29: Birthing to breastfeed (and tandemfeed!) with Beau Wilson, Midwife & Childbirth Educator

Labour and deliver impact breastfeeding - and Beau Wilson is here to share all about it.

Whether you are pregnant with your first, or planning for your third, this episode will leave you inspired & empowered.

Learn about how you can set yourself up for success in both your birthing & breastfeeding, regardless of the external factors that you encounter - and how the power of your intuition can guide you.

 About Beau:
Beau is a passionate Australian midwife with over a decade of experience in guiding and supporting women and their families through the transformative journey of childbirth. As a mother herself, she understands the profound significance of this momentous life event and is driven by her mission to empower women with the education and tools they need to approach birth and parenthood with confidence and informed decision-making. Whilst not initially planned, she is still breastfeeding her daughter 4.5 years on. She knew that during the pandemic, the single-most valuable thing she could do for her daughter's health is to continue to breastfeed. Extended breastfeeding has afforded her daughter ongoing emotional comfort and immune support while promoting a sense of security and emotional wellbeing.


You can read more about Beau's work at www.birthtobaby.com.au or follow her on Instagram @birthtobabyaus

Want to learn more from me?
Watch my free, instant access workshop: 
Designing Your Pathway to Toddler Breastfeeding Mastery

Grab your free guide to say "No" to the feed while still saying "yes" to the need at  www.ownyourparentingstory.com/guide

Love this episode?!  Shoot me a DM over on Instagram @own.your.parenting.story and tell me all about it. <3

Transcript

Transcript is auto-generated. 

Jenna: It is such a pleasure to be interviewing you today, Beau. I love your background in midwifery and your professional experience there, as well as your personal experience with, you know, quote, extended breastfeeding. So I would just love to start out with you sharing how you got into midwifery. And I'd also love to hear, your breastfeeding story too. 

Jenna: So let's start with the midwifery and then we'll kind of move into your breastfeeding story, if that sounds good for you. 

Beau: Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on. I would say and this actually ties into both of those questions, but I would say my, my upbringing definitely has influenced my interest in midwifery.

Beau: And also my breastfeeding experience a lot. So I was brought up in a very small town in Australia and I guess I'll mention the name is Byron Bay and whenever people hear about Byron Bay, it's a very I guess, naturally minded community of people. And breastfeeding was like a very, very, very normal Thing to see and do around me as a child growing up.

Beau: And so through that, you know, growing up in, in that area it was very common for women to have home births with a midwife, you know, coming to the home to care for the woman. And I was sort of exposed to that, a midwifery role through my younger brother and sister being born. And I just was, you know, quite amazed by this beautiful role of the midwife.

Beau: You know, being able to look after the family and provide, you know, holistic care and support, you know, really across the continuum in pregnancy, labor, and birth, and you know, the postpartum period as well. So I grew a love for midwifery when I was. Quite young. I didn't go into my studies straight away after finishing school.

Beau: I wanted to travel a bit and sort of just broaden my life experience, I guess. And then I finally went into study in my mid twenties. Yeah. 

Jenna: I love that is so beautiful.

Jenna: Could you share a little about your breastfeeding experience then with, with your little one? 

Beau: Yeah, so my daughter's four and a half now. I planned a home birth with her, but things changed a little bit. I was in labor for, you know, four days. And I ended up transferring to hospital and I, things were a little bit complex, but all, you know, turned out quite well.

Beau: Being a midwife you know, my biggest priority was having her skin to skin after birth, you know, that uninterrupted, undisturbed time in that first, you know, two to three hours after birth. And I got that and it was, you know, the most amazing experience and definitely something I always, you know, share with women who I support, you know, how important that experience is, especially to set off the breastfeeding experience.

Beau: And so our breastfeeding journey got off to a really smooth start. She latched like I would say, within five minutes of being born without much effort. On my part and mostly had really a very positive experience. And I would say like the, a big reason or two big reasons for that would be, one is my education in breastfeeding as a midwife.

Beau: I think not, not to say that you need to be a midwife to to understand. How breastfeeding works and to have a, a successful experience. But I really do stress to especially new moms who have never breastfed before, that understanding the physiology of the body and, and lactation and understanding how it works will.

Beau: You know, almost always get you off to a really positive start and also know when to, you know, seek help as well. So I think that definitely influenced my journey. And also I. Just that, yeah, how I was brought up. Just that breastfeeding was just such a normal experience. It's just something you do and you get on with, and I, you know, really clearly remember women around me as a child breastfeeding.

