I’m a Brazilian physician, mother of two, living in USA for almost three years now, I always like to start with my background because it’s important to say that I have two very different experiences breastfeeding my two kids.

My older daughter I had in Brazil, she was born through a c-section a little bit earlier then expected ,with 37 weeks, very small for her gestational age. It wasn’t easy , back there I didn’t have a lot of experience with breastfeeding, my mom herself only breastfed for two months and I didn’t have any other breastfeeding moms surrounding me. Beyond all the odds , even though I had a hard beginning, after a few days, with a lot of support of my husband I mastered and I could breastfeed exclusively for six months. One of the privileges that I had living in Brazil was my 6 months maternal leave, that time gave me   what I need to  get to know my daughter and to strengthen our bond. I loved my first experience, after my daughter I’ve changed not only as a human been , but my whole  practice as a physician also  changed as well. 

But since not everything is about happy moments , for me even though I had this amazing bonding experience breastfeeding my daughter, I could not say the same thing about my professional life and social connections , back there I didn’t had any friends with kids, and in my  network people don’t really classify as a successful and fulfilling life been a staying home mom, so motherhood was not very easy on me, I felt very alone and very pressured to go back to work . I remember until now the night that I was struggling trying to establishing a routine with my baby and  as the a same time trying to go back to my “normal life” and badly failing on doing it ,when I suddenly had this insight moment about what was my normal life anyway, and I finally surrounded, and decided that my life was with my baby all the time, and  instead of feeling trapped to my baby, this whole attitude gave me more freedom to be what I had to be at that time, after that personal decision and shift of ideas and feelings my life started coming back to a normal that worked perfect for me and my family! What I wish for all the new moms everywhere is  to find their own normal, with out the pressure that society imposes on us! Because in the end there isn’t any right or wrong specially talking about babies and motherhood!

My second kid I had here at United States , I was in a different position, because I decided not to work here and I was fine with this decision, a long way to finally have this confidence , as you can see! My husband is PhG student, so I took these years to be with my daughter and to have another baby, beside my preview experience breastfeeding, in my second pregnancy I decided to go all natural, not only for my health but also for my professional experience , I didn’t tell  it first , but I’m actually an OBGyn in Brazil… so I’ve always wanted to know what my patients experienced in order to give a better support!

So natural it was and I have to say: it was amazing! It was one of these moments that changes everything that you think you know, the breastfeeding came as natural as the delivery so for me it was like I had never stopped breastfeeding in first place, my body was ready my baby was a pro and I couldn’t be more happy!

And because I had such good experiences breastfeeding my kids I felt this need to share , to help other moms and make it possible for them to have their own good experiences as well! With this desire I found the LLL Gainesville, and there I not only build amazing friendships , but I’ve also learned so many things through so many different experiences. I’m very thankful to be able to have this opportunity to learn more about parenting, breastfeeding and motherhood, and I hope that in the future we can have a more acceptable world toward mothers and babies and everything that comes with it!

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Mothers can change the world for better!

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