My breastfeeding journey. Literally.
This week (Monday 1 August to Sunday 7 August) is world breastfeeding week. This week makes me reflect each year on my journey breastfeeding my two boys. Of course, we all know that breast is best but it’s not an easy road and it’s not for everyone. It’s important to remember that fed is best.
When you are in the fog of a young baby you can get pretty caught up on stuff that doesn’t matter too much in the long run. Nobody ever asks you as an adult if you were breast fed or formula fed, do they?
In my quest to breastfeed my 2 boys I have breastfed in all manner of places.
When Aiden (our first born) was a week old, we entertained my parents in our house. I say entertained because although they helped out they also wanted to go out and do things. This is how I found myself breastfeeding a 1.5 week old on a park bench in the Blue Mountains (a good 2 hour drive from where we lived). I don’t recommend this.
When Aiden was 6 months old, we flew from Sydney to Vancouver, and hired an RV to drive to Canmore, near Banff, so my husband Arran could compete in the World 24 hour Mountain Bike championships.
I breastfed that kid on the plane, on the bus from the airport into Vancouver and while camping during the bike race in a sleeping bag. Yes breastfeeding is convenient but I don’t look back on this time as being super fun.
When Charlie came along I had learnt not to entertain my parents in my house during those first weeks of his life, but I did have my first experience with bleeding nipples. I took a lot of Panadol during that time to deal with the pain at each feed. Good times.
When Charlie was 4 months old he had to come on a work trip with me to China because he wouldn’t take formula or feed from a bottle. I fed him on a plane too and he travelled around with me while I visited various factories and suppliers in a not fancy part of China. It’s barely ok to breastfeed your baby in public in Australia, where I was living at the time. I can tell you it wasn’t ok in China. There were some very tricky moments.
So here’s the thing. If you can breastfeed great! Yes there will be some nice moments but it’s not all softly lit mommy and baby photos. There may be some challenging times. A blocked milk duct is not fun. Neither is Mastitis or bleeding nipples.
If you can’t breastfeed or don’t want to, that’s ok too. Both my boys were breast fed but also had expressed milk and formula. They are fine. I am (mostly) sane. I think that’s all that matters.
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