Sharing our stories helps us connect. Our stories hold power and let others know they are not alone. Nurture has asked families to share their feeding journeys with us. Below is Cara’s story. Enjoy 🙂
Tell us a little about your feeding journey
My breastfeeding journey is still going strong at 20 months! I have loved so much about breastfeeding, and plan to continue so long as we both want to. My challenges to breastfeeding have included some oral ties, torticollis, bottle rejection, over supply, and the sheer challenge of pumping at work and all the work that comes with that. I loved nursing throughout the night for a long time, but that was always incredible challenging as I was never well-rested. We successfully night-weaned at 18 months but still have maintained a strong breastfeeding relationship during daytime hours. While I loved all the little baby snuggles and nursing times, I love nursing after 12 months even more. There is no pressure to produce any certain amount or stick to any time frame, but it’s still such a special time between my son and me. I’ve moved from nursing with perfectly placed pillows on a couch for hours every day with a tiny newborn, to now sporadic nursing sessions with a downward-dogging toddler who pauses to share his random thoughts with me or request “other booby.” I love our breastfeeding relationship and am very appreciative of everyone who has supported us along the way.
How did IBCLC lactation care impact you?
I saw Allyson a couple times for lactation support and really appreciated having an empathetic ear to talk to about breastfeeding and caring for a young baby, while also having the expertise of lactation support and body movement support. I felt like working with Nurture helped us to successfully continue breastfeeding without medical interventions for oral ties or body movement challenges. I also felt like Allyson was great at working with me on strategies to comfortably breastfeed anywhere in a way that left me feeling confident in feeding my child and also took care of my own bodily needs.
What advice you would want to pass along to an expecting parent?
I would advise any parent who wants to breastfeed to proactively seek lactation education and plan ahead for post-birth lactation care. Having a team of people, professional and otherwise, who can support you through your feeding journey is essential to having a successful breastfeeding relationship, whatever “successful” for you looks like.
Thank you, Cara, for sharing your feeding journey story!
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