Breastfeeding Memoirs

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Breastfeeding Truly Takes a Village!

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A few months ago, we sent out a Call for Breastfeeding Stories.  Our desire was to flood the Internet with beautiful breastfeeding stories of triumph, overcoming challenges and struggles, and positive outcomes, regardless of the total amount of milk a mom was producing.  We are thrilled to share these stories with you, our readers, and hope that they offer support and inspiration for you, wherever you are in your breastfeeding journey. 

Thank you to all of the mothers who submitted their stories!  If after you read these memoirs you are inspired to submit your story, feel free to send it to RobinKaplan@sdbfc.com.    

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Breastfeeding After Breast Reduction - A Memoir

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Breastfeeding After Breast Reduction - A Memoir

A few months ago, we sent out a Call for Breastfeeding Stories.  Our desire was to flood the Internet with beautiful breastfeeding stories of triumph, overcoming challenges and struggles, and positive outcomes, regardless of the total amount of milk a mom was producing.  We are thrilled to share these stories with you, our readers, and hope that they offer support and inspiration for you, wherever you are in your breastfeeding journey. 

Thank you to all of the mothers who submitted their stories!  If after you read these memoirs you are inspired to submit your story, feel free to send it to RobinKaplan@sdbfc.com.    

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This breastfeeding memoir is from Jenna

Ten years ago, eighteen-year-old Jenna was bouncing between San Diego and Los Angeles counties looking for a plastic surgeon. They had to be willing to do a keyhole incision and leave my nipple attached while they performed a bilateral breast reduction. I was a senior in high school and had my breast reduction surgery during spring break. 

Fast forward six years. I find out I'm pregnant the day my boyfriend gets to Djibouti, Africa, where he'll be deployed for the next 7 months. I sought out a natural birth provider in my network after reading the book, Defining your Own Success: Breastfeeding After Breast Reduction Surgery by Diana West. In this book, it encouraged mothers to birth as naturally as possible for the best chance at breastfeeding after a reduction and this book had become like a Bible for me, so I followed its every recommendation.

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We Were Not Meant to Mother Alone

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We Were Not Meant to Mother Alone

A few months ago, we sent out a Call for Breastfeeding Stories.  Our desire was to flood the Internet with beautiful breastfeeding stories of triumph, overcoming challenges and struggles, and positive outcomes, regardless of the total amount of milk a mom was producing.  We are thrilled to share these stories with you, our readers, and hope that they offer support and inspiration for you, wherever you are in your breastfeeding journey. 

Thank you to all of the mothers who submitted their stories!  If after you read these memoirs you are inspired to submit your story, feel free to send it to RobinKaplan@sdbfc.com.    

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Our first breastfeeding memoir is from Michelle

I booked at least 2 vacations for my maternity leave, all on airplanes. I was going to wear my baby everywhere, nursing her as we went along. I had the organic breast pads purchased, all the nursing tanks, and the most breastfeeding-friendly bottles, but of course I wouldn’t need those for at least several months. I would see Mamas nursing their babes at the beach and I would find myself staring as I daydreamed about my nursling that was to come. December 2013, my sweet baby girl arrived.  She latched and we were a nursing team. 24hrs later I was told she was Coombs positive and her jaundice levels were high. She was sleepy, was losing too much weight and I needed to give her formula in a bottle. I cried lots of tears. "FORMULA? No way!", but I had no other options. Every time I fed her, and I wouldn’t let anyone else feed her.  I felt awful and felt like I was letting her down. 7 days later I was told, "your daughter is failure to thrive". Queue more tears, more formula, more guilt, and not a lot of milk being produced from me. 

Call for Your Breastfeeding Stories!

Call for Your Breastfeeding Stories!

This year’s theme for World Breastfeeding Week is Sustaining Breastfeeding Together, which really brings forth the collaborative nature of breastfeeding.  When I think about the components that shape a mother’s breastfeeding experience, the first thing that come to mind is support.  Who is part of her ‘Dream Team of Breastfeeding Support’?  Her partner?  Her family and friends? Her doctors and midwives?  Her lactation consultant?  Her local and online community? All of these connections shape how we view ourselves as a breastfeeding mother and how successful we feels about ourselves and our experience.  Since not all of us are fortunate to have a huge system of in-person breastfeeding support, online support can be critical.  

Breastfeeding Memoirs: Best 'Bring Your Baby to Work' Situation EVER!

In honor of World Breastfeeding Week 2015, we are sharing inspirational stories from breastfeeding/working moms.  

Today’s story was written by Margo Byrd.

