Nurturing Life
These two words define and drive everything that Motherlove does, from their organic farm in Colorado, to their herbal care products, the educational classes taught by founder Kathryn Higgins, to the Nurturing Life Foundation, Motherlove’s non-profit which supports mothers and children all over the country. So it’s no surprise that Motherlove has had such a beautiful, long-standing relationship with The Leaky Boob, extending their support of mothers and children to our Leakies and their breastfeeding journey with their babies. The Motherlove website sums it up well:
What is Nurturing Life?
It is fostering an environment where development, growth, and health are encouraged, and doing so in each facet of our life, including each stage. True beauty can emerge in your life and others’ as you nurture life in yourself, your friendships, romantic relationship, through pregnancy, birth, in your relationship with your children, and more, and yes, even your garden.
“At Motherlove, we use Nurturing Life as our mission statement because nurturing moms and babies together is essential for both to thrive. During pregnancy, moms are reminded minute-by-minute of this relationship and we typically focus on our health and wellbeing because it’s tied to our child’s life.” (Nurturing Life – Self Care for Mothers, by Motherlove Herbal Company)
This Motherlove series of giveaways started out by focusing on maintaining your wellbeing during pregnancy in week 1. We then moved on to the challenges of postpartum and the importance of acknowledging and talking about “unmentionable” things like hemorrhoids and postpartum depression as the best path to recovery and healing.
The focus for this week is the painful subject of, well, pain. Because, let’s face it, a mom’s relationship with Little Miss Cute or Little Mister Bundle of Joy often includes times of discomfort and pain, such as mastitis, thrush, and diaper rash, not to mention teeth (pain for mom and baby) among many others. Most people tend to share the happy moments they have with their children on social media, and it can seem like they never have any difficulties in life. In general I think it’s a very helpful thing to focus on the positive things in your life, but if that’s all anyone ever does it can be very alienating to those of us who are going through a tough time.
There are too many pain-laden challenges that come with a new baby to name them all in one post, so here are a few of the big ones with a link so that you hopefully feel less alone, conversations get rolling, and you can see that there are many resources at your fingertips, though some ailments do require professional help. Now that baby is born, you are nurturing life for two people, but you don’t have to go it alone.
Mastitis – read about Jessica’s journey with the red-eyed breastfeeding monster.
Thrush – This Motherlove-sponsored post is your guide to determining if you have it.
Diaper Rash – this post isn’t about diaper rash, but it is about The Piano Man’s explosive and humorous first encounter with baby poop. And this Motherlove article is about diaper care.
Of course you can always search Motherlove’s blog or The Leaky Boob’s blog for helpful information on whatever is ailing you.
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Motherlove is giving away a Diaper Rash and Thrush salve to help ease the pain of 3 lucky Leakies.
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Good luck to everyone! Please use the widget below to be entered. The giveaway is open from August 7, 2014 through August 14, 2014. A big thanks to Motherlove for their ongoing support of TLB and all breastfeeding women; please be sure to visit their Facebook page or follow them on twitter and thank them for their support of TLB and this giveaway opportunity.
This giveaway is restricted to U.S. residents only.
I have not yet had the privilege to breast freed but my little one is due this coming spring and I am my excited to start my breast feeding journey.
Incorrect Latch
I’ve had supply issues!
What difficulties have I not encountered? Tongue tie, cracked nipples, mastitis, thrush, supply issues… Well my guy is five months now and we’re back in the game!! We only occasionally have to give formula if I don’t pump enough at work (and I’m working on that…) My advice to mamas- be stubborn! I worked a lot with a lactation consultant (who told me most people would have given up by now, way to stick with it!) and WE DID IT!!
We had thrush really bad. it was the worst experience ever
Incorrect latch (very beginning), both my boys have/had very strong suction, overactive let-down (I wore nursing pads through our first’s 16 months of nursing and still wearing them with our second, nearly a year), and though this won’t sound like a problem to most, it definitely can be: oversupply. Obviously I’ll take this “problem” over any other; I’ve been blessed to be able to donate all that excess.
plugged ducts, mastitis, cracked nipples, not maintaining supply after returning to work.
With both a traumatic birth, and jaundice, my baby had a hard time feeding and was told to have formula. For the first week it was mostly formula, then we slowly incorporated breastfeeding, until, at 3 months, he refused to consider anything other than boob. There was lots of upset tummy too, distraction, etc.
