A mom just needs to believe in her own abilities

By Harsha Joshi: about her struggles with latching and oversupply.

I delivered my baby on 12th aug 2020. I remember that when I took my baby to breastfeed in the initial days, I was literally screaming in pain. I was doing it totally wrong! My nipple were bleeding and it was very very painful. The hospital nurses were trying to teach me, but it all ended with lots of pain, bleeding and frustration.

But I didn't stop, I was determined and kept learning the skill till my discharge from the hospital. Then we came home but, I started facing another issue. My baby used to feed for 3-3 hours and i was literally sitting like a statue to feed him. My back was hurting and I was getting completely exhausted. 

Everyone arround me was telling me that I am not having enough milk supply for my baby. I started feeling very much depressed. I was not getting enough rest either. It started taking a toll not just on my body but, also my mind. 

One fine day, I decided to visit a lactation consultant. I googled for the best one and then i found Dr Rashmi. I discussed all my problems with her. She asked me to send a video (because it was online counseling session) of latching my baby. She observed that my latch was still quite superficial and my baby was using my breast as a pacifier that is why he was feeding for 3-3 hours.

She built back that confidence that I had lost somewhere. I was mastering the latching now but soon after that a new issue arised. My baby started becoming very fussy during each feed. So I again contacted Rashmi ma'am and then we found out that it was all because of oversupply, that my baby was behaving like that. So then I had to learn different ways to manage my flow so that baby could be more comfortable while breastfeeding.

As of now I am successfully breastfeeding my little one. He has completed 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding and we are planning to continue it atleast till his 2nd birthday.

To all the moms reading this, I would only say that every mother goes through her own unique challenges in this journey. What matters is that, you seek help at the earliest, take guidance of an expert, just trust your own abilities and keep going without any guilt and judgements. When you start believing in yourself, you will start seeing solutions to all your problems. 

It is only in your darkest times, that you discover the light within, that shines.

This story is posted anonymously by a mom of a 3.5 month old about her struggles with postpartum depression and much more.

I am a mother of 3 and a half month old baby girl and the acceptance of being into motherhood has not been that easy.
These 3 months have taught me to be resilient, patient and loving. I have been through postpartum blues where horrible dreams, sleepless nights have haunted me saying I am not a good mother as I was unable to handle and hold my child well.

I went through an emergency C- section as my girl passed stool in the womb. Being very determined for a normal delivery, even after waiting for 3 days to get into labor, I ended up with an emergency C-section.

It was the time when I felt bad on my part as the last option was made fun of. I couldn't bear the labor pains was given as an answer by my MIL. I was demotivated then and there as delivering post my due date was also laughed at.

Inspite of all this, love and support that I received from my mother and husband lifted me to embrace my situation. The next hurdle came when I was unable to hold my baby into my arms as she was 4.3 kgs at birth and I was too weak to hold her. This challenge made me feel helpless and lead to my postpartum blues.

It made me furious at every step as I was not able to take care and my mom being there as support motivated me everytime.
However, the situation became worse day by day as these blues were dominant and I was falling prey to them. I had sleepless days giving me a feeling of ungratefulness. I had to take medicines to sleep.

This was still not the end of my difficulties. Colicky baby and inadequate feeding were the next challenges I had to face ahead. This phase has been the worst time where I was finding someone to talk to and I met my LC Rashmi mam. She guided me with methods that could help my oversupply issue. It got corrected somehow but my fear and demotivated mind remained the same.

Today after 3 and a half months I have got used to sleepless nights. Feeding has become a bit better and I am still into the process of learning. As far as the postpartum blues are concerned I have started involving myself in drawing cartoons which I color as per my mood and mind.

I have understood that nobody can help you unless you go ahead and talk, seek help and share your feelings. Especially with someone who has beem through similar situation. I would love to talk to any mother who is going through any difficult phase and try my best to provide all the support that you require. 

Best use of my superpower!

By Manali Menon: how she made breast milk soap from her excess breast milk.

I was blessed with my second baby (a baby girl) 9 months back. It has been such a pleasant and fulfilling breastfeeding journey for me. I was able to exclusively breastfeed both my son (now 3 years old) and my daughter (now 9 months old) for the first six months. I continued to breastfeed my son for 15 months and plan to continue as long as possible for my daughter as well. 

I have now resumed my work and have made sure that my little one gets only my own expressed milk along with nutritious solid foods while I am away from her. My children have infact supported me so well and I think I have breastfeeding to thank, for establishing such a lovely bond with them. I wont say it was all very easy, it never is! But, I was determined to give them the best start of life. It was made possible only with the continuous support of my husband and my family members.

My Lactation consultant Rashmi is also my very good friend and she was extremely delighted when I shared with her, a pic of a breast milk soap that I had made from the excess milk that I had. She said it was such a wonderful use of my precious milk and I must share it with other parents too. 

So here comes how I made it! 

