Family Photographer Seattle | Meet Kate
Breast Feeding Awareness Month | Kate’s Journey
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“When I was pregnant I was terrified of breast feeding. I mean TERRIFIED. I had heard absolute horror stories from friends- bloody nipples, biting, and painful raw skin. I was much more afraid to breast feed than I was to give birth! Unlike the birth, which would only last a day (or two) this would hopefully go on for at least a year and was something I was very committed to doing because of the overwhelming health benefits for both myself and my baby.
Needless to say, nothing goes as planned. I ended up with an emergency C-section, and by the time she was about to arrive the only thing going through my head was “Don’t fall asleep! Don’t fall asleep!” I had never had a major surgery and was monumentally unprepared for how helpless I would feel during recovery. As a new mother I wanted to care for my baby but could barely care for myself.
I will never forget arriving back to the hospital room where my amazing midwife immediately smiled and said, “OK time to breast feed!” Breast feeding was empowering for me right from that moment. [Here is a picture of both Christine and Taylor (from In Tandem Midwifery) helping Eliza and I get started].
Breastfeeding was the one thing that I could do for her, and frankly, I could feel proud that we did it well. Right from the start she would gulp and slurp and burp like she was, well, born to do it! Eliza gained weight quickly and steadily and is now in the 75 percentile for weight and 90th for height.
I also love breastfeeding, something I could never have imagined when I was pregnant. This might sound a little odd but I am a tea drinker, and the best way I can describe breastfeeding, is like tea time for love. You take a break from all the dishes, the bills, the never-ending to do list, to be entirely present with your child. And for just a few minutes the world slows down and you can remember that your baby is this spectacular, beautiful, little life that you grew and are continuing to nourish from your own body. During those moments breastfeeding you have this built in gift of time to stare down at this little face and kiss those little fingers and soak it all up before time flashes by and they are graduating high school.
Because I have learned to cherish these moments, I have also become much more open about breastfeeding in public than I ever thought I would be. Feeding my child is such a precious gift that I really could care less what a stranger thinks about seeing an inch or two of skin.
Of course, our journey hasn’t been entirely smooth. Eliza has being doing some major teething and has started biting (the stinker!) But what I didn’t understand when I heard all those horror stories back when I was pregnant, was also the amazing gifts that it brings to your life; intimacy, love, nourishment, empowerment and the ability to actually love my imperfect but utterly amazingly body!”
