This week is World Breastfeeding Week! I feel very fortunate to have close mom friends who shared their breastfeeding struggles with me or shared their reasons for not breastfeeding at all before I was ever even pregnant. I went into my breastfeeding journey with the outlook of "if I can do it, great, but if I can't, that can still be great." I wanted to breastfeed, but I promised myself I wouldn't beat myself up or let myself feel like a failure if it didn't work out.⠀
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I'm so grateful for that outlook, because breastfeeding was a real struggle at first. It's a pretty surreal scenario to be in for new moms; exhausted, overwhelmed, sometimes literally having been torn apart during birth, trying to shove the nipple of boobs you don't even recognize into the mouth of a tiny screaming human you just met. For me, it was anything but the beautiful, magical breastfeeding experience so many of us were promised. ⠀
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Fortunately for me, it did get easier. Thanks to the help of a miracle lactation consultant at the hospital, several phone calls, another lactation consultant, and Google who helped me quickly self-diagnose thrush and the pediatrician who then got us a prescription, my son and I made it through those first months, and now we're still going strong over a year later. I never thought I'd be the person nursing the kid who can ask for it ("Booboos?"), but here we are. Breastfeeding has transformed from something so mysterious and magical to something so familiar and meaningful (and still magical). I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to do it and I don't take that for granted. Breastfeeding is simultaneously a precious gift and also one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. ⠀
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Happy World Breastfeeding Week to all the parents who have loved it and hated it. This week is about celebrating breastfeeding; the magic, struggles, beauty, pain, and everything in between 💛⠀
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If you breastfed, what are some words you would use to describe your experience? Tell me in the comments!
