I have a confession to make. I’m currently being stuffed with more herbs and supplements and natural remedies than is…natural, to be honest. The most surprising part may be that I’m doing it all willingly.
Why, you so innocently ask? Well, because I’m breastfeeding and although it comes so easily for some, it’s a veritable calamity for me. It was a year-long nightmare with my first daughter. I had to pump after each feeding and was on medication the entire time. It was over an hour long process each and every time. Even then, my milk supply was precarious. My friends became used to hearing me whine about how I’d much prefer to go through labour and delivery on a daily basis rather than breastfeed. I wasn’t joking, I was dead serious about it. It was honestly that difficult for me.
This time around, I decided things would be different. I would be proactive and get started on the right foot immediately. As soon as my baby was born, I started to pop supplements like valley of the dolls. A far more innocent and less toxic valley of the dolls. I’ve been drinking nettle leaf tea, fenugreek tea, fennel seed tea, any sort of tea I can get my hands on that may or may not increase my milk supply. I’m consuming every Indian concoction that my mother and aunts can get into me. They swear by them and promise it will all aid in my mission. I’m eating things that I’ve never seen before, let alone know what their names are or what they consist of. Fenugreek curries, blended nuts and herbs, spiced milk, anything and everything. If someone tells me it will work, I’ll try it. One particular herb constricts my throat in the most uncomfortable way but still, I faithfully take it all down every day.
You may wonder why I’m going to such lengths. There’s a simple answer for that. I’m desperate. I won’t try to sugar coat it or try to deny it or try to call it by any other name. I’m just really desperate to breastfeed my daughter. It’s something I strongly believe in and although I supplemented with formula for my oldest, I’m really trying everything in my power not to have to again. And quite truthfully, there’s not much that can compete with a desperate mother on a mission.
And guess what? It’s working! I kid you not. This stuff is really working and it’s just so much easier than before. So far, I’ve been lucky to not have to pump unless I’m feeling uncomfortable. I haven’t had the need to supplement with formula. And the best part is that I haven’t yet had to clean bottle after bottle. I’m getting all the milk I need and my baby is getting fatter everyday.
I may have to spend the next year of my life carrying around a duffel bag of pills and drinking more suspicious smelling teas and eating more odd looking foods than I care to think about but it’s all worth it. I feel like I’m doing something special for my baby that only I can do and that feeling is the best feeling in the world.
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