Beau: I remember my breastfeeding experience with my mum and it was just something, you know, very positive and something really cherished, I guess. So those two things. Definitely influenced my journey to be a really positive one. Yeah, and also I would say, you know, having some really good support from my partner as well.

Beau: Yeah. And we, and we know that in the research that if you have a supportive partner or or family around you that you'll ha, you know, likely ha have a really positive breastfeeding experience. So all of those things made a world of difference. 

Jenna: I, I know the research. So often shows that the more education you have and the more support you have, the better your experience goes.

Jenna: And I think that that's really important. I, what I love about your story is even though that was your first breastfeeding experience, I think that that kind of parallels a lot of moms with actually, with like tandem feeding, where the first experience might be really difficult because they don't.

Jenna: Have necessarily the education or the information and the support. Maybe not because their partner doesn't want them to, or I mean that could be the case, but often because they just don't know how to access the support or when to reach out for the support. So then the second time around, they have more education.

Jenna: They can get those resources faster. And I think that that, like it didn't occur to me until you were just talking, but that is like a really important piece to highlight I think for. People who are currently breastfeeding a toddler and considering getting pregnant or are already pregnant and are really for lack of a better word, traumatized by the early breastfeeding experience with their first and worry that they, they need to Wean because what, like, it's, it's so difficult in the beginning.

Jenna: That's kind of like the narrative that they have in their mind, right? Like, it's so difficult. But what I love what you're sharing here is that that education, And support can make it just a world of a difference that second time around. And I know that it wasn't the second time around for you, it was the first time around, but I think that that just really highlights, highlights that experience too.

Jenna: 'cause I think we, I, I guess I. We just have this narrative in our head that it's difficult or that it has to be difficult, that it always is that way and that's not, that doesn't have to be the case. Right. So I also just love when you said that you prioritize skin to skin. 'cause I had a C-section actually with my second and I had a midwife in the OR with me, and I was like advocating for myself with the anesthesiologist.

Jenna: I'm like, Put those sensors, like put everything away from my chest. I was like, that's where he is gonna be right away. And we were breastfeeding in the, like, in the operating room. 'cause I was, yeah, that was so, so important for me. And I love, I love that you kind of shared how you prioritize that too.

Jenna: Even when your plans, like when things didn't go quite as, as you planned. 

Beau: Yeah, absolutely. And that, now actually I do a lot of work with couples either first time parents, but also second or third time parents, but who, like you say, are doing things quite differently this time. And this is why I, I I now, I'm not working in, in a hospital environment as a midwife, but I'm teaching my own childbirth education workshops because I feel that if.

Beau: Labor and birth gets off to a positive start, that it really influences that breastfeeding experience, especially. So, you know, for the second, third time moms, they are, you know, really want, some of them have had a cesarean for the first birth and they're really wanting a vaginal birth next time.

Beau: And those core things about. You know, getting the, the skin to skin immediately just makes a huge impact. And sometimes they've had challenges with breastfeeding in their first experience and they didn't know that, say a cesarean really can impact that experience. So they felt, you know, something, there was something wrong with their body or they didn't produce enough milk.

Beau: That's a huge misconception. Yeah. And really it actually comes back to you know, even the type of birth you have, but even just the first hour after a birth, regardless of the mode of birth is just so, so important. So, 

Jenna: And I think that that's really important to bring up too. 'cause a, even if this is my lactation kind of expertise, but even if you have physiological reasons, whether that's something with the baby, whether that's a tongue tie or something else, or you have hormonal issues or issues with glandular tissue, all of those things As much as they could impact and will potentially impact the breastfeeding experience when you can do the things you can control.

Jenna: Like the skin to skin. Yeah. And those things. Well, you can optimize things where all of those things, that could be the thing that that just totally causes everything to unravel. Are more manageable, you know, and you're able to set yourself up for success. That even if there are things that you can't control about your breastfeeding experience that come up, you're still able to create a breastfeeding relationship that works well for you, even if you're not producing 100% of what your baby gets.

Jenna: Right. Like, but those early moments can be so, so important so I really love that you're sharing that. You were talking about how you do childbirth education and the importance of that even for second and third time families. I would love for you to talk a little bit more about that for those people that are listening and they're like, well, I already went through this.

