Amanda’s Breastfeeding Story

“My first child, I had when I was 22. I just decided I was going to breastfeed him and I didn’t really think about the fact that maybe it wouldn’t work. I was really lucky that he latched well and it just sort of flowed. I breastfed him just for a year because I think that’s what I was told, you breastfeed him for the first year and then it was like, okay [stop].

And then my daughter, I had four and a half years later. At the time, it was just me and her and my son because I wasn’t with their dad anymore. I wasn’t in a rush to stop, so I kept nursing her and then around the age of two I was getting people telling me to stop. I felt a bit self-conscious about it, I wouldn’t nurse her in public and I was sort of secretive about it because I felt ashamed.

And then we went through some tough times and it just seemed natural to continue because we had all these other big changes going on. I didn’t want to stop something that was giving her comfort.

10 years later, I met somebody new and I had Branok. I knew I was going to breastfeed again and I went into it being like, ‘We’re just gonna see where it takes us’ and then that just kind of continued and continued.

I felt a lot less self-conscious about it with Branok. I don’t know if it’s because I’m older or maybe people are a bit more outspoken about extended breastfeeding. So I just continued on and was still breastfeeding when I was pregnant with Iver.

I thought, ‘Well, we’ll see what happens when the new baby comes.’ I didn’t want to stop breastfeeding just because there’s a new baby. It’s his comfort, you know.

I was really worried about tandem breastfeeding just because I was worried about how it was going to be trying to share. Already, breastfeeding one child could be quite a big job. So I was worried that two was going to be too much. But I like it a lot, it just feels right.”