The theme for World Breastfeeding Week is “The Power of Oneâ€. It could be the power of one first feeding, the power of one supportive friend, or the power of one pumping session. Something that really helped me successfully breastfeed my son was the Power of One Supportive Employer. I returned to work when my son was eight weeks old, and it was to an office where I was the only administrative employee. When I couldn’t get to the phone, it went unanswered, yet my employers were completely supportive of my pumping breaks. They provided me an office with a door (my desk was at reception) to use and always made sure I was comfortable and secure. I was never once made to feel bad or guilty about the time away from my desk. A couple of times I forgot my pump and had to go home to retrieve it. It was never a big deal. I truly could not have had a more supportive working environment, and that was a very powerful influence on my breastfeeding success! When I announced I was pregnant a second time, my male boss said jokingly, “I guess I’ll get to hear that old pump going again.†He then proceeded to do a strikingly accurate imitation of the sound the pump makes! It cracked me up but also made me happy that he was cool with the “return of the pump.†So, thanks to my former employers (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!) for helping to make this One Nursing Mama’s breastfeeding experiences very powerful indeed!
Leave us a comment about a “Power of One” in your breastfeeding experience and you will be entered to win this baby photo album! It is gender-neutral and comes with 14 pre-made pages. All you have to do is add photos, which is great if you are like me and are devoid of craft skills.
The winner will be chosen and announced next Monday, August 6th! You can only comment once but you can gain another entry by linking to this contest on your blog or sending an email to a friend telling them about it and cc-ing jenny@momminitup.com.
Happy commenting!
That is wonderful that you had such a supportive work environment. I was lucky enought not to return to work till my son was 6 months old. By then I had a good supply of milk in the freezer and was only having to pump at night. One of the girls I worked with was not so lucky and she faced a lot of ridicule in the office for taking up the conference room for her pumping breaks. Someone suggested she pump in the restroom. I could not even imagine trying to pump while sitting on the toliet. That and the fact it is not sanitary at all.
Having a supportive work environment was key to me nursing for the first 6months. I was in the navy and work labor and delivery 13 hr shifts. My co workers were great and even reminded me to go pump if I was busy. It also felt great to be in an environment where I could encourage other moms to nurse. I am out of the navy and my daughter is still nursing and we are both happy.
I also has a supportive work environment. However, my biggest supporter was my husband. He tried his best to help my daughter latch on in the hospital, he grabbed my nipple shield or sugar water anytime I needed it. Best of all, he made me feel perfectly ok with the fact that I breastfed for only 6 months. His exact words: “Baby, you have breastfed for 6 whole months, most women only make it a few weeks, if that (he went to a breastfeeding class with me so he was armed with that info…hahaha). I am so glad I married you; you are the best wife and mother I could have ever hoped for. I knew that the first week we were home with Katelyn. Neiher one of us had more than two hours of sleep in a row in days. She cried, you got up, looked at her, took a deep breath, picked her up and cuddled her…that’s when I knew you were gonna be a great mom.” Yes ladies this is true dialogue from the mouth of a MAN!!! I remeber it verbatim because it meant so much to me!
I miss nursing so much, it just makes me sad.
The thing that really got me into breastfeeding and made me know that I would be successful was The Power of One Awesome Older Sister. My sister’s first child was born at 31 weeks and was in the hospital for close to a month before going home. Sis spent days at the hospital and then pumped every 2 hours all night so that she could take her breast milk to my nephew the next day. It was exhausting for her but Sis persevered because, as she said, providing Nephew with breast milk was the one thing she had control over while he was in the hospital. When he got home she had a struggle because he didn’t latch on well after all of the bottles he had in the hospital. She kept up with pumping and bottles, though, and after nearly 3 months he finally latched consistently and she was able to drop the bottles. She went on to nurse him and both of her other children for over a year each. Knowing all that she had been through in order to give her kids the gift of breast milk strengthened my resolve to give my daughter the same gift. Thanks, Sis!
my power of one was my mom. not in the years of my life while i have been breastfeeding my three children, although that has been helpful, but in the years growing up. i have heard a million stories about how she breastfed each of us. the great stories about her breastfeeding toddlers. growing up knowing that i was breastfed and my brothers were breastfed made it so much easier for me to DECIDE to do it. i have always beed a firm believer that there is a difference between “trying” to breastfeed and “deciding” to breastfeed. i knew each of my kids were going to be breastfed, even when we had problems and the going got tough. there was never any other option for me and i am so glad i did it!