Jenna: Like, well, do I need to go back to school 

Beau: on it? Yeah, so I developed my own active birth workshop because I just wanted to find, you know, the way that I could obviously give the most to the women. You know, having worked in a hospital environment, we were very rushed in the pregnancy appointments, doing the checkups, you know, we might have 10 to 15 minutes and it was barely enough to just say hello and do a blood pressure and listen to baby's heart rate and things like that.

Beau: So, I. Develop this active birth workshop. The huge foundation of the curriculum that I teach is, you know, all about the physiology of labor and birth, which is so, so important. 'cause I truly believe if, if women and their partners of birth support people understand the physiology of labor, they'll have a lot of confidence in their body.

Beau: And, you know, their body is born to do this. So, That's a huge part of it. And then the other part would definitely be about making informed decisions. So it is so, so important that women understand they have so many choices in their labor, birth, and postpartum experience. Because what I saw working in hospital is that a lot of the women come in in.

Beau: In the midst of labor, they're not really understanding what's happening with their body. They're becoming fearful. And all that tension just causes labor to sort of spiral either slow down or stop or become quite fragmented, I guess. And so understanding that. What's happening with the body, but also how, how the woman can lead that experience because women have so many choices.

Beau: And you know, rather than sort of just coming in and handing over the care to the doctors who are, you know, the experts understanding that you, you have so many choices to make and those choices will impact your experience moving forward as a parent. And Yeah, so informed decision making is huge, and that comes to also the breastfeeding experience.

Beau: And I heard so many women talk about you know, being shown how to breastfeed in the hospital and they're, you know, spoken down to, or just touched. Permission and without consent and things like that. You know, forcing baby onto the breasts and things like that. And it really doesn't need to be like that at all.

Beau: Right? And yeah, so all of that, that is really crucial. I 

Jenna: think that that. What you were talking about, even like the tension in the body and feeling really fearful makes so much sense. I think in it makes so much sense in two ways. One, it makes so much sense that they would come into that experience feeling that way, like that it's not your fault that you're afraid and you didn't do anything wrong, that you're feeling this tension and this fear.

Jenna: And almost tying it back to your experience growing up, how that, it makes so much sense why that would just be normal and natural because human bodies have human babies and this is like, this is happening all the time, and so why aren't we not talking about it? And yet, as we talked about how strange and, and kind of like, you know, unique that experience was.

Jenna: And so it makes sense that people who didn't grow up in that environment would feel. Fearful of this and that there's so many reasons why that's happening, and also that. Un undoing. That is so much of learning about your physiology, learning about your body, so it makes sense that that would almost be the antidote for it.

Jenna: Where you can, you can relax and you can trust, and then from that point, you have so many options available to you. And you can make really amazing decisions that are right for you and your family, whether, you know, whatever that ends up looking like. I love, I love how you're sharing that. I always say that there's as many ways to feed a baby as there are.

Jenna: Baby babies being fed out there, right? Like there's nothing, it's never, ever black or white. I love that whole conversation and there's so many places that we could go from there, but you're talking about the physiology and how that impacts the way that you approach birth, even in those, like, in intense moments and even the way that you approach breastfeeding afterwards.

Jenna: So, When we're talking about breastfeeding specifically too, and you're talking about all these things that we can do to kind of optimize things, what are some of those things, I know we talked about like kind of golden hour and skin to skin, but what are some of the things that women can do, families can do to optimize their outcomes?

Jenna: I know, I know there's so, so many, but could you share a few at this point? Both. Both for breastfeeding and for their kind of labor and delivery? 

Beau: Yeah, absolutely. Like I would say number one, is to do a class or course on breastfeeding because it's not about being an expert or anything like that, but it's just about, you know, understanding the basics what demand feeding means.

Beau: So, so crucial just to understand that. 'cause again, that's another popular misconception is that I, I just worked with a woman last week who was told that she needs to feed, you know, on schedule and every four hours and, and then make sure you put baby down and you do the, and all of this routine stuff.

Beau: But it's, it's, you know, that can often cause lots of other issues as well. So just getting a good evidence base. Program, education class and also if at all possible, bring your partner along or whoever is going to be that, you know, direct support for you in that time. Because again, if they understand it, they'll be better able to support you.

Beau: They'll be believe in your body and you know, sort of be able to be that positive reinforcement. You know, even in challenges, but also they'll be able to, you know, get you help or know where, who to call advocate for you. Yeah. Need that. Exactly. Yeah. So that would be my number one, especially like leading up to labor, you know, need really needs to be done.

