Breastfeeding

Beyond The Willow Tree- My Breast Milk Pendant

I love jewellery. Rings, bracelets, bangles, earrings (though I rarely wear them)- you name it. It’s not an occasion without it and I wear it every day. I’ve worn a nose ring for over a decade and even purchased a diamond nose stud for my wedding.

Lots of my jewellery holds special meaning. Pieces that belonged to my mum and grandmothers, pieces given to me by others no longer with us, pieces from friends and family and my husband. I even have an old necklace given to me by a boyfriend I had when I was 15- more than half a lifetime ago now. Each piece holds a memory. So when I first saw Melanie’s work at Beyond The Willow Tree, I was intrigued.

She makes jewellery out of breast milk. And baby hair. And placenta. And umbilical cord. Even from the ashes of our loved ones.

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My pendant

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Breastfeeding, Guest Post

Guest Post- Breastmilk is the BEST Milk!

Nyssa Jewell’s story had a difficult start but almost two years in and it hasn’t ended yet!

I remember sitting on the couch with my baby in my arms, staring down at my Australian Breastfeeding Association book ‘Breastfeeding…Naturally’ and thinking “Yeah right. Give me some F!@#ing answers!” and wishing that book had a different title because it was all a lie.

My son was born via Caesarean section at 38+5 weeks due to breech presentation. He was born on a very busy day at the hospital and so he could not stay with me in recovery due to a lack of staff, instead he had skin-to-skin time with my husband in my room upstairs.

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Breastfeeding

Guest Post- This Cherub Fed Like a Champ

Kerry and Angus had a great breastfeeding experience from the start…

I guess you could say I was one of the lucky ones; the cherub attached easily after being born and fed like a little champ. In fact, he was back to his birth weight in only two days!

I was relieved and pretty excited. I had plenty of support in hubby and friends and online mummies groups. I felt like that if it did get difficult at any stage I had all the right support to try and power through any issues, but there weren’t any, woohoo!

What was difficult, was expressing to have stores for a night out or so hubby could feed him. God that was a chore! As much milk as I had in those boobs it just wanted to come out via natural suction I guess, expressing took me forever and I hated it. I persisted mostly just to give hubby that bonding time and me the occasional break, which is important, I think. Well, important for me

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