WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK

I would have loved to post a glamorous photo of me nursing Teddy for World Breastfeeding Week like my social media is full of, but I just don’t have any! So enjoy what breastfeeding looks like in my world, with two big brothers who are never far away.⁣

The World Breastfeeding Week slogan for 2019 is “Empower parents, Enable breastfeeding”.⁣ Such a positive, powerful slogan which I really feel tries to be inclusive to those who are affected by the topic of breastfeeding.⁣

I have successfully and mostly happily breastfed Teddy for almost 10 months now. It has been relatively pain free, bar one bout of mastitis and few cracked nipples here and there.⁣

But empowering parents is everything!

I feel incredibly let down by our health care providers when Knox and Finn were babies and pushed to formula with their “miracle cure” mentality for colic and intolerances. I didn’t know any better so I trusted them and wouldn’t you know it, it was no magic fix for us. My babies were fed but I felt like the choice and my wishes were pushed aside and that feeling never sat well with me.

Knowledge is power and if parents have access to knowledgeable providers, then they will be empowered to breastfeed for as long as they wish. I’m incredibly grateful for the midwife who visited our home on day 3 when I was in a lot of pain with cracked and bleeding nipples. She gave me a nipple shield and corrected Teddy’s latch. A minor correction and using the shield for a few days meant I continued feeding with a lot less and then zero pain.⁣

Informed and empowered is my wish for every parent in their decision and I’m so glad that third time around, I felt so.