Breastfeeding is natural, so that means it’s easy, right?

Learn all about breastfeeding before baby arrives in digital courses from BeauGen

By: Maggie, Content Manager at BeauGen, and mom of Fynn (2 months) and Murphy (fur-baby) 

Hi! I’m Maggie, Content Manager here at BeauGen.  In this post, I’m going to share a very short version of my birth and breastfeeding story.

Moms have been having babies for thousands of years, so feeding those babies should be easy right? For the majority of history we haven’t had the modern advancements of breast pumps, lactation supplements, or formula...so we should be able to feed our babies without additional support right? 

Not Necessarily.

When surveyed, 36% of our customers say that they pump because they cannot nurse. 

This post isn’t intended to scare anybody.  In fact, if you bear with me for a minute, I’ll give you all the help and information you could ever need to breastfeed a healthy baby.  I wanted to share my story with you, and what I learned about this natural bond between mom and child.

I’ll Show You What I Mean With My Breastfeeding Story

When I was pregnant with my first baby, Fynn, I didn’t take the time to prepare.  I didn’t research breastfeeding.  I didn’t look up tips or tricks, solutions to common problems or anything like that.  Truth be told, I was too preoccupied with being pregnant, which is enough for almost any woman.  I knew that there could be road bumps, and that some moms have a tough time with it.  I learned a good bit about pregnancy, and breastmilk, and was continuing to learn every day from the moms  I work with here at BeauGen.  But, in hindsight, I wish that I had taken more time to prepare.

Fynn was born two weeks early.  While I was happy to meet my baby and so glad that he wasn’t any larger than the 8 pounds that he already weighed, I wasn't ready.  Fortunately, we were blessed with two lactation consults during our hospital stay.  We needed help because Fynn wasn’t latching.  These professionals had to teach me how to hand express colostrum and use a syringe to feed him.  My husband would hold Fynn and use his pinky in Fynn’s mouth to stimulate the sucking reflex while I expressed enough to feed him a little bit at a time.  It was total teamwork.  

Then, we progressed to using a nipple shield and that helped him latch, and feed enough to be sent home.  We didn’t know that for the first few days after birth babies lose a bit of weight.  But with proper breastfeeding and a good latch, they put it back on in about a week or so.  

However, after the first week, Fynn wasn’t putting any weight back on.  Three more days and another pediatrician visit, he still wasn’t gaining weight.  We were told to start supplementing with formula.  I felt like I had failed my baby.

Feeling like a Failure

At every pediatrician visit, I was asked if I thought my milk was coming in.  Not having experienced this before, I didn’t really know.  I thought  my milk had come in.  But it turns out, it hadn’t, and I didn’t have enough of a supply to give my baby what he needed.  I tried pumping to increase that supply, but struggled.  For me, hand expressing or using a manual pump with a breast pump cushion are the only things that work.  

So, I turned to even more professionals.  My cousin is a children’s critical care doctor who had thankfully told me while I was pregnant that “Formula is not the F-word”.  So even though I felt like a failure, I was bolstered in knowing that I wasn’t alone.  And of course, I turned to my fellow moms at BeauGen.

Blessed with BeauGen

I’m blessed to work with incredible moms who are on a mission to help every mom in their breastfeeding journey.  Seriously, these ladies are better than a good bra. They support and uplift women across the globe and they’re close to my heart. 

BeauGen defines breastfeeding as simply feeding baby milk from mom.  It doesn’t matter to us whether you are putting your baby to your breast, pumping and using a bottle, or supplementing with formula.  

All we care about is that your baby is getting the incredibly healthy nutrition that is breast milk.  We recognize that there are a host of issues that can inhibit a mom from feeding her baby, or make it more difficult to do so. That’s why our founder designed and created the Original breast Pump Cushion. From there, our team improved upon our original cushion with the Clearly Comfy Cushions, and now, we also educate and empower mamas with easy to follow, self-paced digital courses on breastfeeding and pumping!

The Support I Needed

To help me navigate how to breastfeed my son, I took the Ultimate Breastfeeding Course and now Fynn and I are on solid footing.  This course is packed with information, tips, and visuals that taught me about my body, my baby, and the physical bond between us.  

I wished I had taken this course and known all of this useful information from the beginning.  In taking this course, I learned an incredible amount about my own body and how breastfeeding works, its benefits, and much more.  Most importantly, this course has alleviated so much stress, during a very stressful time for new moms.