I am arya, pregnancy and subsequent breastfeeding journey was challenging, but rewarding—for both my family and babies in need!
I had a very tough pregnancy. In fact, I had such severe pain that I was actually on crutches at one point. My baby ziva was born before we had our expected date and Unfortunately, breastfeeding did not come easily to me.
Far from it, actually. It’s been one of the hardest and most rewarding journeys I’ve ever been on. She struggled to transfer milk at first, and I was sent home from the hospital spoon feeding and little of breast feed, pumping every 3 hours. All I knew was that I had a baby that latched but could not get milk. Despite her best efforts.
I’m not really sure why I kept going. I almost got disheartened so many times. I think a large part of it was that even though she wasn’t very good at it, she really loved it. It was her comfort zone, her happy place, and even though it didn’t work a lot of the time, when it did it was pure magic.
four weeks full of physical and mental exhersion and hours and hours of practicing skin to skin and learning each step from our amazing lactation consultant later, and I had an exclusively breastfed baby. Donating to other babies in need is truly a gift and one of my greatest points of pride.
It seems like a no-brainer now, but at the time it was a very emotional roller coaster . I had accumulated quite a stash of milk for this difficult early journey. I cried when I made my first donation, but they weren’t tears of sadness. Also, I was so proud, and in a way relieved because it felt like we were coming full circle.
Donating my milk has been a healing experience for me. I always tell ziva we are sharing our milkies with other babies when we pack it up! She smiles, and while she can’t understand exactly what is happening she definitely knows it is something good.
