Breastfeeding is one of the best gifts we can give our baby in his first months of life. However, it is not always easy to start or maintain it, especially when you are a new mother and you have very little information and many doubts about it.
For this reason, and because no one is born knowing how to be a mother, I share seven things that I would do differently in my first breastfeeding if I could go back in time, in order that they serve other new breastfeeding mothers.
I would seek information before the arrival of my baby
I think this was one of the most important key points that would have changed everything. Before becoming a mother, I focused more on other issues (matters of my work, leisure, personal growth), so for me the concept of breastfeeding was that “it would come naturally”. Error.
One of the best things we can do in pregnancy in addition to preparing for delivery, which is usually one of the things that generates the most doubts in first time, is preparing for breastfeeding: reading, looking for information, talking with other mothers who have breastfed , identify a lactation consultant we can contact when the time comes.
I would stress less
Along with the birth of my daughter, an immense and permanent concern was born that will possibly accompany me for the rest of our life: to give her the best of me. The beginning of my breastfeeding was not easy, after an emergency cesarean section, it seemed that everything was getting more difficult (and I had only been a mother for two days).
I got too stressed out because I couldn’t get a good grip, which naturally made me despair faster and wonder why I was having so much trouble, if breastfeeding was supposed to be the most natural thing in the world (reality: giving the Breast is only easy in theory, because the practice is very different.).
I would be kinder to myself
And in this same vein, I would definitely be much kinder and more patient with myself . I was pushing myself too hard while I was still recovering, unaware that if we didn’t get off to a good start, we might go back and try a more optimal breastfeeding later.
I would prepare a milk bank
Right or wrong, I was able to establish a mixed lactation with my daughter, breastfeeding her several times a day for her first two months. But when my maternity leave ended and I had to go back to work , what little progress I had made began to be setbacks.
Tired and away from my daughter all day, in a place where there was not even a private space to express my milk, my production began to drop drastically and eventually, at eight months, we gave it up. Had we had a milk bank in advance and established a pumping routine, we might have been able to continue it for a longer time .
Would trust me more
I think that a lot of the mistakes and failures I had in my breastfeeding were caused by misinformation, but undoubtedly fear and my insecurity as a first-time had a great influence on all that.
Lack of confidence, tiredness, my own personal insecurities, and not having other experienced moms to guide me or give advice made establishing my breastfeeding frustrating, because I just couldn’t do it .
I would ask for advice
Perhaps it is because before becoming a mother I never read anything about motherhood, but I found out that lactation consultants existed until the day my daughter was born , when the hospital consultant came to visit us and help us start her.
With their help I learned some basic things, but it was not enough, since when I returned home I felt completely lost and was so tired and confused that it never occurred to me that I could look for a counselor to help me solve all those problems and difficulties of breastfeeding.
I would put the guilt aside
This point could well be limited to the entire experience of motherhood. In the beginning, many of us feel lost and fear that we are not doing things well. Now that it has been several years since my daughter was a baby, I see that I carried a lot of guilt on my shoulders , at a time when I needed to be kinder to myself.
Today, even though I did not have the breastfeeding that I would have wanted, I understand that there were many things that I could not have changed and I have learned to forgive that new mother full of fears and doubts. Now I am informed, and next time, it will be better.
Photo | iStock
In Babies and more | “My breastfeeding was not easy”: seven testimonials from mothers who make visible the problems that can arise with breastfeeding, Nine golden rules for happy breastfeeding, from a lactation consultant
