By Susanna C.

Editor’s Note: The story in this week’s blog post comes from a 2013 issue of New Beginnings in magazine form. La Leche League News, a bimonthly LLLI publication for members, started in 1958. The name was changed to New Beginnings in 1985. New Beginnings was acquired by La Leche League USA in 2010 and continued to be published as a magazine until 2014, when it was converted to its current weekly blog format at www.lllusa.org/blog/

At the age of sixteen, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects the brain, spinal cord, and nervous system. Symptoms can range from paralysis to losing the ability to control your emotions, vision difficulties, tremors, and more. It took several years after symptoms appeared before I was diagnosed. But as soon as a neurologist made the diagnosis, I was able to control the symptoms with medication. I finished high school, college, and graduate school with minimal difficulty. I thought I could skate through life living with multiple sclerosis.

On February 18, 2010, my life took an entirely different direction when my husband and I welcomed our son. I had always wanted to breastfeed. My mother is a lactation consultant, and I knew I would have the support to make it happen. What I didn’t know is how hard I would have to fight to keep breastfeeding.

After my son was born, I had a major relapse, which means that I was experiencing many symptoms of multiple sclerosis. My symptoms included fatigue, tremors, mobility issues, and double vision at times. Many people, including my family, friends, and medical personnel, told me that maybe it was better if I didn’t breastfeed. They told me that I had carried my son through his first month of life and that was the most important thing.

What they didn’t see was that breastfeeding was saving me. I didn’t have to sleepily stumble to the kitchen in the middle of the night to mix a bottle of formula, then wash the bottle and soothe my son back to sleep. I could simply reach over to the co-sleeper, pick up my son, and nurse him in bed. Nursing always helped him fall back to sleep, and I didn’t have to waste precious energy preparing a bottle.

Throughout the daytime when I was struggling to move around, I knew I could get frequent rest every time my son wanted to breastfeed. I breastfed on demand and always welcomed a break or a cuddle on the couch. When my legs felt like jelly and couldn’t seem to take another step, I knew my son was safe in my arms. When I didn’t have the strength to take him for a walk or to play with him, I knew I was giving him one of the greatest gifts a mother could give her baby: the nutrients of breastmilk. I learned to nurse lying down, and once again I was able to rest while I knew my son was safe and healthy.

I had stopped my medication for the first few months of my son’s life and quickly started to feel worse during that time. My doctors wanted me to take a medication that was not compatible with breastfeeding. When they told me their plans, I burst into tears. I wanted to breastfeed! I loved the cuddle time with my son, the assurance of knowing that I was giving him the best thing possible, and all of the frequent breaks breastfeeding allowed me. I asked my doctor if there were any alternatives to the proposed medication. For a while, I received monthly steroid treatments . When I wanted another medication switch, I took a daily injectable medication that was safe for me to use while breastfeeding.

I would encourage any mother who wants to continue to breastfeed to ask her doctor for other possible medications that are safe for mother and baby. Speak up about how important it is to you to continue to breastfeed. I did, and once my doctors realized how important this was to me, they were more than willing to find a different medication that was compatible with breastfeeding.

I breastfed my son for 18 months and only stopped because it became crucial for me to take a strong medication that wasn’t compatible with breastfeeding. During my time breastfeeding, I attended meetings of a local La Leche League Group for the support and encouragement I needed to continue to breastfeed. I gained friends, had play dates, and always welcomed and found support with the other Group members.

Today, my toddler son is a happy, healthy, and smart little boy. I will always cherish the time I had to breastfeed with him. It was a time where both of us were in tune with one another, and both of us could understand how I was giving him one of the greatest gifts. A lot of love existed between us. That love will always be between us.

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Supporting Breastfeeding Families–Today, Tomorrow, Always

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