With my first child we had latch issues. Also low supply due to IGT.
Thank God that we have not had any issues or difficulties!
All I can say is thank God for lactation consultants! We had to learn to nurse with inverted nipples, then wean off the nipple shield. Then there was a very long and drawn out battle with thrush. And of course supply/weight gain issues thanks to my brilliant doctor telling me to take benadryl daily. We stuck with it though, and came out on the other better off and much more well informed. Thankfully things have been much smoother with baby #2, 14 months so far and going strong.
Let’s see, with my oldest daughter I gave up a 2 weeks because of incorrect latch, lack of support and cracked and bleeding nipples. With my son, we struggled with a tongue tie, lazy latch, cracked nipples and terrible mastitis that I was hospitalized for followed by thrush. My youngest daughter was life flighted to a children’s hospital when she was about 10 hours old. She was put on IV fluids and I had to pump. She was allowed to nurse again after about 12 hours and had latch issues. Then, she had surgery at 4 days old and had to lie completely flat for 48 hours. Miraculously, she latched right on as soon as they let me hold her again and has been nursing strongly ever since!
in the 4 years I have been breastfeeding my only complaint is 2 bouts of a plugged duct.
I’m currently expecting twins & I’m just worried I won’t be able to produce enough for both
We had a lot of pain at the beginning but working on correct latch made all the difference and we had 2 years of success. Hoping for smooth sailing with the next babe too!
First, I was incorrectly advised not to breastfeed, told my medication was dangerous, but a pediatrician and IBCLC gave me better information, and we felt comfortable going forward! Then, he had a tongue tie. Snipped that (same IBCLC/Ped) and we’ve been going strong for almost two years!
With my first we had some latching issues, but that resolved before we left the hospital. He went on to nurse until 18 months, probably would have went longer family made me wean. With my second she had gi issues and we had to stop nursing at 13 months. My third we had lip tie, tone tie cracked nipples. Seen a IBCLC but she is still going at almost 20 months. Finally my 4th is 2 months no issues and now we are tandem nursing.
I have had issues nursing in public always being covered and going into a dressing room. I finally became an advocate for other nursing moms when I had my third. I’ve had people yell at me and my husband come to my rescue. I now fully nurse in public uncovered, both my 2 month old and my almost 20 month old. We just moved 1100 miles away from home and I’m getting involved with the local LLL…
Still struggling with persistent thrush:-( Also dealing with TT/LT.
Tongue ties-with my 3rd hers caused the most problems. She had 2 revisions and finally around 4 months the pain started going away
For my first, we had a rough start as she was 9 weeks early, so we were exclusively pumping until she was almost 4 months. While pumping oversupply and a fast letdown didnt seem like a big deal – it actually allowed me to pump enough to feed a few other babies as well (Eats4feets!), but it became an issue when i then needed to get my little girl on the breast. We worked through that though (and dairy allergy, thrush, and some other issues) and she nursed right up until my milk changed from being pregnant w number 2.
Our little one is not here yet so I haven’t experienced any difficulties yet.
plugged ducts, mastitis, double staph infections, vasospasm, oversupply, high milk ejection reflex, undersupply, nursing with a cleft lip….
At first i felt like i would never get the hang of it, but i have. I no longer have problems.
I have encountered low milk supply. I’ve even cried praying that I would get more. But I’ve seen a couple lactation nurses and they said that I shouldn’t be worrying so much (because stress can so stop me from producing milk as well) and should be happy that I still give my baby some breast milk which is better than nothing. So here I am still breastfeeding and not giving up because I believe breast milk is liquid gold and a small amount is better than no breast milk. I’m planning to go for about a year. Or maybe two!
I had really bad cracked nipples and the only way to heal it was pumping exclusively on that side for 3 weeks
Having issues with my milk supply.
Latching issues and low milk supply when I returned back to work.
We had mastitis and over active letdown. That combined with a dairy allergy has made nursing life challenging but I wouldn’t trade it.
Going back to work and pumping. After a while I started losing my supply and it was stressful. There were days when I was on the way to the babysitter’s house and pumping trying to get enough for that day. Now that I work from home, I can nurse him whenever he is hungry. Those few months were so stressful.
Supply issue with first, but total sucess so far with #2