Wherever you are in your feeding journey right now,
someone is there with you.
The mother breastfeeding beside you at your antenatal group. Maybe she’s making it look easy, but it hasn’t been easy for her.
It took a lot of learning, patience and dedication to get to where they are right now. She’s up and down all night, sometimes she doesn’t leave the couch, she’s tired and touched out, but she wouldn’t change it. They made it together.
It isn’t easy.
The mother pulling out her formula dispenser across from you at the doctors while her baby fusses. She’s been busy sterilizing bottles, trying different formulas that work for her baby. Maybe she is battling a feeding journey that didn’t go to plan, maybe she’s grieving it, maybe she isn’t. Maybe she’s back at work expressing at every interval, the tiresome drone of the pump ringing in her ears at night.
It isn’t easy.
The mother coming towards you with her trolley, pulling out never ending snacks from the nappy bag just so she can get through one shop in peace. Maybe it’s homemade, maybe it’s covered in a shiny plastic wrapper. It doesn’t matter, because they’re throwing it on the aisle floor and pointing to something on the shelves anyway.
It isn’t easy.
The mother battling mastitis.
The mother who mix feeds.
The mother who is tandem feeding.
The mother who is weaning.
The mother who is flying spoons into their baby’s mouth.
The mother who is hunched over a chopping board cutting up vegetables, knowing her kids will probably refuse them for the umpteenth night in a row, (where I am currently).
But I have been a few of these mothers.
And there are so many more.
We all want our baby’s belly to be full.
We all want them to thrive.
We all want to celebrate them.
So we all need to celebrate each other.
Because it isn’t always easy, but each journey is beautiful.
And someone is there with you right now, at this very moment doing her best.
Remembering that makes it a little easier.
~
@jessurlichs_writer shop the poetry collection here
Art: @joolsannie