August is World Breastfeeding Month. I didn’t want the month to end without sharing my breastfeeding story with you.

As soon as my baby was born, I marveled at how intuitively she latched on to my nipple. I didn’t immediately produce milk and suckling hurt the first few days but I kept at it, knowing my baby and I just needed to get into it. On the fourth day, Jay and I took our baby in to Children’s Hospital because she looked orange. She had jaundice.

I felt so inadequate. I couldn’t produce milk. My mother convinced me to let the nurses feed my baby formula during her stay in the hospital so I could rest. Walking away from my baby was torture. It was as if someone had cut my limbs off.

My parents took me and Jay to our favorite Indian restaurant for dinner. As soon as I had some raita I felt my nipples spurt. From that moment on I associate raita with breastmilk.

That night, my first night as a mom without my baby, my breasts felt like they would explode. My midwife advised me to hand express milk so that my breasts would keep flowing. Without a baby, my milk would dry up.

The next day I sat in the hospital nursery and fed my baby as often as I could. (She was getting a tan under a bili light.) I was determined to remind my baby not forget my tits. After two nights without her, I finally got to take her home.

From then on, it’s Mama’s milk for the first 3 years of my baby’s life. Yes, three! The kid is superhuman! She’s smart, healthy, and strong. She’ll kick your ass. I mean it.

Breastfeeding my kid as long as I did was one of the best things I’ve ever done. I consider it quite a feat because there were so many obstacles to doing it: disinformation from previous generations’ mothers (my mom and those other 70s moms), the rough road we went through on the first week and condescension from people when I breastfeed around them. Fuck them all! None of that mattered as much as giving my baby this irreplaceable gift that she will have for the rest of her life.

Ladies, Moms-to-be, check La Leche League for information, resources and encouragement. I didn’t join a mom group but I bought the La Leche League book, “The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding,” which is like the Bible of Breastfeeding.

Gentlemen, you can help. Keep your ladies healthy and hydrated. Soups are nutritious and hydrating, always keep drinking water by her side, offer to massage her when she’s taking a break. If you’re into it, you can offer your suckling services too if her milk ducts ever get clogged up. Yes, it will happen once the baby starts eating solid food and throws the boobs off schedule. It happened to me a few times and it hurt like a mother! A steamy shower, hand expressing and a little suckling helps get those milk ducts flowing again.

Breastfeeding is free, always at the perfect temperature, ready on demand and is the best food on the planet. It’s one of the most amazing tricks my body has ever done.

Photos above can be viewed larger at MAYCAM.