The power of one friend, who was willing to take my boob and stick it in my baby’s mouth when my one arm was tied to an IV and unable to move, helped me get a good start.
The Power of One would have to be my sister in law. She was my inspiration. When times got tough breastfeeding my youngest I always thought of what she went through to be able to breastfeed my neice. Kim was working full time and had to go back after a 12 week maternity leave. She had a burning desire to do what she thought was best for her daughter, which was breastfeed. She traveled daily for her job. She was in the admissions department for a local college. She was always doing visits and such in many different environments. The oddest place that she had to pump was when she was doing a seminar at a jail. A guard let her use an office! Then there was a time when she pumped in a Kmart parking lot. Anytime I felt like I couldn’t do it I thought of her. I was fortunate enough to be able to stay at home for the first year. I tell her that if she hadn’t gone through so much I may not have gone the full first year breastfeeding.
Definitely the ‘power of one’ friend, who sat with me EVERY day during lunch while I pumped. Even though she was neither married, nor a mother, she was never grossed out while I was ‘hooked up,’ and would prance into the room dancing to the ‘beat.’ We would sit and chat, I mean yell, to each other, over the sound of my pump.
I HATED breastfeeding. Yet I still breastfed all 3 of my children for the first year. The power of one for me was the reminder of how much ONE can of formula cost. Let alone a whole years worth!
So many people were (and are) supportive of my nursing journey. I nursed my son until he was 13 months and am still nursing my 10 month old daughter. What I have learned is that support comes in the most unusual places sometimes. The one person that really inspired me to keep going was my mother-in-law. My husband is the oldest of three children and she didn’t nurse a single one of them for even one day. But EVERY time she saw me, she made a point of remarking about how incredible it was that I was still nursing and how she was so grateful that her grandchildren had such a great mother. She really made me feel beautiful and powerful that I breastfed my babies for the time I did. Nobody else made me feel that good about it. She was my biggest supporter and the ONE person that I would turn to if I was ever feeling unsure about my choice to keep going. Even my husband wasn’t as supportive as she was. And to think it came from a woman who never even tried it….I love her for that!
I have been very fortunate to have lots of people support me in my choice to breastfeed. My son nursed until he was 19 months old, my oldest daughter nursed until she was 25 months old (I worked part-time and took her to work with me), and I am currently nursing our 5-month old daughter. My ONE reason for breastfeeding is convenience. It is so great that I don’t have to plan ahead before we go somewhere to make sure that we have enough bottles prepared. I love being able to feed my baby anytime/anywhere. Plus, the bonding that occurs is awesome. Our youngest, Emmaline, surprised us by being born with Down syndrome, a hole in her heart, and hearing loss in both ears. After all of those shockers at her birth, I would have been pushed over the edge if I hadn’t been able to breastfeed her like our first two. She is a champion nurser and the doctors are thrilled with her growth and how healthy she has been due to being breastfed. Yeah, for Mommy’s milk!
My employers have been great. I work in a professional office and am the only female, billable professional. I am mid-level and so I only have a cube, but when I returned from 10 weeks of maternity leave my bosses let me have an office so I could pump more conveniently. The same bosses actually had to come in and install a lock last year on the door of another pumping mom because our ofice doors don’t actually lock – she had left recently so I took her office.
They also let me tailor my return from maternity leave to be easier on my and my daughter. Instead of taking a full 12 weeks off and returning FT, I took a full 10 weeks off and then three weeks at 3 days a week and 3 weeks at 4 days per week. It was so wonderful, especially that first week to know I would get a little more time with my daughter.
When I have forgotten my pump or parts to my pump it has always been no problem to go home and finish the day working from home. They have also made sure to not put me on any trael assignments, even though every single other person in the ofice has been on at least a few travel assignments since I returned.