Beau: Earlier on otherwise you know, yes, your labor and birth does indirectly influence that first sort of early breastfeeding experience. So that's why I do promote women to Try, if that's what they want, is to have a normal physiological labor and birth. But regardless, like I said, regardless of of the birth, you have, the most important thing in that fir we call it the golden hour, is to have baby skin to skin undisturbed.

Beau: Depending on, you know, where you birth. Some hospitals might have a, you know, been a routine perhaps of having like a pediatrician come into the room and do a head to toe check on baby. I always tell the women I work with to sort of let them know that that can wait, because that's your, you know, you'll never get that first hour back.

Beau: And that skin to skin is so important. Even things like not washing baby, at least within that first 24 hours, keeping all that amazing vernix and amniotic fluids there. And that, you know, comes off onto mother's chest as well. So baby knows, you know, that instinct to, to come back to the breast to feed.

Beau: Yeah, the, I guess just being informed protecting that space and then also knowing, you know, where to get support is, is so, so important. Yeah, and demand feeding, honestly, it's like a massive thing. We, I, where I worked, we worked with a lot of women with gestational diabetes, so that, that can be a tricky one where the guidelines that we are meant to recommend is that's scheduled feeding and things.

Beau: But even for those women, we know those babies will often do a lot better if they're. Just allowed to feed when they need to. Yeah, and 

Jenna: even there are things that you can do with gestational diabetes, like harvesting some colostrum ahead of time and bringing those things so that you know if you're supplementing.

Jenna: A lot of times people don't even understand that supplementing the first line of supplementation is with your own expressed milk before. Before you need to move to formula or anything else, which can often you know, blood sugars of the babies becomes a concern when absolutely. After gestational diabetes.

Jenna: And so yeah, there's so many things that can be done outside of feeling like you don't have options, right? Which I think is the, and, and that feeling of not having options when we're talking about that feeling afraid and tension in the body and how all these things impact tension in your body can impact the, , normal progression of labor and delivery, but it absolutely impacts breastfeeding as well. For so many reasons, it can impact the positioning just in a very practical sense. It can impact the hormones that are triggering let down and all of that stuff as well. It you physical tension like you and your baby are so in tune, right?

Jenna: And they need to be able to feel relaxed at the breast in order to get. A good lunch in order to be able to, you know, transfer the milk well in order to all of those things. So it's so, so important. And just having that information, just knowing that you have a choice, because feeling like you're feeling trapped, which is something that even comes back again in extended breastfeeding.

Jenna: And I, I actually share this a lot. We, if you had that experience early on in your breastfeeding journey, in those first few days where you felt like things were out of your control, and that also talks about. Sorry, birth as well, like labor and delivery and all that as well. Sometimes you, it's like you kind of push through that and you get through all of that stuff, and then you kind of get this phase where it's like, okay, everything's fine.

Jenna: It's going all right. And you're like, okay, we made it over that mountain, and then you hit the year mark or you get pregnant, or whatever happened, and. Suddenly you have nursing aversion and you didn't have that before, and you have this urge to just kind of push your child off and you're feeling again trapped.

Jenna: You're feeling like you don't have options. You're feeling, you know, a lot of women say held hostage and that's how you often felt in those early experiences it makes sense that you kind of like pushed through and worked through it, but then it kind of like comes back again. And so we can look at that through so many different lens you know, to, to analyze that and figure that out.

Jenna: But I love what you're, it kind of like comes down to, is like, Understanding yourself, understanding your body, understanding your child, and then making informed decisions from there, because that's when you kind of, for more or less, like take your power back, right? Like, feel like you have agency in the process.

Jenna: Feel like there's something that you can do, something that you can offer. And I, I just, I see that parallel and we actually, not that there's been a ton of research on nursing aversion, but we know that having birth trauma is mm-hmm. A risk factor for developing nursing. Absolutely. Yeah. And so it can be, I a 

Beau: lot, but Exactly.

Beau: Just going on from what you're saying, that is so important and in my classes I talk about this intuition to listening to your intuition because I say like a mother's intuition is almost always correct. And. That goes for your breastfeeding journey. If you feel like something's not right, we'll we'll listen to that and, and reach out for support.

Beau: Or if you feel like actually things are fine. You know, a lot of women get told their suppliers not sufficient, things like that, but within them I see them posting on groups within themselves. They actually feel that everything's fine. And you know, I really tell women to tune into that a lot. And I feel, I feel like women are, I.

