I breastfed my friend’s twins for almost a year – here’s why

Many mothers struggle to breastfeed, but when Alecia Staines saw a desperate cry for help from a mother of twins, she didn’t hesitate to step in and help.

Alecia had first met the new mother at the childbirth education classes she ran in Noosa and bonded with her.

After the babies were born, the mother struggled to breastfeed with a low milk supply due to the retained placenta and separation from the twins while they were in special care.

“I saw that she was looking for donor milk online,” Alecia tells Kidspot. “They had traveled up to an hour and a half to collect milk.

“I knew she needed a break and I offered to watch the babies overnight to give her a break.

“I said I didn’t have the capacity to pump but I was happy while I was there to breastfeed the babies.”

With her family overseas and the COVID lockdowns, the new mother had little support and jumped at the offer for Alecia to nurse her twelve-week-old twins.

Alecia was already breastfeeding her fifth child, who was two years old at the time.

“My daughter got a bit funny about it, wondering why I was nursing another child,” laughs the 40-year-old.

“I was surprised how easily they got on because it was another breast and they were filling up with bottles of breast milk.”

The mother of six also did not know if her period would come as the babies were not hers.

Common practice of wet nursing before formula

Alecia explains that the family were keen to ensure their twins had breast milk for the first 12 months and giving wet twins gave them an opportunity to extend their supply of donor milk.

“I knew how much milk they would require and it was easy to nurse while I was there,” she explains.

However, she recalls an awkward moment when the twins’ father came home from work to find her breastfeeding one of his babies on the couch, even though she knew it was his wish.

Wet nursing was once very common before formula was invented in the early twentieth century; is not so popular nowadays.

Although Alecia believes in women’s knowledge of the importance of breastfeeding, she would be more open to the idea of ​​preferring formula over formula if given the opportunity, and says that breastfeeding is more effective at producing milk than using a pump. .

“I’ve breastfed almost half my adult life”

Breastfeeding wasn’t easy for Alecia when she gave birth to her first child 15 years ago.

“My first experience was terrible. It was almost worse than giving birth because of the pain,” she says.

“I expressed and was bottle fed for the first 12 weeks. It was really hard. I had nipple shields, but it was still excruciating.â€

However, she is grateful to the midwives who worked with her to get her son back to the breast.

“I breastfed for nine years in total—almost half of my adult life,” she shares.

And with her sixth daughter just turning one and still breastfeeding, she says she wouldn’t hesitate to nurse again.

August 1-7 is World Breastfeeding Week. For more information about the week, or how to get involved in one of the official events around the country, click here