Allow me to introduce myself

Have you ever noticed that parents always have stories about breastfeeding? When you introduce yourself and they learn that you work in the field of lactation, it seems to me that there is always a story. And parents really want to tell you theirs. Upon reflection, this makes sense to me. Giving birth and the subsequent feeding of an infant is a life changing event. It’s right up there with…well, I think if I’m being honest, it stands alone as a monumental moment in a person’s life.

I love to hear the stories. I love to hear about a parent’s journey through breastfeeding; the struggles, the triumphs, the frustration, the elation. All of it! Bring on the stories!

And that is part of what I hope to do here, at Our Milky Way. My name is Kristin and I am honored to be taking over the blog from Jess. Jess has shepherded this blog from infancy to this point. Her work is incredible, the stories she has shared are inspiring. I hope to do her work justice and continue writing interesting, inspiring, thought provoking work.

The first story I would like to share with you is my own. For those of you that have been around awhile, you have probably heard us say “all roads lead to breastfeeding”. And around here, that is certainly true, though some of our roads were a little windier than others. As with a lot of lactation care providers, my story starts with my own breastfeeding journey.

Imagine, if you will, a bright eyed young 29 year old woman; well educated, strong willed, and dare I say it, over confident. I took the birthing class because…birth seemed well outside my scope of experience. But a breastfeeding class? Nope. Didn’t take that because…breastfeeding, how hard could it be? You put the baby’s mouth on your nipple and they feed, right? Well, the big day arrives and we go through labor, lots of labor, we end up with an emergency C-section and my daughter is whisked away to the NICU for observation. After 4 agonizing hours, they bring her to me, checked, poked, prodded and cleared for action. And she is very, very hungry. And quite frankly, more than a little pissed-off. So I put her mouth next to my nipple and….she’ll have none of it. She is so mad, so frustrated that she will not stop crying. So of course, I start crying, which in turn leads my husband to start crying. I think the only one not crying at this point is the nurse. So, she makes a helpful suggestion that we give the baby “just one bottle” of formula to calm her down and then we can try again.

I know, I know…hindsight is 20-20.

Now, I need to clarify that I do think the nurse was trying to be helpful, but as you can probably guess, after that “one bottle” there was no going back for my stubborn, strong willed (like her mamma) little girl. To make this long story a bit shorter, we wound up pumping for 5 weeks to give her breastmilk from a bottle and then finally threw in the cloth diaper and switched to formula.

Fast forward 2 years and I am pregnant again and this time I am bound and determined to breastfeed. We end up with another C-section after trying for a VBAC and this time they bring my son to me in the recovery room! At which point, my husband turns to the nurse, who happens to be a lactation care provider, and says:

“If we don’t get this baby to breastfeed my life will never be the same!”

While a little self-serving, it worked. The nurse helped me to breastfeed in the recovery room. And we went on to successfully breastfeed for a year. There is more in that story, and I will share more as we get to know each other here. A little peek into the deeper story; cracked nipples, phone help with a CLC, circus (yes, you read that right), community support and a lot of learning.

Fast forward again about 5 years and I am back here on Cape Cod, where I grew up. I meet an old friend who tells me she works for the Healthy Children Project, Center for Breastfeeding. And of course, I tell her my story (see first paragraph above). About a year later I am working for Healthy Children, I’ve taken the Lactation Counselor Training Course, I know everything that went wrong with my own stories and I realize that this! This is what I want to do! I want to help other parents avoid the pitfalls, the mistakes, the misinformation. And well, the rest is history. I am proud to say I have been working with Healthy Children for over 15 years now. I learn constantly. I am inspired often. I am lucky lucky lucky to work with this amazing group of women.

But enough about me! I want to hear about you. For real! I find blogs so much more interesting if folks comment and participate in conversation. Maybe you have or know a good story? Reach out, I’d love to hear it and maybe share it. In the meantime, may all your ways be milky ways!

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