Hi, everyone! I saw that tash posted her story in hopes of helping someone else, and I thought that was a great idea. My story is a bit different than a bfar story, but not too much when it comes down to the results and how to cope with it.

I am not bfar, but I have insufficient breast tissue. This affects an extremely small percentage of women. My mother and sister also have this, and to have it run in a family is even more rare. Our breasts are all small, and a bit strangely shaped, but nothing drastic enough to be an obvious sign of ibt.

For years I had many people tell me that I could bf if I only did this or that or tried harder, etc. But nobody was in my shoes; nobody could sit there with me from my perspective, with my baby on the breast, and KNOW that baby wasn't getting enough milk. Nobody seemed to hear me when I said there were no dirty diapers, when the wet ones were yellow, when the baby was up fussing all night because baby was hungry. Even the LCs were totally baffled and thought I was doing something wrong somehow. One LC sort of brushed it off as if she was afraid to suggest ibt, even though in hindsight I think she suspected it. Every baby I tried something new, something else I heard of that would help build supply, and every pregnancy I made LESS milk (probably from all the stressing out).

Anyway, I know you all have similar experiences for different reasons, and when I found the bfar forum and was accepted to join, I was so encouraged! I mean, how many times I had to sort of shame-facedly explain what the SNS was and why I was using it, to the response of "if you only tried harder you would make more milk, etc"
I want to say that while I agree that bfing should be strongly encouraged, I also wish someone had known more about my situation and that it's indeed possible. I dont' mean the average joe; I mean the LCs that tried to help. That's why I'm sharing my story.

This will be the first baby I have (number six!) with whom that I am NOT trying to believe that somehow I will make enough milk to not need to supplement. I'm accepting the way things are, and they won't change that much unless the Lord heals me miraculously (which I'm totally open to, btw!). I am hoping that post partum and bfing will finally be somewhat of a happy experience, though I'm not dumb enough to think that the supply issue won't bug me at least a little bit.

I'm really glad for the forum. I've been greatly encouraged to see the long periods of time you ladies stick with the SNS. I would get so fed up with it, and it became a symbol of my inadequacy, so I would switch to bottles by four months. But now I want to bf long-term with the SNS for many reasons, one being that I want my children to grow up seeing bfing as a normal and good thing, and I want my girls to know that if they have problems, there is a way to cope that is a blessing for everyone; it's not like years past when bottles were the only option.

thanks for reading!
Yvonda

I hope a lot of LCs see this and then if they run into it they won't be as baffled as yours were.

I really like SNSs because I can still say that my daughter never had a bottle, just like the people I know who can supply 100% milk can say.