In celebration of “World Breastfeeding Week” starting next Monday August 7th, Daniela Ruah (a mama of two), wrote an intimate story about her breastfeeding, bottle feeding and baby feeding journey called “Go With the Flow”, now posted in the “Mama Love” section on Your Zen Mama.

I make the words of Sarah Wright Olsen my own and give thanks to you Daniela, for being so open and sharing a story I’m sure will resonate with so many mamas. You can read the whole article HERE.

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Before we got pregnant the first time I knew what I wanted pregnancy to be like. I imagined how I wanted to give birth and how I would breastfeed for at least a year. No, I’m not a control freak. I was just deeply unaware that things don’t happen the way they do in movies. Nature made the decisions and all I could do was go with the flow (not an easy task).

My husband proposed on a Dec 31st and our son River was born a year later. My water broke at 37 weeks and I was given Pitocin to induce the contractions I wasn’t having. After 19hrs of labor, our first love was finally in our arms! It took a few days for breastfeeding to become second nature to us, but once it happened it was a breeze. All I had to do was squish my boob into the “shape of a taco” and pull my little guy’s face into it. Or hold him like a football, as they say. Simple right? It was an incredible sensation that I thought would last for as long as we wanted. Wrong.

When River was 5 months old I married David, (I still smile at the memories). Around that time, my milk supply began to drop and we had no choice but to supplement with formula. I was so sad that I wasn’t his primary source of nutrition anymore. Also, the idea of feeding him processed milk broke my heart, so I researched for days until I found the “cleanest” organic formula on the market. I had also read that a baby’s taste for different foods stemmed from breast milk, so I became paranoid that my kid wouldn’t accept a varied diet in the future.

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