Mothers have expressed that they have received immense benefit through this group’s skilled hand holding. L, a mother, shares her journey in these words:
“I’m a first-time mother of a girl child who is now 14 months of age. I had zero knowledge on breastfeeding and I was assuming that it is a natural process and breastfeeding will be smooth. I was told to join the breastfeeding and pumping page by my lactation consultant. There started my learning on this liquid gold. My phase of journey was amazing from the time of birth. My baby latched very well and didn’t give me any difficulty. After a few weeks after discharge from the hospital, I had trouble in making her latch and my baby would cry her lungs out due to hunger. During those days, I started hand expressing the milk and gave it to her in a spoon. But I did not give up breastfeeding and continued to put her on the breast once her immediate hunger reduced. The continuous help from Hannah Grace helped me and there was good improvement and progress. She reached her milestones and grew up well. In her eleventh month when I resumed, I stopped breastfeeding and my breast got engorged and I had a fever and pain. Without a helpful work environment, I took medical intervention to reduce the breast milk supply. I was unhappy with stopping my breastfeeding. With the guidance from Ms. Hannah Grace, I ensured that I hand express whenever possible with little success. After a few days, all of a sudden, she latched by herself and demanded to feed. I felt like I was reborn at that moment. I slowly put her to feed more often. The relactation page group gave me confidence; I am once again rebuilding my breastfeeding journey and regularly feeding the baby with adequate supply. I was so thankful to Hannah, my angel, the FB page and moderators. I am now hopeful to continue the journey at least till her second birthday. I request all mothers to be confident, patient and have perseverance in this awesome phase of life”.
The Breastfeeding and Pumping Support INDIA team have great plans to make this digital platform a robust platform for providing support to mothers in the comfort of their homes and convenience of their time. Through an individualized support package, those requiring support are guided and handheld to deal with the challenges faced in their life circumstances during motherhood. The focus is on the first 1000 days of the baby, the time spanning roughly between conception and one’s second birthday. This is an unique period of opportunity when the foundations of optimum health, growth, and neurodevelopment across the lifespan are established. Providing support during this critical window has the potential to exert maximum growth and correction of nutritional deficits; an intervention that singularly has been estimated to have the power to increase the world’s intelligence quotient by 10 points. The first 1,000 days are characterized by rapid rates of neuronal proliferation (cell numbers), growth and differentiation (complexity), myelination, and synaptogenesis (connectivity). We, as members of the Breastfeeding and Pumping Support Group, intend to support mothers to harbor the greatest opportunity to provide optimal nutrition and behavioral support to ensure normal development and also the time of greatest brain vulnerability to any nutrient deficit.
