiences of a lot of people--including total strangers! I'm grateful for the breastfeeding 'buddies' that I have: personal ones (the friend who introduced me to breastfeeding and the ones I met along the way); the analog ones (the books I read); and the virtual ones (whom I can openly share my experiences with and whom I can learn a lot from). Now, when my nieces (and nephews) see me breastfeeding my baby, I hope they will be breastfeeding advocates (and supporters) in their own generation. As from what I experienced, it can only take one person to make a difference.
