(1/2) “But breastfeeding was an important goal for me, I really like doing research and had attended lots of classes during pregnancy. I understood the health benefits. I knew I wanted a natural labor and delivery, cloth diapering, and all-natural ways of feeding my baby. I wouldn’t have had the money to formula feed, I was 16 just finishing high school. I just felt breastfeeding was the best, most natural, and least expensive option for me and my baby.  

He was born 6 weeks early because I had preeclampsia. In that first 24 hours he only latched once, and when he successfully latched it really hurt. They had a lactation consultant come but she wasn’t very helpful. I think people don’t give teen mothers credit when they are actively trying to do what’s best for their child. I felt set up for failure, like they thought I was young and wasn’t going to do it anyways, so what’s the point in trying to teach her.  

I had so much drive to make it work and would be up all-night crying trying to get him to latch. I remember one day sitting on a stool crying, and I didn’t know how much more I could take. My grandmother sat with me and told me I needed to do what was best for me, that I needed to make sure I was mentally in a good place to be able to do best by him, because no one else was going to do it for me. His father wasn’t around, I needed to be able to do this. I look back now and know he had a lip tie and tongue tie, and that I had semi inverted nipples.  

That first week I started pumping for him, I realized I had a major oversupply. I was engorged and rock solid even after pumping. My grandmothers stand up chest freezer was completely full by 3 months in. I donated some of it because it was just too much for one baby, and by the time he was 6 months old I had stopped pumping completely, but he continued to consume my supply of frozen breastmilk until he was a year and a half old.”

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Ashlan Taylor at Portland Birth Stories
Portland, Oregon
www.portlandbirthstories.com