- Wynne has more to say, and it's all right here.
For Mom Will Nurse Sons, 5 and 6, ‘Until They’re Ready’: Part One, read here. That being said, here’s the rest of the story.
After a difficult birth, Wynne had trouble nursing Riley, making her more determined than ever to breastfeed Mylo.
“Before Mylo went into preschool he was asking for mummy milk in the playground in the morning.”
“He took me to the bench and I had to dig deep into myself. I wanted to tell him we weren’t doing it there because people could see but I didn’t want to pass my anxieties onto him.”
Way to go, Mama! Sounds like you’re doing it right to me.
She also shared that breastfeeding has helped her overcome birth trauma and has continued to strengthen her connection with her sons.
For a while, she tandem fed them at the same time, until they were too big to do so.
Sheryl said: “Breastfeeding helped me to keep that connection going and I had it in my head that I wanted to tandem breastfeed. It felt magical and empowering to be sustaining two babies at the same time.”
“I had a traumatic birth and because of that experience I felt like a failure. I felt like I hadn’t done it right so I needed the breastfeeding relationship to succeed.”
“It wasn’t until I started breastfeeding Riley that I learned what it was about. It was a lot harder than I thought.”
“It wasn’t physically bad but emotionally it was hard. It might have been easier if I’d known more about it.”
“It’s hard to give all of yourself to this little person and not give yourself a break.”
“To get to where I am now couldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gone on to have my healing birth with Mylo. Everything changed after that.”
“When I was pregnant with Mylo I thought I didn’t have long left with Riley because the milk had reduced but when I had Mylo and the milk came Riley was like ‘oh wow’.”
“When I was feeling full of milk I would ask Riley to breastfeed and he would help with that.”
Wynne wants the help rid society of some untruths around natural term breastfeeding, the practice of nursing for the length of time determined by the child, and only ‘until they’re ready.’
Sheryl said: “I don’t feel like I ever made the decision to breastfeed. It’s what I always imagined doing and it felt quite natural.”
“I remember playing with dolls while little and pretending to breastfeed them because I thought that’s what you do and that’s where milk comes from. That’s what I wanted to do.
“It was a really nice experience for all three of us to do that together. Riley would reach out and stroke Mylo’s head or hold his hand and that’s how I felt it was supposed to be and I was a lot more confident with my own body.”
You do you, Mama.