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As a new mother, the fear of going back to work haunted me as my maternity leave days grew smaller and smaller.  Although I am one of the most fortunate mothers in the world who got to bring their child to work, I still feared that somehow it would not work out.   I worried that my company would decide my bundle of joy was not so joyous, or I would completely collapse under the pressure of feeding a 3 month old in my office. I personally struggled with postpartum.  I had irrational fears about what it would be like at work, felt completely helpless on multiple occasions, and had a very hard time letting my son out of my sight even to run to the bathroom (when my husband was home).  As those small fears subsided, coincidentally my bigger fear of breastfeeding in my new work environment grew. For the summer, my office would be shared with my boss as I am her assistant and during the school year I would have my own office (which happens to be all glass).  I work for the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Dieguito and while “Bring your child to work,” has always been a motto for our club, the fear of breastfeeding with 70-150 kids on the other side of my door was very apparent.  I envisioned curling up on a toilet wiping everything down with cleaners or hiding in dark closets on the floor while I lulled my 3 month old to sleep while comfort nursing. While I was promised a, “Safe,” environment to nurse I had no idea what to expect. The struggle of postpartum and the struggle of a new environment breastfeeding made me so nervous. I had never nursed in public, let alone nursed in front of my co-workers and peers.  Personally I was too scared and too naive to understand the support I would have at my job.

Breastfeeding Memoirs: Working as a Resident

Breastfeeding Memoirs: Working as a Resident

In honor of World Breastfeeding Week 2015, we are sharing inspirational stories from breastfeeding/working moms.  

Today’s story was written by Amelia Sorenson.

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When I found out I was pregnant as I was about to start a surgical fellow, which can mean a seven day, sixty (sometimes eighty) hour work week with erratic long nights of call, I thought a lot about what it would be like to do the work while pregnant and how to manage maternity leave (six weeks, worked the day I delivered). What I didn't think about was how I would establish a breastfeeding relationship during those first few short weeks and how I would manage to keep breastfeeding when I went back.  

Breastfeeding Memoirs: Returning to Work in the Navy

In honor of World Breastfeeding Week 2015, we are sharing inspirational stories from breastfeeding/working -- moms.  

Today’s story was written by Cinda Brown.

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I’m an active duty Navy officer and mother of two girls. My journey to becoming a working, breastfeeding mother started almost 4 years ago with the birth of my first daughter. Breastfeeding was challenging in more ways than I could have imagined. I thought that it would just be easy and natural, not knowing that those two little words can mean so many different things.

Breastfeeding Memoirs: My Three Bs

Breastfeeding Memoirs: My Three Bs

In honor of World Breastfeeding Week 2015, we are sharing inspirational stories from breastfeeding/working moms.  

Today’s story was written by Louanne Ferro.

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Prior to May 27th, 2014, the word baby meant something very different to me: my baby was my business. At the young age of 17, I entered the world of cosmetology. Knowing I wanted to strive and create greatness in my industry, I focused on building. In 13 year's time, I had nurtured my baby and created a small empire. One of the leading educators for the world's largest professional beauty company, I frequently traveled to teach my craft.  In the heart of North Park, I opened my very own salon. My baby was thriving and I was the proud mother, spending further countless hours tending to make it what it is today.  Then, May 27th, 2014 happened, changing everything I knew about babies.

The test was positive. To my shock, my work "baby" was going to be replaced with a real-life, micro-human! My pregnancy was something my husband and I had been hoping for and we were thrilled!

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Breastfeeding Memoirs: Persevering when Returning to Work

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In honor of World Breastfeeding Week 2015, we are sharing inspirational stories from breastfeeding/working moms.  

Today’s story was written by Maggie.

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I had a long, stressful delivery that resulted in an emergency c-section, a tongue tie revision on day 2, followed by 48 hours in NICU. I was given a nipple shield, instructed to supplement with formula through an SNS and sent on my way. Breastfeeding was painful and difficult even with the shield, I went to many support group meetings and did weighed feeds and was able to stop supplementing. We were also dealing with a "colicky" baby until about week 8 . Then at week 10, I was able to get off the nipple shield with the help of an LC at Mary Birch. I was supposed to go back to work after 12 weeks but I was so exhausted and we were finally starting to turn a corner where we could actually enjoy our time with baby, I thankfully was able to extend my maternity leave to 16 weeks.

This prelude is to say that with all the struggles we went through in the beginning, I was very anxious about going back to work, whether I would make enough milk, whether he would get nipple confusion or a bottle preference. I worked so hard and suffered through so much literal blood, sweat, and tears to make breastfeeding work I started to really resent the fact that I had to go to work and interrupt our breastfeeding relationship.

Positive Breastfeeding in Public Stories - Britain ROCKS!

So much of what we hear about feeding our babies in public is negative - stories from women being harassed and shamed for breastfeeding in public.  While we believe that it is so important to respond to these incidents and educate people on the importance of normalizing breastfeeding, we also think that one of the best ways we can empower women is to share our positive experiences as well.  Below is one of many examples of wonderful responses women receive while feeding their babies in public - meet Claire!

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“Although I was born and brought up in the UK, my first experience of motherhood and subsequently breastfeeding was an all american one & in the Golden State of California. Although I had a nasty start to my mothering career (NICU, acid reflux & breastfeeding problems) I soon got into the swing of it, San Diego style. Motherhood is a serious business down in the 'Diego, but also a soft, fluffy, touchy, feely kind of business. I was part of a wonderful group of Mamas who did Stroller Strides. We were a village, a team, a sisterhood and to this day, I miss it. There was a genuine desire to help, share and offer advice, and an openness about breastfeeding was part of that. Initially I was embarrassed at whipping the girls out, but as time went on, that Bebe au Lait nursing cover got discarded and I felt comfortable feeding my first born wherever and whenever.