Breastfeeding Mom and Midwife by Rebecca Luckey

Most of you all know I’m a midwife, well I’m also a nursing mother of a one year old.  Being an on-call practitioner with a nursing infant is not the easiest of things, especially when your kid doesn’t like pacifiers or to self soothe to sleep.  This past year of nursing and pumping while away has been quite an adventure.  Getting a call in the middle of the night or not being home for days is the norm.  I have had to have students make milk runs to daddy for me since we had no other way for him to pick up milk or   to bring baby to me, only having enough “stashed” away for about 24 hours.

As I write this article, I have Nora nursing in my lap, a foot in my chin and little fingers pinching at my arm.  I am a seasoned mother of now four children.  I write this out of a practical need, not a late breaking new article with an English major midwife behind it.  I’m just a working mom with a different schedule than most. 

It takes commitment from not only the mother but daddy too.  My husband would keep track of how much was in the freezer and let me know when I needed to “bump up” my production to ensure the baby will have what she needs.  I will tell you once solids came in to the mix at six months I felt a little reprieve from feeling like a cow, but still without fail I manned the pumps every 3-4 hours.  Finding the right pump makes the difference.  I use a Hygia double pump and it’s so much better than my Medela.  I find I actually can express more per feed with the Hygia and have less clogged ducts when away from my nursling.  You have to find what works for your body.  Not to say Medela is at all a bad pump, it’s very highly recommended across the board, but I found another brand that fit my body and my baby.

Finding the time to pump, that is a dilemma at times.  When in the office I can sneak away for a few minutes and lock myself in a room, but while at a home birth or driving half way across state doing home visits I have to pump and drive.  I single pump with a hands free bra and have cool packs with me to store the milk….sometimes I have to stop in convenient stores for cups of ice along the way.  Oh and believe me you do cry over spilled milk.  Seeing even an ounce of liquid gold go bad or leak out of a bag is so frustrating.  I have had to work hard for every ounce. Even if I go four or five hours and feel engorged I only get 3-4 ounces between the two sides.  But that’s all my daughter needs.  She still only takes 2-3 ounce feeds at one year of age.  For these women that can express eight or more ounces at a time I applaud you.  If you’ve seen my daughter, she is quite the chunk and seems to be doing just fine on my 20-24 ounces per day.

Ways that I increase my supply: eating steel cut oats, having a dark beer here and there, increasing my water intake and calories as well putting baby to the breast the second I am home.  Even if I just pumped on the way home, I put her on the breast.  I don’t pump when I’m home, only to the breast with baby and I try to take her with me as much as possible. 

I want other moms to know that if I can make it work so can you.  I look back on my other childrens’ nursing experiences and see all of my mistakes…I made a vow not to make them this time.  Breastfeeding is so important that first year...and I finally did it!