Her Story.

Her Bio:

Andrea Herrera, first time mom, living in San Salvador, El Salvador, Central America with her husband Carlos and daughter Victoria.

Her Background:

bmd

Andrea was born in Sal Salvador. Everything is very close.
She grew up going to the beach with her family, which consists of 2 siblings – She has a younger brother and a younger sister. Andrea has a lot of family who lives close and supports her. Both her mom and sister were available to help her after her baby was born.

She always knew she wanted to have a family and being a parent is how she envisioned her life as an adult. She got married and had a very enjoyable life with her husband, friends and family before Victoria was born.

Andrea had a good pregnancy, even though she initially cried. She said that although this is what she wanted, the realization that she was going to be a parent and responsible for someone else really hit her. It was a huge transition for her and the change in lifestyle was a big transition for her.

Her Birth:

Andrea had a vaginal birth without medication. Andrea said that it is common to have your baby in the hospital with a Doctor as your provider. She does not know anyone who had a midwife or gave birth at home or had a doula. She is sure women are having babies at home, however, it is not common at all.

Breastfeeding:

Sugar water and formula is commonly given as a supplement in the hospital. She was separated from her baby shortly after the birth and she did not see her until the next morning. Her baby spent the day with her and went back to the nursery at night. It was during these times that she believes her baby was given sugar water. Andrea states that at the time, it did not occur to her that she could ask to keep her baby with her. She now knows that she can and will ask to have her baby kept with her. Andrea does acknowledge that she did like the rest that she was able to get when her baby was otherwise being taken care of in the nursery. And yet, she now says that the benefits of having her baby with her would far outweigh the need to get more rest.

Breastfeeding in Public:

From what she has observed not only from her family, but also from the women around her, breastfeeding is very common and something most moms just do. It is common for moms to breastfeed in public and it is very normal. Andrea has listened to the show and been quite surprised about the stories that some moms have shared about being told to leave a public place with people telling them they cannot breastfeed their baby there.

Breastfeeding in her home:

She does admit to being a bit embarrassed about family or friends seeing her breasts. So, she just asked them to look up/away for the few seconds it took to latch her baby on. She tried to use covers in the beginning, but she quickly realized how hot and uncomfortable both she and her baby was with the cover. She quickly abandoned this idea.

The early days of breastfeeding:

She thought breastfeeding was going to be fairly easy. And yet, she realized she did not know what she was doing and felt lost in the early days of learning about breastfeeding. She had a good friend who was a breastfeeding mom, explain to her all the details of early breastfeeding. This happened before she had the baby and things were different once her baby was born. The first few days in the hospital, it seemed to be going well.

Once she came home, breastfeeding started to hurt. Her mom tried to be of help but realized that it had been a long time and so she did not know how to help her reduce her pain. Andrea said that she accepted the fact that it would hurt in the beginning and so she just dealt with it. This is what some friends told her – it is normal for breastfeeding to hurt. Other friends told her that it is not suppose to hurt. She now knows different.

Every time Victoria went to feed, she took a deep breath, latched her on, clenched her teeth, closed her eyes and just waited for the pain to diminish. Andrea did not know anyone who she could reach out to for breastfeeding help. When her pediatrician asked her if she was exclusively breastfeeding and Andrea responded by saying: Yes, and my breasts know it. She did not know any groups or breastfeeding specialist to go from help.

Early days of motherhood and its impact:

It is such a change in your life that you have a human being that you have to take care of. She says that she forgot about taking care of herself – New motherhood took over her life and if she was in pain, she just dealt with it, if there was pain, she just dealt with it. She became very sad because she thought : I’m never going to sleep again. I’m in pain. I don’t know what I am doing.

Her husband tried to help as much as he could. However, she did not say too much to him because she felt he just would not understand. One of the things she has learned is that the men are often not asked how they feel. Frequently they feel the same way about some of the things of new parenthood. If parents communicate this to each other, they can better go through it together.

Andrea now realizes that the fact that just because being pregnant, giving birth, breastfeeding and caring for a new baby is a natural thing to do, does not necessarily mean that it comes naturally.

Thoughts on the difficulties of breastfeeding:

Andrea states that it took about 3 months for breastfeeding to be comfortable for her. Before that time, there were certainly times when she thought she would give up. She knew in her heart that she would not give up on breastfeeding, but certainly did think about it.

Andrea shared something interesting about how her mother breastfed. Her mother was taught to breastfeed her baby by feeding on each side for 15 minutes only and then to give the baby formula in a bottle. She felt that the way she was breastfeeding her baby was so much more difficult and

One day she was taking a shower and the pain was so great she just thought she could not continue, but she carried on anyway.

Pressure from providers and others to breastfeed:

Because this is what her doctor said is best for her baby, then she would have to do it. So, even though it was painful and she was struggling, she continued because this is what she was told she needed to do. Even though her doctor was pro breastfeeding, encouraged her to exclusively breastfeed, the doctor still gave her the name of a particular formula to buy, in case she needed to.

Andrea tells us that she realized at a certain point that perhaps her baby was not sleeping at night because she was
hangry” so she offered formula at night. She tried to pump during the day but found this hard and time consuming. So she got into the habit of giving her baby formula.

Between the pain that Andrea had for the first 3 months of breastfeeding, the information about scheduling her baby for 20 minutes only on each breast, she feels that she will reach out for help with her next baby. She deserves to breastfeeding in comfort and enjoy the early days with her baby.

As time went on, Andrea began to get more comfortable with going along with her instincts, if she felt like doing something different than what she was told. You are going to make mistakes, but it will be okay.

Pearls of Wisdom:

Trust that she is doing her best. Follow her instincts and follow your heart. Andrea is becoming better at this.
As she grows into motherhood, she realizes there is a learning curve and she becomes more confident.