By Jenny C.
Editor’s note: New Beginnings is celebrating Latinx Breastfeeding Week from September 8-14. This year’s theme is: Territory of the Heart / Breastfeeding Without Borders. You can find more information about events for this week here. #LatinoBFWeek #LactanciaSinFronteras #BreastfeedingWithoutBorders
Santiago is my first baby. I have dreamt of being a mom all my life and am still nursing him now that he is a toddler. I knew about all the benefits of breastfeeding and was really hoping to breastfeed. However, a lot of people I know who had babies before me were not successful. To help reduce my anxiety, I spent time during my pregnancy doing a lot of work with my therapist to remove any attachment to outcomes of my birth and feeding journey. This helped to bring me some peace.
My grandmothers breastfed all their babies back home in El Salvador. One of my grandmothers had ten children, and the other one had six. Still, I was discouraged by the reality that the generations following them haven’t had any success with their breastfeeding journey. My mom and most of my aunts did not breastfeed at all, and most of us were strictly formula-fed. The same trend has followed with cousins and close friends. Even with this generational gap, I knew that if my grandmothers did it, I could do it, too.
My partner, Jose, is my biggest supporter. When our son was born and had a short NICU stay, I had to pump to make sure my milk came in. We would jokingly say we were hunting for milk for our baby when it was time to pump. I would hand express, and Jose would make sure to catch every single drop. My partner has motivated me on the days that nursing was overwhelming, has held me when I’ve cried on the difficult days, and has always reminded me I’m doing magical work!
In our community, when you’re pregnant or have a newborn baby, everyone makes sure to tell you at least twice that you’d better be breastfeeding because it’s best for the baby and will congratulate you if things are going well in that department! But when that baby becomes a toddler, the same sentiment doesn’t apply. Now that my son is two-and-a-half and still breastfeeding on demand, I get more questions about when I’ll wean him and unsolicited suggestions on how to wean him. Unfortunately, I’ve even had family members tell my son, “Ew! No more nursing for you; you’re big now!” I’ve had people make suggestions to put hot sauce on my breast and been told I need to just cut him off. I’ve even had another mom ask me if I was nursing for me and not my son. Despite this discouragement, we will wean when the time is right for us.
Starting solids was a great way to introduce my son to the cultural foods we love. We started solids when Santiago was seven months old, which according to my family was too late. I know my mom wanted me to start offering at four months old, because we culturally start food young. “Even just a little bit of refried beans on your finger,” she would say. But I knew that recommendations had changed to waiting until at least six months and showing all signs of readiness; so, it was important for me to wait. We skipped puréed food completely and started with chicken, rice, beans, avocado, sweet potatoes, and cucumbers, to name a few. It was important for me to immerse my son in everything about our culture, and food was no exception! We made sure to let him try everything that was typical. He had tamales, pupusas, tortillas, soups, and more. Once he was a year old, I started to incorporate our traditional Salvadorian cheese and sour cream.
When my son wants to nurse, he’ll ask for “teta”. I speak both Spanish and English, but my partner Jose didn’t learn Spanish growing up. Santiago is a bilingual kid in the making! Right now, he’s speaking about 95% Spanish and 5% English.
Santiago nurses to sleep and on demand. His solid food intake didn’t increase reliably until about the eighteen month mark, but breastmilk filled in all those gaps for him. I learned that breastfeeding isn’t just about nutrition. Our babies breastfeed for a multitude of reasons, and it’s important for me to continue to provide nursing for Santiago as long as he feels he needs it. Having a secure emotional attachment is one of the pillars of motherhood for me. Plus it’s a beautiful way to connect with Santiago and unplug from the real world. In those moments, it’s just he and I! As Santiago gets older, our breastfeeding relationship has become more enjoyable. When he was a newborn, I was too worried about if I was enough, worried about if he was gaining weight, and he didn’t like to breastfeed unless he was home; so, the anxiety of all that felt very heavy in the first year.
Semana de la Lactancia Latina is a meaningful week for me. Breastfeeding seems like a lost art, and I feel that this is a way we reclaim it in our culture. Our abuelitas back in our countries breastfed and had way more community support. When our moms immigrated in search of a better life for us, they made a lot of sacrifices. I believe generational breastfeeding rates were negatively affected in our communities. It takes time to establish your supply, it takes time to learn how to breastfeed, and, in their new homes, they didn’t have the time or support to breastfeed. Moms had to go to work. When many immigrant women came to this country and started giving birth here in the US, they believed formula was better for their babies. Since they had to go back to work, they did what they thought was going to help them survive. It’s important that we honor them and their sacrifices and continue to remind anyone who wants to breastfeed that they can do it with the right support and that they’re not alone. There are laws to protect our rights as breastfeeding mothers, and there’s help out there in our language. When we breastfeed, we normalize it, and we can encourage others in our community to do so as well!
Send your stories to Kylie at [email protected]
Supporting Breastfeeding Families–Today, Tomorrow, Always
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Your gift helps support this blog and the website!
