My beautiful client, Louise, shares her breastfeeding journey.
Louise tells us how tongue tie & CMPA Cows Milk Protein Allergy can impact breastfeeding journeys, why reaching out for support is key, and, most importantly, HOWEVER you choose to feed your baby, you are an amazing mum!
I am SO proud of Louise.
Here's her story...
'Breastfeeding has been a real journey for me and my son, Emerson, and to be honest I think the conversation and challenges of breastfeeding should be spoken about more openly. We commonly hear 'it shouldn' t hurt', 'it'll just happen', and 'it'll come', and we often suffer in silence for a while before realising there's a whole community of us going through the same thing!
My son had a severe tongue tie which made it difficult to latch, and we were put on a 1 month waiting list to fix it so it was an uphill battle from the get go. We put in a huge amount of effort with the help of the amazing beastfeeding team near me, but whenever we seemed to make progress we'd then face the challenge of my never ending changing supply of milk. It just wouldn't stay consistent, so very quickly we began combo feeding and what felt like 24/7 expressing.
A few months in, my son was diagnosed with a dairy intolerance so I then had to cut out all dairy from my diet, but we carried on and this seemed to help settle him. After 5 months, I decided it was right for me to wind down the every day breast feeding.
I still do the occasional breast feed to comfort Emerson, but despite the challenges, I did feel very sad when my breastfeeding journey came to an end. I feel a very close bond with my baby boy when he feeds, and although i was originally expecting to breast feed for about a year, I cherish the memories of that journey, and despite the difficulties we faced, I'm proud of my body and my boobs.
If i could give one piece of advice to other mums or mums to be, it would be whatever journey you choose, and however long you breastfeed for, never feel like you should be doing better. Don't compare yourself to others (we don't need any extra pressure), be proud of however far you go, be proud of your amazing body and try to enjoy whatever breastfeeding journey you have, because at the end of the day, as a friend told me, 'fed is best'.'
Thank you so much for sharing your story Louise!
Want to read my Breastfeeding story? Click here
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