This viral photo of a baby surrounded by 2.5 gallons of breastmilk has such an incredible message
Can you imagine pumping 295 ounces (approximately 2.3 gallons) of breast milk? If you’re a mom, or have been around breastfeeding moms, you know how much WORK that would be. All the pumping. Days and nights of pumping.
But that’s just what mom Ashley McClifford did. And then she took a picture of her baby, surrounded by all that milk.
“This photo means so much to me,” she wrote on Instagram.
"When I found out I was pregnant with this baby, my DREAM was to not only be able to breastfeed her, but to be able to donate milk as well."
The 200 ounces of the breastmilk shown in the pic are IN ADDITION to the milk she’s keeping to feed her own daughter.
That’s 200 ounces of milk meant only for donation.
"Let me be clear about one thing though, I believe FED is best," her post continues, as she explains the breastfeeding process she went to with her older son, now 2 years old. "I tried to nurse David but after a month of him barely gaining anything, I started supplementing an eventually went straight to formula with him. And he's thriving! This picture represents many sleepless nights, especially from the first couple weeks, 295 ounces of extra milk, five blocked ducts, and a 17.5 lb healthy, growing baby girl. Today, I'm donating about 200 ounces for the first time and the feeling I'm having is hard to explain. It's a mix of excitement and love but at the same time, I'm having some reservations, only because nursing and pumping is HARD! I feel kind of protective of this haha BUT that isn't going to stop me from giving some of this away."
However, she’s quick to point out that she has no interest in not shaming anyone for not breastfeeding.
“I’d love to have breastfeeding normalized, but I also want to encourage moms that no matter how you feed your child, that fed is best ” she told the Huffington Post.
“My son is thriving and he was on formula for most of his infant life,” she clarified.
"It is an incredible feeling to be able to not only feed our daughter, but to help another family nourish theirs as well."
[hgintagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BPqWVQHhuI6/?tagged=milkbank]
The very definition of generosity, if ever we’ve heard one.
