New Moms Need an Advocate

On Mother’s Day, I got to spend the day with my mom. We ran a few errands together before we went to the movies. One of the errands we ran was a return to a clothing store. My mom had bought an outfit but when she tried it on, it just didn’t have that wow factor she was hoping for. We pulled up to the store and I could sense her hesitation. I offered to run in the store and make the return for her and she was so relieved! Returns can be emotional when the sales clerk is bratty or you shop there often and they know you, etc. I was happy to take care of this for her and she would’ve absolutely done the same thing for me. What’s interesting is that we have the courage to take care of each other and fight for each other when necessary oftentimes when we don’t have the nerve to stand up for ourselves.

I immediately translated this into a breastfeeding scenario. New moms in the hospital and especially the first few days home after delivery NEED an advocate! These moms need someone to advocate on their behalf when they’re trying to nurse in the first hour and keeping the hospital staff from whisking away the healthy, term infant for a bath and keeps him in the nursery for 4 hrs. It’s too hard to leave everything up to this new mom – this stage is so tender.

Please help your sister, daughter, neice, granddaughter, friend by asking her how you can help her and support her in every way you can while she establishes breastfeeding. My sister was a huge advocate for me with both my hospital stays and my mom found a doula to come to my home when I struggling so much right after I brought my twins home from the hospital.

Be an advocate – have the courage to fight for breastfeeding on behalf of a loved one.

Have an experience where someone was your advocate or where you helped someone else? Leave a comment and let me know!

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