I took normal glycerin soap base and melted it, then added expressed breast milk to it. The quantity of breast milk should be less than the soap base, say ratio should be 5:3

As I was making it for my newborn and toddler I did not add artificial colour and fragrance. I added few strands of saffron and a very fine powder of nutmeg for fragrance and my soap was ready. It’s absolutely moisturising and my toddler loved it!!"

Every drop of breastmilk is so precious and if you are blessed with excess then, please dont let that go waste. There is so much that you can do with it. You can make soaps, use it in preparing solid foods, donate it to the milk banks for other babies who really need it. Let us make the most of this super power which only moms are blessed with! 😊💖

A mom's determination knows no bounds

Story of Kadambari Oturkar: mom of a 3 month old

I am a mom of 3 month old baby boy. From the beginning, I had plans to exclusively breastfeed my baby for the first six months had contine as long as I can. But, somehow my journey did not go as I had planned.

Earlier I was having an issue of low milk supply and my baby had started refusing my breast. I seeked help of a Lactation consultant and she motivated me to work on reducing my baby's breast refusal and gave me tips for enhancing my milk supply. She said that she suspected my baby had a posterior tongue tie, which can also be the cause of pain while breastfeeding.

I kept trying really hard, but baby wasnt ready to open his mouth wide and continued to have a very shallow latch. Breastfeeding was getting very painful for me. I was feeling exhaused and both baby and I were getting frustrated.

Inspite of all the problems I was determined to give him my milk only and so I started pumping. Earlier I was able to pump and express around 600 ml per day and I was getting worried, if I would be able to suffice my baby's hunger as he grows.

Thanks to my Lactation Consultant, Rashmi ma'am for continuously encouraging me for breastfeeding but I guess it wasn't for me, so I had to opt for pumping. She respected my decision and encouraged me for giving my milk to the baby. She said "it doesn't matter how he is getting your milk, what matters is he is getting your milk and that you tried your best." She told me that "Many moms face similar problems and breastfeeding success is all about making the most of your situation and trying your best!"

At present, my baby is 3 months old and he is completely on my milk. I am now producing around 875ml of milk in 24 hours. I started using an electeic pump and have been pumping 8 times a day with one power pumping session. My baby sleeps throughout the night but still I wake up every 3 hours and pump so that my milk supply is maintained.

I could not breastfeed directly but the satisfaction I get in knowing that I managed to provide my baby with only my milk, cannot be expressed in words. I plan to exclusively pump and feed him only breastmilk for entire 6 months. I would like to tell other moms too that you know what's best for your baby and you should trust yourself and your ability to do that. With patience and determination everything is possible. 

Dont quit even when everything seems very difficult

Story of Tejal Shah: mum of a 6 month old.

I am mother of 6 months old but this journey was full of roller coaster ride for me. It started on 06th August when I went to doctor as from morning I was not feeling bit well. I was suffering from diarrhoea so I was very worried as it's not good sign. I always used to keep count of my baby's movements but, on that day I was not feeling any movement so I was very worried. 

When we went to the doc, she said that the heart beats are low and we have to go for emergency C-section. She told me don't go home and also call your husband immediately to the hospital. I was accompanied by my mom that time. My weight was also not much as baby arrived before due date. Eventhough he was not premature baby but still he was small. Intially he was completely on breast milk only but he literally used to take time of 2 hours for each feeding, even in the night and we didn't think that there might be something fishy about it. But, when we went to our pediatrician after few days for routine checkup we were shocked to see that he had lost a lot of weight and if we would have delayed it for a day also then he would have needed to be hospitalized. 

We were very scared and stressed for our little one. So after that we started him with formula milk and breast milk simultaneously for his weight gain. After few days, I thought now everything is normal as baby had put on weight and I was happy. But there were still many more struggles in store for me. 

I came to know that my reasitive and unfortunately he had been to our place just 4- 5 days back and even I started having cold cough and Covid like symptoms. So, I did my covid test twice, even though it was negative still I was worried specially for my little baby and in that tough period again baby lost some more weight. Few doctors told me to stay away from baby for few days so he was on complete formula feeding once again and my mom used to feed him. 

It is important that moms know that they should never think that right now only he had 60 ml milk so we should not give him more. You should rather always give milk to the baby whenever he demands and howmuchever he wants and that's what went wrong with our baby as we were not aware of this. 

In these stressful times I received a lot of support from my lactation consultant Rashmi ma'am. I encourage all new moms to seek help of an LC at the earliest if they have any feeding related issues. The earlier you take help the better it is!
I also tried for relactation. It did work for few days but frankly I was so worried that my baby should not loose more weight and that I continued him with formula too. Doctor had told us to keep record of the milk he takes daily and I followed what all that was adviced. 

After long efforts of all the family members specially my mummy and my husband we could finally increase his weight and baby is doing well now.  My baby is 6 months old now and I would surely like to mention one thing that God really gives us the strength to deal with all the situations when you become a mom. So just enjoy this best phase of motherhood 😍😍😍