by Michelle Stein posted in Parenting

This week (Aug. 1-7) is World Breastfeeding Week. It's seven days dedicated to promoting, protecting and supporting breastfeeding by anyone, anytime, anywhere. The theme for 2017: Sustaining breastfeeding together.
When I was pregnant with my first child, I knew I wanted to at least attempt breastfeeding. But I had no idea what I was getting myself into. My siblings and I were all formula-fed and no one else in my immediate family had breastfed. So all of my "knowledge" on the topic was purely from what I had read in books and parenting websites. I was on my own to figure out how to successfully feed my baby with my body.
Or so I thought.

From the very beginning, my village stepped up to support me. Labor and delivery nurses helped me position my baby to nurse. A lactation consultant stopped by my hospital room several times to share her wealth of knowledge and make sure my baby had an efficient latch. (I ended up calling her more than once to ask about medications and breastfeeding, too.) My family might not have been familiar with breastfeeding or even comfortable with my nursing in front of them, but never once did my mom or dad say anything negative about how I chose to feed my babies. And although my husband couldn't physically feed our babies, he played in integral role in our breastfeeding relationship. He was almost always the first one out of bed to change wet or dirty diapers in the middle of the night. H...