Beau: It might be a bit generalized, but I do see a lot of women that are disconnected to their body, actually. Yeah. And, and this, you know, it plays into all this, you know, breastfeeding in public and just breastfeeding being a normal, natural experience and things, and. It's, it's so, so sad to see because when we listen to our intuition, you know, it, it takes us very far.

Beau: And that was a huge influence for me is like just listening to, you know, I had all this midwifery training, which was quite sort of medical and clinical and things, but I really just went with my intuition a lot in this With co like safe, co-sleeping and you know, I, I did ha I struggled with a little bit with, you know, these media messages that, you know, you should have your baby who can fall asleep on, on its own or oh, by one day should be able to sleep through the night and things like this.

Beau: And I think probably that was a lot more about my sort of like, Clinical background going, am I doing this? As best I can be or, and when I tapped back into my own intuition, I was like, actually, I'm perfectly happy with this. Like as much as I'm tired, this is what feels truly right for me. And. That's, you know, I just continued to, to follow that intuition along the way.

Beau: And, you know, here I am still breastfeeding with my daughter, who's four and a half, and definitely didn't plan for that. But when I, when I had any doubts or anything like that, I just went back to that voice inside me like, okay. Maybe I'm considering stopping, but why am I considering that? Like, is is that because I want this and, or my daughter wants, or my daughter's never, never wanted to stop.

Beau: I can tell you that much. Yeah. But yeah, listening to your intuition and connecting with your body. 

Jenna: Hmm. I love that conversation. And I, I have a free workshop that I share like pretty in depth about that, talking about like, The skill of interception, and it's not really a skill. As much as you have, you know, the sense of sight and sound and taste, you have the ability to sense what's happening inside of your body and mm-hmm. How disconnected we are from that. And in, within the workshop I share about how. The more connected that you are, the better interceptive awareness that you have, the better you're able to regulate your emotions, generally the more wellbeing you have.

Jenna: And The amount of interceptive awareness that we have as parents can predict the wellbeing of our children, because they tend to have a similar interceptive awareness as the parent does. So that means that the more that you work at that, the more it's a gift to your children as well. But what we think as parents is, well, I'm experiencing discomfort, so I have to push that down for the sake of my child.

Jenna: Right, like, I'm experiencing this, so like I need to, ugh, you know, whether that's in labor and delivery. Like I, I'm feeling something and I'm gonna just keep quiet about it because I, I might be crazy or I might be dramatic, or I might be, you know, like whatever that is. Or on the, the flip side where it's like, I actually feel at peace about this, but you're telling me that something's really wrong, so I'm gonna ignore what.

Jenna: I'm experiencing and also even with as simple as like I have to pee and I'm not listening to that sensation in my body because of, you know, because I'm a mother and I have so many other things to do, which kind of comes into self-care, but they all tie in together to really talk about. Exactly what you're talking about, that intuition, which is, is, I mean, I love Dr.

Jenna: Dan Siegel and he talks about how we have like the same neurons and, and, you know cells that are in our brain are around our heart and around our gut. So we can't really only use logic and reasoning as the only bit of wisdom or information that we have. Not that we should discount it. By any means, but we can't then go and discount the brain quote that we have around our heart and around our gut because those, you know, they all.

Jenna: Just tie in together to, to create a full wisdom, full intuition. And I think that that's just so, so important to share and talk about. And I wanted to just caveat real quick, 'cause I know that this is a place where people can sometimes get tripped up, is like the difference, which I know you is exactly what you're talking about, but what, how I articulate it is between instinct and intuition.

Jenna: Where instinct is often like a learned response. Where we're like a learned response to trauma or whatever. So when you are pushing down that feeling, a lot of times that's an instinct to push down the feeling because you needed to. At some point in your life, oftentimes when we're little, and I can get into all of that reasoning and what we're doing there, but mm-hmm.

Jenna: Because it was really wise, because you couldn't have a voice at some point. Right. So we, we pushed it down because there was very there was potential consequences that were really, really big. And so super smart to push down your feelings and your awareness at a certain point, but then we, we learn that it becomes like our learned behavior.

Jenna: And then as adults, when. It is safe to trust our intuition. You know, we lean into that instinct instead, which is that like fight, flight, freeze, like all those trauma responses that we have. And so it can be tricky to sometimes like move through the differences and a lot of times you need support therapists, coaches, you know, like all that kind of stuff to learn how to come back into your body and to trust that.

