Becoming a New Mama and Struggling with Milk Supply

Have you Ever?

Had your partner cheering on your breasts? New mama you read that right! Although my milk didn’t come in right away, we sure had a lot of fun encouraging my breasts to produce it. I don’t even remember how it started. After seeing Evie and Poppy for the first time after my cesarean I was told to hand express in the hospital room to encourage my breasts to start producing milk (or claustrum first). This felt like a daunting task as a new mama. My body wasn’t ready for our twins to arrive and the emergency cesarean the night prior made it all a little harder. At 34 weeks my breasts weren’t exactly ready to provide milk. Also to not hold or be with my babies, while trying to produce milk, felt extremely disconnected.

Mark would sit and talk with me as I tried to hand express milk in the hospital room. Then at some point he started cheering on my breasts! Every time I got a drop, he’d celebrate. It was amazing, he made me feel like we were actually making progress. Each day he was so positive and would tell me how much more we’d produced than the day before, even if it was only half a vial. This was such a crazy time with the NICU and not being able to move very well, trying to produce breastmilk was some of the best moments. I owe that to Mark, he was a great breastfeeding cheerleader. I think he stopped cheering on my breasts when I shot him in the face with milk, oops! As a new mama there can be difficult moments, but we can choose to see the joy or positive or funny! You’ve got this mama.