Willpower & Perseverance: Breastfeeding Journey
Dia Jadwani is a practising Certified Lactation Counsellor (LC), in Ahmedabad (India). She is an Electronics and Communication engineer with a Masters degree in Engineering Business Management from Warwick University, United Kingdom (U.K). While in London, she also got the opportunity to work for a year at the International Digital Lab. Dia married in 2010 and switched jobs from being a homemaker to a manager at her husband’s hotel. She was a visiting lecturer at the IIPM University before turning into a full-time mom. At present, she’s content with her new designation; a full time mommy and a part time LC. Read Dia Jadwani’s journey to know how her willpower and perseverance kept her going. 1. Dia, although you had a great start to your breastfeeding journey, the bumps were just around the corner. My breastfeeding journey began on 26th June 2014. The start was actually miraculously easy. My baby latched on to me beautifully with very little help of a loving nurse at the hospital. The hospital (doctors and staff) appeared to be supportive of breastfeeding. Well, they even had a box of formula ready to feed the baby. They emphasized on how it was normal to give the baby formula in the first two days post-delivery. The hospital completely lacked the means to counsel a new mother. They told me that it would take few days for the milk to come in. There was nobody to teach me how to latch and its importance in the following days. I was unaware of what to expect in the coming days. I clearly remember how scared I was to leave the hospital with a new-born. Although, she latched on well, I was still scared. I did not know what I was supposed to do or what was expected of me as a mother! Very soon, we met with our line of hurdles; severe engorgement on the third day to De Quervain disease, baby blues (mild postpartum depression (PPD)) and mastitis at 18 months. I could not even lift my baby when I was suffering from De Quervain. It felt like I had seen it all. I was a naïve mother with no knowledge of anything related to breastfeeding as I didn’t read much. The only thing I knew was that I had to breastfeed my daughter for the first six months. My mother and cousin (brother) asked me to do so. And I did it. I live in a nuclear set up and that kind of helped me take decisions without any outside interference. 2. That sounds really rough. How did you motivate yourself to keep going? I struggled due to lack of sleep during growth spurts. I would be up from 1-5 am just nursing, but I wouldn’t budge. And I exclusively breastfed her for six months. Then came the unwanted advice by well-meaning friends and adults to wean her off breast milk by around the tenth month. I even bought formula (1 kg pack) to introduce at 8 months, which eventually got dumped. Something didn’t feel right so I began educating myself about breastfeeding. I started reading and even posted my queries in various Facebook support groups. That led me to a wonderful group, “Breastfeeding support for Indian Mothers (BSIM)”. I got answers to my queries by asking and by reading several posts in the group. I realised so many mothers are nursing their 2 and 3 year olds. It motivated me to go beyond the stipulated breastfeeding timeline made by our society. BSIM changed everything for me in a positive way. It helped me breastfeed my daughter much longer than I had anticipated and I even found a career in it. It is very rarely that we come across a mother who has not been subjected to weaning advice. Do you fall in the rare group? There were so many people coming in with unsolicited advice that it was becoming difficult to function. I was bombarded with several myths. Eat more ghee and drink more milk to make more milk! Nurse only after an interval of 2 hours else it would cause gas to the baby. I wasn’t allowed to nurse after washing my hair. Basically they just wanted to let the baby cry I guess! If the baby demanded milk frequently or fed for a longer duration I was told that I wasn’t making enough. Looking back, I realised that people love to make a new mother’s life difficult instead of providing actual support. The one myth that affected me the most was feeding at intervals, an advice given by the paediatrician. I believed the doctor as Vihaana (my daughter) was already a colicky baby. I still remember putting her through a difficult time where she would cry and I would watch the clock. My mother had to drive some sense into me when my brain had actually stopped functioning. She reasoned with me and asked.“If you do not feed her then how exactly are you planning to make her quiet? Do you want to start formula? Does your doctor know how to stop a hungry baby from crying when all other methods are exhausted?” That struck a bell! From then, it was only nursing on demand even if it meant just after a gap of 15 minutes. And that was the last time I ever took advice from a paediatrician about breastfeeding. I just followed my instinct as I understood that there was nothing better available than a mother’s own milk. 3. Tell us a little more about the obstacles you faced during breastfeeding. The initial months were based on gut instincts and no support. And I admit, I made mistakes along the way. As most new mothers, I doubted my supply when my daughter nursed like a new born through growth spurts. I dint even know this term back then and ended up having supplements to boost my supply. Religious intake of the supplements for a month led to engorgement and plugged ducts due to oversupply. I
