Tameka laughs when she says her feeding journeys have been “all over the place,” and she means it in the most loving way. With her first baby, the beginning was incredibly hard. “I used to cry every time I would feed him,” she remembers. Latch was painful, her nipples were cracked and bleeding, and she and her baby were learning together. Through it all, her mum was by her side, waking for every feed, day and night, helping her latch him on for about a month until it clicked. Over time, feeding became easier, and by the time her second and third babies arrived, breastfeeding felt natural and familiar. She fed her third until he was two, weaning gently when she fell pregnant with River because “I just didn’t like the feeling anymore. He was feeding for comfort, and that was okay, but I was ready.” With River, mastitis hit hard in the first weeks. “My breast was so swollen I couldn’t feed off it for a week,” she says. Feeding a newborn from one side felt strange, but she kept offering the other breast each time. “Then one day I just put him on and he latched. It was like a miracle.” Across all four babies, Tameka has always had a strong supply, often catching extra milk in a haakaa that filled the freezer. Though River, never took a bottle. What she loves most is the bonding. “Even the challenges. They didn’t last forever. I just soak up the moment of them being little. Anyone can change my baby, but I’m the only one that can breastfeed.” Her advice to new māmā comes from deep trust in herself and her body: “Have faith in your body and what it can do. Your body knows what to do, and your baby knows what to do.”
