Happy Breast Feeding Week…Calmbirth Educator Aimee Sing shares her breast-feeding journey with us. Part 1

Happy world breastfeeding week!

I’ve shared bits and pieces about my breastfeeding journeys in the past, but I’m unsure I’ve done so with much detail more recently. A fellow lactation consultant (IBCLC) shared about her own journey recently and it helped me recognise just how important it is to understand the philosophy and background of the people you’re following, especially if you’re seeking support from them . I’m not sure I’ve given people much of a chance to do that in recent years! So here goes, I’m going to share a bit about each of my children’s breastfeeding journeys.

My first journey was with Willow, my first born Born at a little 2.72 kg, 36+4 weeks via a caesarean prior to labour, and with that ‘late preterm’ situation came lots of concern (from the hospital) about her ability to maintain blood sugar levels and weight gain. She was pretty sleepy and while she’d be keen to latch, she really struggled In the first photo you can see our first ‘feed’ – she was basically over my nipple but not really sucking. I now know that she had oral restrictions impacting her ability to latch, and being teeny and a bit early, she was using a tonne of energy just staying awake.

For the first 48 hours I was heavily pushed to give her formula, partly because of her difficulty with feeding and partly because the colostrum I was expressing was only *just* keeping her above the blood sugar cut off line (but we were always at or above it). The hospital lactation consultant helped me get her latched on for a feed, using lots of breast shaping and putting bub in the football hold, but Willow didn’t stay awake long enough to get much at all and I wasn’t given the tools to latch my baby myself (I could only do it when the lactation consultant did it for me).

This is a big part of the reason that when I’m helping women latch their babies I mostly keep my hands off, unless I show the woman how to do it and then be de-latch and repeat. What use is a good latch if you have no idea how to facilitate it yourself?

Willow breastfed until she was 2.5 years old, always with a nipple shield (despite some support from a lactation consultant in the early days I wasn’t ever able to get her to latch without it). We chose to stop breastfeeding, together, when she was 2.5yo – I’d been trying to conceive her ‘baby sister’ (I didn’t pull through on that one! Whoops ) and in the end, weaning was the only way I could get my hormones back to a place that enabled it. I did go on to conceive a baby while breastfeeding after this, but I had shifted my diet immensely and think my hormones had adjusted accordingly (she was a surprise pregnancy ).

I remember at the start of feeding Willow feeling like I had no idea how women managed to breastfeed without having a substantial support network! I still do feel this way. If it wasn’t for my doula and my midwife I truly believe I would’ve ended up not having a full milk supply, because I was never encouraged to express at all in the hospital despite my baby not actually latching and milking my breasts adequately. This was a big part of why I went into lactation work, and is why I’m so passionate about breastfeeding preparation  You don’t know what you don’t know, and if you don’t have that network encouraging you and giving you information then you can so easily fall through the gaps.