The First Time Mum

Like most stories I thought it best to start at the beginning. Or at least near the beginning.

I was extremely lucky the whole way through my pregnancy. Peggy was planned but crikey, there was no messing around. I was very fortunate that it didn’t take long at all to get pregnant and once she had decided to pop out, there was no stopping her. She was out within 47 minutes of walking through the hospital door!

I was looked after by amazing midwives in Oamaru, I really cannot thank them enough. However, everyone kept telling me that being my first child she would likely be overdue, and the birth would take a while. In reality this was not the case; she was 12 days early and came very quick!

No matter how many questions I asked, you really don’t know the right questions to ask because you have no idea what to expect. When do your waters break? How long does it take? How long after this does she come out? How will I know when to go to hospital? The questions are endless. Unfortunately, though, everyone is different so there is no one answer.

Leading up to the birth there is lots of chat around the birth itself, not a lot about what happens after. The one question I was asked though was – “Would you like to breastfeed?”. My answer was yes. I have now learnt that sadly it is really not that simple. It is not as black and white as Yes or No. The response I would give now would be ‘”Yes, but what are the options if I can’t?”.

I spent two days and two nights in the Oamaru maternity unit. Here we spent hours trying to get Peggy to latch properly. I had help from a lactation consultant called Sarah. Initially I was worried that she would want Peggy to breastfeed, because that’s her job right? But she was the first person that asked me “Have you thought about pumping and feeding her through a bottle?”. I will be forever grateful for her. If we hadn’t have gone down this route, I think I would have completely given up and Peggy would be on formula. Which also, there is absolutely nothing wrong with, I must add!

So here we have it. The beginning. What I have learnt most and what I would love everyone to know is that no matter what friends, family, midwives, Drs or your Instagram feed tells you, you do you. Even now when I’m feeding Peggy through a bottle, I feel like I have to justify why to people and always end up saying “Oh she didn’t like the boob, so she’s still drinking my milk, but through a bottle”. Why do I do this?! We are so bad at judging each other but there really is no right or wrong answer.