Breastfeeding perfectly coincides with the start of your postpartum period, a time where healing and true nourishment are paramount. So how can we truly nurture ourselves during this time when our bodies are yet again changing, especially in the midst of sleep deprivation, an insatiable appetite and an extreme desire for hydration when you sit to breastfeed?
Nurturing yourself has to go beyond using nipple creams or silver cups - though those are great. Let’s look at what nurturing actually is, it is defined as: 'to take care of, feed, and protect someone or something, and help them to develop.' Let’s explore how we could bring these into breastfeeding:
Taking care of yourself: You can think about this antenatally, though it's never too late to make a plan! A great way to start is by being open to receiving help from your partner and/or your support network, and letting them know how you want to be helped can help this go smoothly. Next, make a list with sections such as: taking care of my mind, taking care of my body, taking care of my space. You can think of things that make you feel good, from practicalities like booking hair appointments in advance to your favourite meals cooked and stored in the freezer. One of the main reasons people start to reduce their self-care activities is that they are not scheduled or prepared for, and so it seems that there’s no time. Being your ‘future best friend’ can make a world of difference.
Nutrition: I like to think that the intense increase in appetite (particularly at the beginning of your breastfeeding journey) is your bodies way of telling you innately to eat more food! This really isn’t the time to be thinking about how you’re going to lose any baby weight, or worrying about gaining weight. Your body prioritises making this amazing milk even over your basic metabolic functions, and it will take the nutrients from elsewhere (ie. The minerals from your teeth) if you don’t fuel your body correctly. So have fun with your appetite, play around with it, embrace it and see where it takes you. How you view your eating habits can have a huge impact on your overall well-being, so try focusing on nutrient dense food, especially food high in protein and fat instead.
Protection: Breastfeeding is an amazing but intense journey, and sometimes you may need to find your way by listening to your intuition. There is absolutely nothing wrong with breastfeeding your baby to sleep, breastfeeding past a year or two, breastfeeding in public or breastfeeding on demand, even if other people disagree or didn’t do it themselves and their babies ‘turned out just fine.’ You don’t have to explain your journey to anyone and protecting it can be a great way of nurturing yourself.
Developing: This will almost certainly involve increasing your knowledge about breastfeeding, and there are many affordable and free breastfeeding workshops available for yourself, your partner and your family which you can access at any point in your journey. Also seek help early; budget for a lactation consultant (you can even put it on your baby shower gift list!) and find out where your local peer support groups, breastfeeding counsellors and infant feeding specialists are.
And lastly, know that breastfeeding is just a season. Likewise, stopping breastfeeding doesn’t have to be a guilt ridden, engorgement filled time. You can nurture yourself during this period as well, utilising support and staying in tune with you and your baby’s needs.
By Susan Ibuanokpe
Antenatal and Postnatal Educator
Founder of Mamas House:
Culturally relevant and trauma informed antenatal and postnatal courses
References:
Nurturing Definition: Cambridge dictionary
Silver cups: 925 sterling silver cups that heal the nipples, available from many outlets
‘Future self's best friend’ A term coined by The Organised mum
