Breastfeeding Shoot - Audrey

This is Audrey and her youngest two of four children Jaxon and Amber. These are her words.

Let me start by sharing my experience of my first time breastfeeding, the minute I was pregnant I just knew it was something that I really wanted to try. My 5 older sisters did it on their children and it just made me really want to try it. I didn’t put pressure on myself though, I went into hospital knowing If it doesn’t work or it didn’t feel right for me I wasn’t going to feel like I let myself down. Unfortunately the first midwife that was looking after me in the post natal ward just wasn’t very helpful, she basically tried to just shove my nipple into the babies mouth and didn’t even help with different feeding positions, it was only that an older midwife happened to be on the next day that really helped me. She showed me how to hand express and taught me how to position baby right and talked all about the right latch. If it wasn’t for her I probably would have given up. After leaving hospital things went great, I was a bit shy to feed in public or around people so I only breastfed my first baby until 16 weeks. 

Then when it came to my second baby, he latched straight away and was a great feeder, I felt much more confident in what I was doing. 

Then on my third child , she didn’t latch very well and I struggled for the first few weeks to the point that my nipples were cracked and bleeding and I found it very sore to feed but I really wanted to persist with it and once those first few weeks had past it all went really well and I fed her till 9 months. 

And now I am currently continuing my breastfeeding journey on my 4th child. He latched very quickly in the hospital but I had a rough few days at home until my milk came in and then once that did it’s been great.They have all been such different experiences but something I have felt blessed to have been able to do as I know not all women can breastfeed. If you can do it, it is such a magical experience knowing you are feeding your baby. It’s such a lovely way to bond with them and to see there little eyes look up at you when you are feeding them just fills my heart with joy.