Jenna: And again, I would never suggest that you trust your body to the point of ignoring your. Thoughts and logic and reasoning. Mm-hmm. That's all really important. It all come, kind of comes together. But I just wanted to share that. 'cause sometimes I know, I remember struggling with that too, like, oh, but I feel so much fear in my body.

Jenna: Shouldn't I be listening to that? And it's like, well, maybe. Right? Yeah. Like, it's like, let's, let's talk about that too. So again, I keep kind of getting really excited about topics and kind of running with them, but I'd love to hear your thoughts about all that too. 

Beau: Yeah. Oh, I could go on all day about the actually, but yeah.

Beau: And you mentioned like how. You know, the woman, the mother is interconnected with her baby and children, and that's, I'm, I have a real interest in lots like natural therapies to support labor or pregnancy, labor and birth and, and breastfeeding, postpartum. And, you know, often I, I'm actually studying homeopathy and what we often hear is like, Women when say maybe their baby is not sleeping well or maybe has symptoms of.

Beau: Gas and things like that. And they, they take their baby to a doctor or something to get help, but in homeopathic medicine, often we see if the woman comes to a consultation and gets that support. You know and someone hearing her out, hearing her journey, how she's got to where she is, what's happening for her baby, and even if the woman takes some homeopathic remedy for, for what's going on, that can often flow on to improve baby and babies.

Beau: You know, emotional state and things like that, and even physical symptoms. And same with, you know, osteopathy and chiropractic thing. All of these things can, are very much intertwined with mother baby as well. So if you, if you, yeah, I always tell women if you're worried about your baby also don't forget yourself, because often there's, you know, something tied up there as well.

Beau: Yeah. And, and funnily enough, like I I did get mastitis. This was probably the most, my biggest challenge in my breastfeeding. I got mastitis at about nine months and. Looking, I was just looking it up today, thinking about when that occurred, and I looked up some messages I had with my mom, and I sent a message of me with some ca cabbage leaves on my breast and hashtag motherhood and, but I remember.

Beau: I was like, I wonder why that happened at that point. And I feel like I, I looked back and I realized like I actually had started studying again and I was doing my master's and I would say quite stress. I had a lot going on and all of that, you know, really can, can affect your physical being as well.

Beau: So. 

Jenna: Yeah, that makes me wanna go in so many directions. I'm like, mastitis, we understand now that that's like inflammation in the body and you know, like with all of the new kind of recommendations that came out in the last, well, a little more than a year. Yes. And all that. So it just makes so much sense as they were like talking about that.

Jenna: I wanna but that's, I say this to parents too, and I have a reel that was quite popular on Instagram about it, that. We spend all this time and energy tracking our baby for every little thing, especially in those early days. You know how many wets and dirties, how, like which side did they feed on? How many minutes?

Jenna: But no, nobody's suggesting that you tune back into yourself. And so I literally have sheets where I don't really use these as much anymore, but when I. Was working a lot with women postpartum, like a tracker sheet because you know what, when there's something going on with baby it, it's good to keep an eye on how many diapers they've had that day and that kind of stuff.

Jenna: And that can be part of your informed decision making. That can be part of the, you know, in information that you're getting. And also let's, when you track the diaper, check in on yourself. How's your body feeling right now? Mm-hmm. Right? Like what are your emotions at? Where is your stress level at?

Jenna: What's so many times we push it down because we think that it's gonna be so big and so scary to like tap into that. Especially in those like really intense moments, whether that is. Early postpartum or whether your baby's nine months old and you've gone back to school and you're studying and, and you're doing those things and it just feels like too much to deal with and yet so often, It could be as simple as taking a few deep breaths that mm-hmm.

Jenna: Be that kind of preventative medicine almost in those moments that can support you, and then you kind of continue to move through and you, it changes the trajectory of where you're at. Mm-hmm. Sometimes it's like, oh, actually I did need to make an appointment with somebody because I need, I'm having a lot of tension in my body, or maybe I am sick and I haven't.

Jenna: You know, talked to the doctor about it, like, you know, I know for myself, I did that postpartum with my daughter. I had like a really terrible infection that took me too many days to go and check out with the doctor. It was only a few, but when we're talking about an infection, three days is, can be a long time.

