Happy National Breastfeeding Month. Best advice I ever received, “if you’re planning to breastfeed, don’t think it comes naturally.” At the time of the advice, little did I know I would really struggle with breastfeeding my first child. Her words of wisdom became my truth as we struggled with latch and producing enough milk supply for my daughter. For me, breastfeeding was incredibly important and I have many happy memories of breastfeeding my children. For others, guilt surfaces when they think about not being able to nurse.
National Breastfeeding Month should offer the opportunity to reflect on the importance of keeping our children healthy. Whether that be through breastfeeding or formula every Mama’s ultimate goal is to keep their baby healthy. I recently read an article from Scary Mommy blog that made some good points about how we might think about breastfeeding month differently. What about Mama’s who can’t despite pulling out all the tricks to breastfeed, what about the Mama’s who decide breastfeeding isn’t for them? While we all know if we’ve done any reading at all, breast is best, sometimes it’s not an option. Supporting our village of Mama’s raising healthy, strong, kind, respectful, empathetic, courageous, and confident children is what our society needs. We may not understand why a Mama decides breastfeeding is not for her, but we can support one another in the journey of motherhood.
National Breastfeeding Month should also offer the opportunity to normalize public nursing. We’ve all heard about the discrimination women have faced when simply trying to feed their child. Again, we have the opportunity to lift Mama’s up and support hungry babies by empowering Mama’s and creating a safe and accepting society. There are several ways to help support the normalization of breastfeeding.
In the end our ultimate goal should be to lift all Mama’s up and remembering that we are champions for each other in raising healthy children.
Full Circle Yoga in Overland Park was founded in 2017 by yoga teacher Jenny Hellman focusing on wellness in the early stages of family life from prenatal to early parenthood and the older adult years. Full Circle Yoga KC is an Overland Yoga Studio specializing in Prenatal Yoga, Baby Yoga and Chair Yoga for seniors.
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