Katie and Noah’s breastfeeding story

My eldest is 4 years old, and I was pregnant with him in 2020 so he was born during lockdown. I always knew I wanted to breast feed, so while at home at the end of my pregnancy I joined an online class about breastfeeding which was really informative. It provided information about the science behind breast feeding, as well as tips about how to breast feed, so with limited access to antenatal support I found this quite helpful.

When my son was born I planned to breastfeed, I felt reasonably confident just trying to figure it out, but did have some good support in hospital from a midwife who helped with some positioning etc, and once my milk had come in on day 3 everything seemed to go quite smoothly and we established breastfeeding fairly quickly.

Following quite a difficult birth I remember midwives asking how I was feeding him, and when I said breastfeeding they seemed really impressed, I didn’t know at the time there was a connection between having a more difficult birth and breast feeding.

I breast fed Noah until he was just over 12 months old, I did express at times, but it wasn’t a normal part of our routine, as it was lockdown we weren’t out and about too much which I think helped us to get into a good routine in those early days of cluster feeding. I felt really lucky that I was able to breast feed and that it was going so well, I didn’t suffer from mastitis or anything like that and I had a good support system with my family and partner who were all really supportive.

I think at times it was difficult for my husband as Noah wouldn’t take a bottle of expressed breast milk until he was much older and I think he would have liked to have been more involved in feeding, and being able to support with night times more.

When we got pregnant with Sunday, our now 4 week only daughter, having breast fed my son I knew I really wanted to do that again.  We are four weeks in and she is feeding really well. So far she seems to feed a lot more, but she will also take a bottle of expressed milk which is great, and shows no two babies are the same! I’ve been really lucky that they have both been really positive experiences. 

I’m aware of the support that is available locally for me, and would reach out if I felt that I needed additional support. I think that when it comes to breastfeeding it’s really about you and your baby both working together, so as a mum alone there’s only so much you can do, so having access to experienced people with knowledge of helping babies to breastfeed is so helpful, as there is only so much you can do on your own. I think in general it’s really helpful to get support from people who have having a shared understanding of your situation, just to talk things through and feel listened to. 

I feel really confident with breast feeding especially the second time around. 

To other mums considering breast feeding I would say if you’re on the fence, perhaps just give it a try.  It can be difficult and tiring and feel like it puts a lot of pressure on you, but it is also such a lovely thing, and to experience that connection and bonding between yourself and your child, and the feeling of being able to calm them with your own body I think that can make the difficult days or night really worth while.

The biology behind breast feeding is really quite phenomenal, the way your body will produce different milk to support your babies needs from the transfer of the babies saliva to the nipple is quite incredible.