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.