Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Marie’s Story
During my pregnancy with my son I was very keen on the idea of breastfeeding him exclusively for at least 6 months as I had heard that this greatly reduced the incidence of allergies and asthma. Being an asthmatic myself I was keen to take whatever steps I could not to pass this on to my son.
I was not breastfed myself and my mother often told me that when she put a wool hat on my head when I was four days old my skin flared up with eczema and I suffered badly with it as an infant, later in life I went onto develop asthma and I know from my own successes in managing the condition how important nutrition is in preventing illness and maintaining health.
My own experiences and the wish to do whatever I could to ensure good health in my son gave me the initial motivation to breastfeed. My son was born in Mount Carmel hospital and I got very good support from the midwives in helping him to latch on, I have heard many stories since from other Mums in other hospitals who were very much left to their own devices due in part to staff shortages and they floundered very early on.
When I got home I made contact with a breastfeeding consultant who came out to the house and her visit really reassured me that I was doing absolutely fine, she gave me some invaluable tips on positioning my son at the breast and also on expressing and storing breast milk.
The public health nurse came to visit me the week I came out of hospital and encouraged me to attend the local HSE breastfeeding clinic in Rathfarnham health centre held every Tuesday morning, this was brilliant and I continued to attend weekly for the best part of a year. The first morning I attended I did find it a bit strange a group of women sitting around in a circle breastfeeding!! - It was such a change from the hectic business life I was leading up to a few weeks before and I thought wow is this my life now?!
However we quickly made new friends and most Tuesdays a group of us went for lunch locally. I really looked forward to my Tuesdays and this gave me the continued support to keep breastfeeding. Apart from the invaluable support and advice from the public health nurses running the clinic it was great to talk to other Mums with babies the same age as mine and to find out how they were getting on and we all had similar issues and concerns.
One by one over the course of the first year or so my friends weaned their babies typically after six months and by 12 months I think I was the only one still breastfeeding in the group. My son was showing no signs of wanting to give up and as I was back working myself after 10 months we both enjoyed the time together in the evenings and in the morning it was lovely to give him a feed before heading out to work and to feed him as soon as I collected him from the creche in the evenings. It was our little quality time together and I also relished the closeness.
When my son was 15 months old I attended my first La Leche League meeting, I initally went looking for some advice on weaning but quickly realised that I was quite happy to continue breastfeeding.
Really it was just that I was experiencing outside pressure to wean.
I met a wonderful group of Mums and LLL Leaders who were so supportive and offered great encouragement. It was wonderful to meet other Mums who were breastfeeding their toddlers too and often my son came along with me to the meetings, he loved meeting up with his little buddies.
My son is now two and a half and we have been going to LLL meetings every month. We are shortly moving to Australia for a couple of years and I am four months pregnant with my second baby. I will miss the support the leaders in LLL provide and hope to meet up with some other breastfeeding Mums in Oz as soon as I get settled in. For new mothers-to-be I would definitely recommend attending a couple of LLL meetings before baby comes as this will give you invaluable tips on getting breastfeeding off to a good start. Too often in Ireland through lack of simple support Mums have to give up after a few weeks due to sore breasts etc however if you can get some support in the first month you really then appreciate the wonderful benefits for baby and you in breastfeeding. It is so easy to travel with breastfed babies and breastfeeding is a God send if baby is ever sick, it is a ready comforter at any time and I know now with my upcoming move to Australia that my son will be fine, wherever Mammy is it is home for him so I don't need to worry too much about the move upsetting him.
I hope you enjoy breastfeeding your baby too!
- Marie
Posted on 09/08 at 01:23 PM