Donations of any amount are gratefully accepted. Thank you!
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Posted: September 9, 2025 by Yael Breimer
Celebrating Semana de la Lactancia Latina: Jenny’s Story
By Jenny C.
Editor’s note: New Beginnings is celebrating Latinx Breastfeeding Week from September 8-14. This year’s theme is: Territory of the Heart / Breastfeeding Without Borders. You can find more information about events for this week here. #LatinoBFWeek #LactanciaSinFronteras #BreastfeedingWithoutBorders
My grandmothers breastfed all their babies back home in El Salvador. One of my grandmothers had ten children, and the other one had six. Still, I was discouraged by the reality that the generations following them haven’t had any success with their breastfeeding journey. My mom and most of my aunts did not breastfeed at all, and most of us were strictly formula-fed. The same trend has followed with cousins and close friends. Even with this generational gap, I knew that if my grandmothers did it, I could do it, too.
My partner, Jose, is my biggest supporter. When our son was born and had a short NICU stay, I had to pump to make sure my milk came in. We would jokingly say we were hunting for milk for our baby when it was time to pump. I would hand express, and Jose would make sure to catch every single drop. My partner has motivated me on the days that nursing was overwhelming, has held me when I’ve cried on the difficult days, and has always reminded me I’m doing magical work!
In our community, when you’re pregnant or have a newborn baby, everyone makes sure to tell you at least twice that you’d better be breastfeeding because it’s best for the baby and will congratulate you if things are going well in that department! But when that baby becomes a toddler, the same sentiment doesn’t apply. Now that my son is two-and-a-half and still breastfeeding on demand, I get more questions about when I’ll wean him and unsolicited suggestions on how to wean him. Unfortunately, I’ve even had family members tell my son, “Ew! No more nursing for you; you’re big now!” I’ve had people make suggestions to put hot sauce on my breast and been told I need to just cut him off. I’ve even had another mom ask me if I was nursing for me and not my son. Despite this discouragement, we will wean when the time is right for us.
Starting solids was a great way to introduce my son to the cultural foods we love. We started solids when Santiago was seven months old, which according to my family was too late. I know my mom wanted me to start offering at four months old, because we culturally start food young. “Even just a little bit of refried beans on your finger,” she would say. But I knew that recommendations had changed to waiting until at least six months and showing all signs of readiness; so, it was important for me to wait. We skipped puréed food completely and started with chicken, rice, beans, avocado, sweet potatoes, and cucumbers, to name a few. It was important for me to immerse my son in everything about our culture, and food was no exception! We made sure to let him try everything that was typical. He had tamales, pupusas, tortillas, soups, and more. Once he was a year old, I started to incorporate our traditional Salvadorian cheese and sour cream.
When my son wants to nurse, he’ll ask for “teta”. I speak both Spanish and English, but my partner Jose didn’t learn Spanish growing up. Santiago is a bilingual kid in the making! Right now, he’s speaking about 95% Spanish and 5% English.
Santiago nurses to sleep and on demand. His solid food intake didn’t increase reliably until about the eighteen month mark, but breastmilk filled in all those gaps for him. I learned that breastfeeding isn’t just about nutrition. Our babies breastfeed for a multitude of reasons, and it’s important for me to continue to provide nursing for Santiago as long as he feels he needs it. Having a secure emotional attachment is one of the pillars of motherhood for me. Plus it’s a beautiful way to connect with Santiago and unplug from the real world. In those moments, it’s just he and I! As Santiago gets older, our breastfeeding relationship has become more enjoyable. When he was a newborn, I was too worried about if I was enough, worried about if he was gaining weight, and he didn’t like to breastfeed unless he was home; so, the anxiety of all that felt very heavy in the first year.
Semana de la Lactancia Latina is a meaningful week for me. Breastfeeding seems like a lost art, and I feel that this is a way we reclaim it in our culture. Our abuelitas back in our countries breastfed and had way more community support. When our moms immigrated in search of a better life for us, they made a lot of sacrifices. I believe generational breastfeeding rates were negatively affected in our communities. It takes time to establish your supply, it takes time to learn how to breastfeed, and, in their new homes, they didn’t have the time or support to breastfeed. Moms had to go to work. When many immigrant women came to this country and started giving birth here in the US, they believed formula was better for their babies. Since they had to go back to work, they did what they thought was going to help them survive. It’s important that we honor them and their sacrifices and continue to remind anyone who wants to breastfeed that they can do it with the right support and that they’re not alone. There are laws to protect our rights as breastfeeding mothers, and there’s help out there in our language. When we breastfeed, we normalize it, and we can encourage others in our community to do so as well!
Send your stories to Kylie at [email protected]
Supporting Breastfeeding Families–Today, Tomorrow, Always
Please consider donating to La Leche League USA.
Your gift helps support this blog and the website!
Donations of any amount are gratefully accepted. Thank you!
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