Reina’s Breastfeeding Story

“So basically for me, being plus sized, breastfeeding was very important to me. I had a whole vision of the pregnancy, and the birth and the breastfeeding.

I work with a lot of pregnant women, so I hear all the stories. I had an idea of what I wanted and I knew pregnancy was probably going to be uncomfortable and emotional and all of those things so I was kind of prepared for that, but I wasn’t prepared for how just humbling it was. Literally the only thing that went the way that I thought it would, and even was a little bit of a challenge, was breastfeeding.

I knew breastfeeding was very tough, I knew that a lot of my clients were very unsupported with breastfeeding and would express that to me. So I knew I needed a lactation consultant. Plus I have very floppy boobies and my nipples are very low and also kind of to the sides. I was like, ‘how am I gonna do this?’

My first meeting with my lactation consultant, she’s like; ‘Don’t worry!’ She totally empowered me and made me feel very prepared. We did the hand expressing for a couple weeks before so we had milk on hand and we were hand expressing at the hospital.

He’s never had formula, we’ve been fully, exclusively breastfeeding the whole time. So it worked out really well. I was really proud of myself.”