Everyone is talking about this amazing breastfeeding mom!!! Her determination and dedication while running and pumping on the go had me fan-girling her.
Anna Young, who is five months postpartum whipped out her hand pump mid-run during a half marathon over the weekend in Salt Lake City. She was photographed doing it and later shared the image on the Facebook page Occupy Breastfeeding.
credit : www.scarymommy.com
She used a HAND PUMP!
A manual hand pump ok?! No batteries, most definitely NO electricity and on the run no less. Yup, there’s definitely no lugging around electric double pumps on marathons – I can’t think of anything more ridiculous.
But have you used a manual pump before?
I myself used a borrowed manual hand pump once. I was doing absolutely nothing but pumping and lounging on my couch. But even in my relaxed state, the brain to hand coordination was pretty challenging for me, and don’t forget the tired hands after. If you’ve ever had an electric one die on you and you switched to a manual one, you’d understand. And she was there running and pumping like a boss.
Risk of Engorgement
I was never a EP(Exclusive Pumping) mom before, and have always direct latched on demand because I was a stay at home mom. The only time I had to pump was after delivering my second daughter because I was suffering from over supply.
It was a bit of an oxymoron situation because I had to empty out my boobs in hopes to alleviate the pain. But pumping also increased the demand. I donated all the extra milk to another baby while I slowly reduced the frequency of pumping down to expressing by hand, then stopping the pumping completely.
So yes, I DO know the pain. The pain that comes with having engorged boobs when you don’t empty it on time or at all. I shudder to think about running a whole marathon with engorged boobs.
Hurdles and Challenges of being a Mother
And maybe that’s just the problem: the hurdles and challenges of being a mother. Whether you’re a working mom or not, breastfeeding in itself is hard enough as it is. We mothers give so much and some times that makes us give up going back to doing what we love and have always done.
To be honest I was quite fit before I married. I danced, I swam, I even had lean muscles to show. I heard some myth about how over exercising could affect my milk supply so I just stopped. This is not true by the way. Or maybe I just made myself so busy with mothering that I forgot about ME. Well this picture slammed it all.
credit : huffingtonpost.com
Do you know what I found most empowering about this picture? In one hand she holds her baby and the other holds her medal – she is holding on to both. She CAN hold on to both,
I really feel her sense of achievement and I feel very encouraged to go out there and do the same. Motherhood doesn’t mean it is the end and that you would have to give up the things you love and use to do. It is true you may be limited to less, but it shouldn’t deter you from going out there and making an effort to pick up where you left off.
