bdmetronews desk ॥ A new series of breastfeeding photos is bringing mothers’ nursing struggles to life.
Photographer Cheyanne Booker took pictures of six moms, who shared their breastfeeding journeys and challenges — from bad latches and supply issues to medical conditions and mental health struggles.
Booker told The Huffington Post that her own breastfeeding struggles inspired the series. After giving birth to her now-13-month-old daughter Blyss, the photographer nursed very frequently everyday, but the newborn baby lost weight during those first weeks.
“I felt like a failure because I thought my body wasn’t going to be able to produce enough milk for her, and I desperately wanted to breastfeed her,” she said. With the support of her sister-in-law, Booker was able to persevere, and at 3 months, Blyss reached the 97th percentile for weight.
For the breastfeeding photo series, Booker found subjects by posting a callout in local mom Facebook groups in her home of Mobile, Alabama. In the future, the photographer hopes to find more moms to photograph and add more diversity to the series.
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“Aven is my fourth baby — my fourth breastfed baby. But the first baby that I’ve nursed.
My breastfeeding journey began with preemie twins. Not at all how I’d imagined things would start. Born at just 29 weeks, the twins were too small and too underdeveloped to nurse right away. So I pumped and they got my milk though feeding tubes and, later, bottles. I did eventually try to nurse them, but they preferred bottles. I was able to give them 10 months of pumped milk.
I didn’t expect to have issues with my son. But he was born with micrognathia — a jaw deformity that made it impossible for him to latch. So I pumped again. He got 13 months of milk from me and we donated more than 3,000 oz to other babies.
I spent my entire pregnancy with Aven terrified that history would repeat itself, and I’d be forced to pump again. But I worried for nothing. She was full term. She was healthy. She didn’t have micrognathia. And she latched right away.
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“I’m Sam (left). I gave birth to Finnick in July 2014. We struggled a bit with nursing at first. By eight days old, he was dehydrated and hospitalized for rapidly rising bilirubin due to ineffective nursing. At two weeks old, he was still losing weight, down almost a pound from his birth weight. But with the help of an IBCLC and his pediatrician, we got it worked out without supplementing, and he began to thrive. The two of us struggled through a nursing aversion he developed after being given bottles when I returned to work at six weeks postpartum, and through a huge supply dip following my heart surgery when he was three months old, to correct an arrhythmia I developed during pregnancy. Everything smoothed out after that, and I almost forgot that we’d ever struggled — he’s 22 months old now, and still nursing.
But with the help of almost two dozen amazing women so far, Shelter has been able to stay almost exclusively on breastmilk in spite of all of that. We find our donors through women we know or through a nonprofit called Human Milk 4 Human Babies and we are so grateful to all the people who have made it possible for us to keep our preemie breastfed.” — Samantha McMillan
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“I have been breastfeeding for almost 3 years now. I started nursing my son the day he was born — it was a learning curve for both of us, but once we learned what worked for us, it was the easiest thing in the world for us to do. My son nursed all through the pregnancy of my daughter, and though I struggled with nursing during pregnancy I never stopped, I always knew that nursing was the path I would take with my children but I never thought my son would still be nursing at 2 years and 8 months. I never thought I would tandem nurse two children, but here I am.
My daughter was lucky when she was born because I had an established supply of milk for her the day she was born.
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So when our middle child Zoey (2 1/2) came around, I was very determined to breastfeed no matter what. We had our fair share of issues including supply issue’s, a milk protein allergy, dairy intolerance, and a latch issue that required me to use a shield, after a bunch of research I cut out ALL dairy. You would be surprised just how hard that was. And was able to wean her from the shield. Luckily she outgrew the dairy allergy by about seven months. As far as the supply issue I discovered lactation cookies, and they worked so well for me that I wanted to share them with all women who struggle. So I started, The Milk Maids Of Mobile, a lactation bakery that specializes in baked goods to increase your milk supply.
by yahoo
