Hey, honey! Many of you already know me from my blog but allow me to introduce myself again. I'm Jada and welcome to my blog piece called the Milk Trap all about breastfeeding. I am a ROSE certified and trained breast-feeding peer counselor and currently enrolled to become an IBCLC, YAY!! It's a long road about another year but I'm inspired to make a change in my community. I own a mobile breast-feeding and beyond boob-tïk called Milk + Honey Co. right here in Atlanta Georgia.
Our mission is to enter into communities lacking breastfeeding support and education to increase breast-feeding initiation and duration rates within the African-American community. Our goal is to support 1 million black women through their first YEAR of breastfeeding through an oasis of support, education and affirmation.
The benefits of breast-feeding are so important and it is the key to your baby's first form of nutrition and first form of love and support as a newborn.
Breastfeeding protects against allergies, eczema, causes less stomach upset and diarrhea than formula, reduces the risk of viruses, urinary track infections, digestive issues, ear infections, respiratory infections, reduces the risk of SIDS, protects against diseases such as spinal meningitis diabetes, cancer, makes your baby smarter, lowers the chance of obesity and most importantly creates a bond between you and your baby and teaches you how to mother.
Breastfeeding is LIFE, Mama!!
I always knew that I wanted to breast-feed my kids. I didn't quite understand how difficult it would be until I took a class and learned all the aspects and dynamics, because it is uniquely designed, of breast-feeding and then when I actually had to breast-feed my son, it was the hardest job I'd ever done and it did not go well the first time for me.
I had little support, there weren't many women in my family that did breast-feed and the ones that did they were of maternal age so mostly grandmothers and there was a disconnect there. Even visual representation of women that looked like me in the hospital, on websites or walking around in my every day life I saw very few visuals of black women breast-feeding and this was quite discouraging.
My first son was delivered by C-section which wil take milk about supply about 3 to 5 days for your milk to come in. Mine came in around the third day, so for the first few days I fed him the colostrum I was producing and he received formula from the advice of two white lactation consultants. This lack of diversity is an issue too...that's another story for later.
It was very challenging getting him to latch properly, not knowing if I was producing enough milk l, not knowing if the baby was getting fed enough compiled with reading all the horror stories online it was much easier for me to give in and give him formula.
At three months postpartum I became pregnant again with my second son and the delivery was another C-section but the difference between this time was my nurse and lactation consultant, who happened to be a black woman. My nurse, Easter, was from Senegal she stated. She was so firm when she had to be but gentle when needed. She was determined for me to breast-feed before she was off in "two days" as she like to put it. She checked on me every two hours to make sure that his latching was right he was sucking right and that I was feeling OK. Fifteen 15 later I completed my breast-feeding journey with my second son and I couldn't have been more elated, confident, moremore assured as a mother and full of love because when I look at him I know that I did that, I fed my baby. I created a healthy baby by trusting my body and trusting the process.
Now through my breast-feeding journey it was a little difficult shopping for breast-feeding supplies because most department store staff weren't really knowledgeable about breast-feeding. I always thought there should be a breast-feeding store unbeknownst to that this was God planting a seed. A store that simply supplies all things breast-feeding from classes to support groups, to lactation treats, to mom and pop-ups....anything mommy pop-ups! that has to do with breast-feeding and beyond....thus began Milk + Honey Co.
We are a mobile boob-tïk of all things breastfeeding. Through our company we aim to increase awareness of the importance of breastfeeding duration past six months while simultaneously lowering the rates of black maternal and infant mortality where Georgia has the highest rates in the U.S.
Some of our services include breastfeeding classes, lactation treats, nursing tees, nursing/pumping lounges, employer lactation room design, free monthly support groups and Please visit our website at www.milkandhoneycoatl.com and join the conversation by subscribing to us on YouTube and follow us on Instagram or Facebook!
Come on in and get this T.E.A. Honey!