Jenna: When you're not getting the support and yeah, it was just crazy. I ended up having to go into the hospital in a wheelchair 'cause I couldn't walk because of how much I wasn't listening to my own body. I just kept thinking, well I had a baby. So pain makes sense. And of course I'm in pain. Right. And not really like, and just, I must be too.

Jenna: I don't know. I must not be. Dunno, what was the word I was looking for? You know, like, I, I must be too weak somehow, right? Like, I can't endure this pain and then to have to go, like, meanwhile I had like, walked out of the hospital, but like, going back in, I, I had to go in, in a wheelchair 'cause I couldn't walk 'cause I was in so much pain.

Jenna: And thankfully, Because of modern medicine. A day or two later, I was feeling much, much better. As we're kind of nearing the end of the interview here, is there anything that you would like to just share or leave with the listeners? Kinda like a last thought, something that you would say to a mom who is listening right now? Yeah, I 

Beau: guess the points I made before like in preparing for experience are really important and having that good support on board.

Beau: Don't be afraid to seek help or get a, get a, you know, some, an outside professional opinion. But also, you know, really choose wisely who you get this help from. You know, someone who aligns with your. Values and, and the way you are sort of mothering, I guess, too. But yeah, in terms of like, in my experience, especially feeding my toddler as she grew older, I just, I would love more women to feel comfortable about this and.

Beau: You know, I will, I will be more normalized and I, I know that initially I was actually a little uncomfortable breastfeeding in public, like just the first couple of months because it's like that first time you're sort of exposing your body in that sense. But very quickly I realized that. It. I actually didn't care about anyone else and it was so convenient for me to just do it whenever, wherever.

Beau: Yeah. And it was meeting my baby's needs. You know, not in five minutes when I could get some privacy or whatever. It was just, you know. Living in that moment of being a mom. And, you know, I, I breastfed my baby in, we traveled to three different countries in the first year of her life and was able to breastfeed through kind of oh, 40 degrees in Vietnam on the side of the road.

Beau: It was so convenient, you know, not having to worry about how to prepare milk or bottles and things like that. And even now I have had to set some boundaries for my toddler because she, you know, when they become older, they just sort of have a mind of their own in terms of feeding. And boundaries have been hard for me.

Beau: I think that's probably one of the biggest challenges for me. But Sometimes that's perfectly okay. You know, we need to, we, we are in our, within our own right to, to set those, you know, gentle boundaries and, and be clear about them and things like that. So that it's a mutual sort of experience.

Beau: But yeah, I, I guess I just wanna encourage other women to feel comfortable to, to. Breastfeeding public because I think, you know, not everyone chooses to and that's perfectly okay. But I feel like for those who would like to, I want them to feel comfortable because the more we see breastfeeding around us, The more it will become such a normal, normal part of life.

Beau: And, and 

Jenna: just like you were sharing at the beginning where that seeing it was what made breastfeeding easier for you.

Beau: Absolutely. I, I agree completely. As I said, I still can recall my own breastfeeding experience as a child. I think I breastfed till around three. And you know, it was a very positive experience for me. So. Absolutely it does. It will impact, you know, our, the women around us and our future generations and things too.

Beau: And just seeing, you know, seeing our family and you know, other women around us just normalizes it. I'm actually so far away from my family and that's in Australia especially. A lot of women are. So far geographically from their family. But you know, I guess supporting each other in that sense, even if, if we don't know each other.

Beau: But I, I've honestly been, had such positive experiences around me with my breastfeeding, but I think, I think it's because I've, I've been pretty assertive . I, I just really vividly remember a very elderly lady stopping me at the shopping mall. She would've been at, at least in her eighties and, and just saying some, something so beautiful. About me feeding. She's like, oh, it's such a beautiful thing you're doing for your daughter, and something like that.

Beau: And I was just like, look, if she's okay with this, like everyone should be because she's been around for so many decades, you know? This is nothing new. Or you know, it's, yeah. 

Jenna: I love that. Well, Bo it was wonderful to talk with you today. I would love if you could just quickly give the listeners like a place that they can find you if they wanna.

Jenna: Hear more from you, follow you on your socials, that kind of stuff. 

Beau: Yeah, so my website is birth to baby.com au. I'm also pretty active on Instagram, birth to baby Aus s and so you can contact me through dms there or inquire on my website if you are. I'm in Perth, Western Australia, so if you are local here, I do active birth workshops but I also do them online as well.

Beau: Wonderful. 

Jenna: It was great talking to you today. 

Beau: Thank you so.