Lea is a 30 something year old solo parent of one nearly
at school aged small, living in Yorkshire, Lea happens to be blind and enjoys
challenging perceptions based on their direct experiences of this world. This week is World Breastfeeding Week and today, Lea talks to us about their experience of feeding their child till pre-school age and the lack of support they felt during this time.
Having a baby is said to be the most
exciting but terrifying time of life for many, society as well as friends and family all seem to like to stick a oar in as to what they assume is the correct
way to feed a baby. Many may say as long as the baby is fed that is all that
matters. But when I became pregnant I knew in my heart I wanted to breast feed
I just did not envisage what a rollercoaster of a journey it would become.
From the times my toes curled as I
attempted to latch this small person on, the looks when I fed my small human in
public, to milestones we rapidly reached and suppressed, soon parent and small
people groups and my only conversations were taken up with “how did baby sleep?
How often does baby feed? How are babies nappies?”, there is a plethora of
information out there on breast feeding but none of it I came upon is geared for
those of us who are blind and how to breast feed.
It took time, a fair few tears from
myself and the small, but fast forward and the mini human is now 4 and a half and
continues to be a nurse-a-holic. We have laughed and cried over those years,
have made some incredible friends but regardless of what our journey has thrown
our way we have realised breast feeding is an adventure which can not be
completed without reaching out for support to not only ride out the difficult
times, but our team work would be nothing without it.
Our journey over the past 4 & half
years has been far from a straight forward one, battling mastitis, deciding
that the only way to deal with a missed tongue tie was to google and find a
lactation consultant to deal with a division myself as the NHS failed to
recognise it, choosing to parent to parent milk share with over 12 families,
one of which for over 2 years, battling the challenges of each stage of
nursing, finding support from a peer support group locally saving sanity to
face to face talk to others.
Being legally blind provided its own
challenges when it came to nursing, having the confidence in myself to trust my
body and not to cover up whilst nursing in public, to have the safety that The
Equality Act 2010 protected me to feed my baby any where I had the legal right
to be, seeking support from The NCT Helpline, Blind Mums Connect and also Association
For Breastfeeding Mothers Drugs in Breastmilk line.
To any parent out there who may be
reading this, you can and will do this, trust your body, it is designed for
this purpose and will not let you down, if it starts to though please reach
out, please ask for support and do not stop asking until you get the support
you need that works for you.
It is about time we as a society realise
it is ok to talk about our bodies and that includes talking about our breasts,
give our bodies credit for the incredible gifts they are able to give not only
us but to another, feed our babies whenever and wherever and have the
confidence within us to trust our bodies, breasts are for feeding and
nourishing our young, they may be an object of attraction for some but that was
not their primary purpose to why we have them. It is sad that as a society we
are more at ease seeing breasts in scantily clad clothing than we are to see the
beautiful act of a parent nursing their young.
Is it wrong in your eyes to nurse a nearly
at school age child? Or is it wrong that society puts the pressure on new
parents to nurse without educating on how to achieve a successful nursing
partnership? Did you get any support that was tailored to your impairment? Tell us about your breastfeeding experience.
