This week is 'National Breastfeeding Week', so I'm sharing this short piece about my personal experience and what I've learned from it.
Baby O was 2 days old in this photo. The breastfeeding consultant I had reached out to for support had encouraged us to capture the moment when we finally got a good latch, and I'm so grateful for that piece of advice - among many others from her - as we didn't photograph many of these precious moments afterwards.
Breastfeeding was hands-down the most challenging part of my early motherhood journey, but admittedly the most rewarding too. You hear that a lot, don't you?
I was hospitalised for a couple of days with mastitis when Oren was only a week old, and sadly it was another infection that ended our breastfeeding story when he was only 6 months old.
In hindsight, I never fully trusted my body to provide enough for him to grow and be healthy. O was a small baby which most likely reinforced this limiting thought pattern. My lack of self-belief made me question everything along the way, and the huge amount of conflicting information out there is an absolute nightmare for anyone who is looking for help. The self-taught narrative of 'not producing enough' is what I hear the most from moms who are struggling in the first few months of breastfeeding, and I just cannot believe that we, as healthy women, would not be able to sustain our babies' needs. It just doesn't make sense, right? After all, isn't breastfeeding the way we were always meant to grow our babies outside the womb?
I know I did my very best, and I do have many fond memories of our breastfeeding journey, but I wish I had felt the same level of confidence and sense of empowerment feeding my baby as I did birthing him.
"If you don't believe that YOU CAN DO IT, then even with the best expert support, you are more likely to feel like you are failing."
I'm not going to try to add to the cacophony of advice - mainly because I'm not a breastfeeding specialist - but there is one thing that I believe and that I would like to share. The biggest influencing factor in your breastfeeding journey will be your ability to trust yourself, trust your body, and trust your instinct. Most women would be able to breastfeed for as long as they want to if they didn't have such a complex relationship with their bodies. Of course, access to professional advice from breastfeeding consultants is incredibly important, but if you don't believe that YOU CAN DO IT, then even with the best expert support, you are more likely to feel like you are failing.
If you are finding it hard (as most of us do) but you want to keep going - it's also fine if you decide that bottle-feeding is what is best for you and your baby - then don't give up! Find an experienced local consultant to support you*, and most importantly, learn to trust your inner power. You've got this mama!
Contact me if you wish to enquire about 1:1 Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy sessions in-person or online to boost your confidence and self-belief.
*You can find breastfeeding support in Bristol here.