Breastfeeding Stories - Sarah

This is Sarah and here gorgeous little fella Asa - these are her words.

This is my beautiful boy, Asa, who was born mid pandemic, in October 2020.

I knew I wanted to breastfeed before I’d even gotten pregnant. It’s in my genes. My wonderful Mam breastfed my sister, my brother and me, me for a lot longer than she expected to apparently and she had me well prepared for what to expect.

I had a traumatic birth, I had expected the complete opposite to what I got. I had a 27 hour labour which ended in an emergency caesarean birth. I was so scared that because I didn’t get “the golden hour" immediately, that breastfeeding would be affected. Asa had skin to skin with my husband while I was in recovery, and when they brought him to me he literally leaped onto the boob. I’ll never forget that moment, that connection, as he looked at me and suckled.
Because of the Covid restrictions, my husband had to leave us about 30 mins later and I was brought to a ward. A wonderful midwife in the Rotunda showed me how to feed side lying, and we spent the next three days attached like that, and we haven’t looked back since.

I found the first 6 weeks hard, because I wasn't allowed to do much after my surgery, and because he was permanently attached to me, I'd never been relied on like that before and I just say, it took some getting used to!

I felt so lucky to be Asa's Mammy, and that we had no issues with breastfeeding, I also feel incredibly lucky to have had such amazing support from my husband Colin, my family and my other “Booby Mammy" friends who gave me advice and reassurance when I needed it.

I absolutely adore breastfeeding Asa, it is his source of food, of comfort, of connection with me, and it was a huge source of comfort and healing for me while I recovered from the trauma of his birth. We've been attached in one way or another since the day of his conception and it’s been such an honour.