No shirts for either of us! Photo: Kate Daley
To say that I struggled with breastfeeding is an understatement. It was one of the hardest things I?ve ever done. And one of the most stressful. My drug-free birth, which was insanely painful and mildly traumatizing, lasted a day and a half. But that was a cakewalk compared to what was to come.
Breastfeeding, like birth, was incredibly painful, except that I had to endure it eight hours a day for what felt like was going to be the rest of my life.
I had done all the research while I was pregnant and, for me, breastfeeding seemed like the best thing I could do to give my daughter a healthy start in life and I was hell-bent on making it work. From the moment she was born, my baby had a great sucking instinct (as exhibited by the fact that she quickly destroyed my nipples) but neither of us could figure out the latching part required to actually get a decent amount of milk into her. I had pre-emptively hired a doula to help, but her approach was so aggressive I couldn?t get the technique to work solo. And so the struggle began.
Within 24 hours of coming home from the hospital, we went to the paediatrician for our first appointment and my baby had lost weight. This is normal, to some degree, but the doctor was understandably concerned when I told her that breastfeeding wasn?t going well. She wanted me to come back in three days to check in.
I came back and breastfeeding still wasn?t going well. My daughter had lost more weight. The...