Alison’s journey through birth and breastfeeding was marked by resilience and adaptation. Initially unprepared, she faced painful breastfeeding struggles, complications during her first home birth, and a hospital readmission due to her baby’s weight loss. Diagnosed with insufficient breast tissue, she turned to donor milk, aligning with her ethical vegan beliefs. For her second child, she chose an empowering freebirth and successfully supplemented her milk supply with donor milk. In this interview, Alison highlights the power of community, informed choices, and perseverance, encouraging new mothers to seek support and reminding them that challenges are temporary.
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In my work with the children, I think, I felt like I knew a lot about motherhood, but No, I didn’t, and I think I just assumed breastfeeding would be easy. My sister had had children about 10 years before I did, but her breastfeeding journey was really easy, and I hadn’t had any people around me that had had difficult journeys, so I just assumed it would be, you know, easy peasy, breastfeeding, and So yeah, I think I was just quite naive, really, and I think that They don’t want to promote that this, that people find it difficult because they don’t want to put you off...read more