I am currently pumping 3 times a day at work and I KNOW that I couldn’t do it without the support of my employer, in particular my bosses, who are both middle age men, so not the easiest to be comfortable talking about breast issues with. 🙂
The Power of One Nursing Nazi….seriously! I had already made the choice that I would breastfeed. People who know me understand that this is a big deal….i’m squeamish about a lot of things. But I was ready to undertake this wonderful task …that is until the doctor ordered a four week early C-section and I had a beautiful 4lb. 6oz. baby who was too weak to nurse enough to subsist. Wow – what a downer after you are so excited to try this thing that only happens maybe a few times in your life if you’re lucky!
Anyway, during my hourly visits to the NICU to feed Ethan (by pumping milk and bottle feeding at this point), I always received the “helpful” little visits from the ladies of the “Nursing Staff” (I don’t know if they have an official name – I now call them the Nursing Nazi’s!) They consistenly poked, prodded, and pulled at my breasts, pushing me to continue trying to breastfeed Ethan. I insisted that I really would continue to try, but that Ethan just wasn’t ready yet. No amount of nipple shields, special cones or devices was going to change the fact that Ethan was just little and weak! They spoke to me as if I were a sell-out for using the bottle. Little did they know that they had made me more determined than ever to make it work. It would just be in Ethan’s own good time, when he was strong enough and ready. Sure enough, after about a month of pumping every three hours, he finally latched on consitently, and continued for about 7 more months. Take that Nursing Nazis!!!!!
Breastfeeding for me, was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. With Busy Bee, it was the worst, but my power of one, the first time I nursed her and I wasn’t in tears, and neither was she, that kept me going. You see, when we first started, there were times we had to stop so I could get my cracked nipples to stop bleeding. We kept at it though, even though everyone around me told me to stop, that she’d be fine on formula. Then after about a month of absolute hell, we finally had that one time we both made it through without pain or tears… And it became heaven.
i feel very fortunate that my mom breastfed myself and my siblings so to me, it was always just the thing to do. so for me it was the power of one mom as a positive role model who did what was best for her kids. 🙂 sure, my family is dysfunctional in many ways, but i feel lucky that my mom breast-fed us. 🙂
great contest! 🙂 i’m one of those ppl who are way too lazy to scrapbook, so the ready made pages really appeal to me. 🙂
My power of one comes in form of my hubby. After soley nursing 6 children for up to 8 months each, our last baby – yes #7 – came to us as a power house nurser until she became ill. She did this funny sucking thing with her mouth so I did not realize she was not getting much until it was too late. My milk supply was in the dumps and she was too sick to bring it back up to the right level – so formula made its way into our lives for the first time with a newborn. Pumping became my option but with 6 other children at home the 4 hours a day to pump was just not going to happen unless I let our home fall apart at the hands of our 2 and 4 year old. My husband encouraged me that he supported me in any choice I made – to continue nursing; to stop all together; or to supplement. Each time I was discouraged he would affirm me. He also assured me that my not nursing exclusively was not a failure. In the long run it encouraged me to keep nursing until SHE quit at 6 1/2 months.
She is happy and healthy and nursing in the end was good for both of us.
Hmmm…my “power of one” is that I was/am the only ONE who is nursing/feeding/nourishing etc. my baby boy (foodwise, of course my husband is nourishing him in many other ways too), but I just love the fact that breastfeeding creates such a STRONG love and link between me and my baby!!! Also, I have almost reached my goal, of nursing for ONE whole year! What a good year it has been too…the power of ONE year makes me love breastfeeding and just being close to my sweet boy as much as possible!!
You’re right. The power of one is probably the most powerful. When I breastfed my first baby 24 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. I had never been around it. I didn’t know anybody that breastfed their babies. I had absolutely nothing to go on. I was in my room at the hospital when they brought my beautiful baby girl to me and said, “ok mommy, you’re little girl is hungry” The nurse handed her off to me and turned to leave. I don’t know what made her glance back at us, but she did. It must have been the look of terror on my face that made her turn around and come back. This nurse was amazing to me. She was so patient and kind and had such a soft touch. She walked me through everything. The best thing she taught me was to relax. I ended up have the most wonderful breastfeeding experience with my daughter, and I attribute it to my wonderful nurse. I went on to breastfeed my next child with an equally wonderful experience. Now 24 years later, I was able to teach my first born the art of breastfeeding. I now watch her breastfeed my beautiful granddaughter, Natalie.
I have a lot of support with breastfeeding. I nursed my first daughter until she was 19 months old. I was VERY determined to breastfeed and told everyone around me that I don’t care how much I may cry or hurt DO NOT let me give a bottle! I can remember my husband, my mother and mother-in-law taking turns rubbing my shoulders as my daughter would latch on in those first few days. It was so painful that I would cry, but they would talk softly in my ear, while rubbing my shoulders, encouraging me.
Nine years later I’m nursing my second little girl. She is 7.5 months old. It was so much easier this go around! And, I still have all that wonderful support!
You know, I breastfeed for many reasons, but I have to say I look at bottles and formula and think, “how do you do that?” LOL That just seems so hard! What I do is the easiest thing in the world!
My story was about nursing my first child. When she was 5 days old (we were barely getting the hang of bf) I went to the ER with a major headache. as it turned out I had extremly high blood pressure that they werent able to control in the ER. So they put me in ICU and put me on a strong medicine to slowely lower my blood pressure. being on this medicine I could not leave the ICU until my blood pressure was under control. I was diagnosed with postpartum preEclampsia. I was in ICU for 3 days away from my baby.When I would tell my nurses that I was breast feeding and needed to pump to keep up my milk, they would always dicourage me and say “You are probably not going to be able to bf when you get out because of the medication you will be on, besides we don’t have the equipment in the ICU”. I wasnt going to give up. I felt really passionate about breastfeeding. I did what I could manually that first day. late that 1st night a nurse from the maternity floor showed up and told me she heard I had been asking about a pump. she brought me the maternity floors only working electric pump every 3 hours during her shift. and she always made sure that there was someone from the next shift who would do the same. she was also very incouraging, telling me to stay positive and have faith and it would all work out. when I left she sent me with a manual pump (which I did not have)and I used it every 3 hours for 3 weeks. when I was finally off the medication and my blood pressure had stablized, I was able to get my daughter back o breastfeeding. It took alot of patience and hard work. but I never forgot that nurse and how she helped me!
For me, it’s got to be the Power of One Mother-in-law. I had a breast reduction when I was younger so breastfeeding was never a guarantee. My son was 11 lbs at birth and jaundiced. So a)he was really hungry and b) needed to eat often to get the billyrubin out of his system. Oh, and I was recovering from a c-section – only way to get an 11 lbs kid out of me! My mother-in-law spent 3 (maybe 4… can’t remember) nights with us because we needed to wake up and feed Ryan every 2 hours! The feeding process (wake up, diaper change, feed, diaper change, back to sleep) took at least an hour. You’d get to sleep and he’d need to be fed again. She was there for us, doing all the fiddly stuff with him and allowed us to sleep. She was amazing! Thank you!!!
I owe my breastfeeding success to The Power of One Supportive Husband. During the first few weeks, I don’t think I would have had anything to eat if he didn’t bring it to me in the rocking chair. He has picked up a lot of slack with the cleaning, since our baby loves to nurse for long periods. He always tells me that I’m doing a good job and he’s proud of me.
The power of seeing my children not get sick on a regular basis, and the closeness I have with them because of breast feeding. The power of lugging my pump to work everyday so that my children would have breastmilk while I was at work.
The power of one – well I guess I was the one. Since my children are both grown and I’m now a grandma, I had no clue as to what to expect. I never even heard of a breast pump, unfortunately. When my milk came in I was in agony, and neither me or the baby knew the first thing about breast feeding. I loved it once I got the hang of it. I felt a bonding between myself and my children, it didn’t cost anything, and it was so convenient because I didn’t have to mix or fix anything. I’m so glad that most new mothers are more informed about the procedure now:) I’d love to win the scrapbook for my granddaughter’s photos!
The power of one for me was me. I always knew I would breastfeed once I became a mom, and I did just that. I never said I would just try breastfeeding, I said I was going to breastfeed, and I did. I am still happily breastfeeding my 10 1/2 month old son and will continue until he is at least 1, if not longer. I am not ready to give it up by any means! It is the most wonderful gift I have given my son, other than life itself! The bond I share with him is amazing, and knowing only I can comfort and nourish him this way gives me so much joy. I also have had a tremendous amount of support from my husband, mother, family and co-workers! Their support means the world to me and it has made breastfeeding/pumping that much easier!