World Breastfeeding Week Essay Contest: The Results Are In!

St. John's Mercy partnered with STLToday to offer an essay contest in which you told us what breastfeeding means/meant to you. The judging is over and the winning essays are below.

Grand Prize: Strong Beginnings
It’s so quiet. All I can hear are the sounds of the monitors beeping and the respirator pumping air into her lungs. My daughter, barely ten weeks old, was lying peacefully while she began healing. She had been born with a heart defect that was discovered just a week prior that required surgery. For one week I didn’t get to hold her, touch her or nurse her as any stimulation would make her blood pressure dangerously high. It was the hardest week of my life and it made me realize that the decision to breastfeed was one of the best I have ever made. Breastfeeding connected my daughter and I in a way that I never imagined; enabling me to be strong as she went through surgery. I pumped every other hour that she and I were apart so that I could give her the nutrition that she would need. One week after surgery, she was smiling and cooing and I credit a lot of her healing to breastfeeding. She was such a strong little girl and continues to be today thanks to her nutrition that was established that first year while I breastfed her. I now have a ten week old son who I am breastfeeding. My house can be messy, dishes dirty, and clothes needing washed, but it is put aside when I see those little cheeks smiling. I only see a peaceful house and tiny, chubby fists holding onto me while he eats. This is what breastfeeding is to me. It is watching your heart living outside of your body and knowing that you have given your children a foundation for a very healthy life.

First Prize: She's My Heart
I wasn't sure if I was cut out to be a mom that breastfeeds. Of course, I wanted the best for my baby, but I did not know if I could handle the pressure of being another person’s life-source (literally!). Being pregnant for the first time, I struggled with various things: Could I be a good role model for my daughter?

Could we provide financially for our family? I understand that these are average things that every new mom goes through, but I would stay awake at night hoping that I could follow through. Breastfeeding wasn't the easiest or most pleasant experience, but the advice and support I received from my lactation consultant made me realize to take one day at a time and we could do it. My husband thinks that I didn’t want to wake up for those 3 a.m. feedings, but the truth is that there's nothing better than being alone with your little girl with the silence of the night while your nourishing her with the milk that your body had made for her. It brought me "back to the basics". Breastfeeding taught me that I can provide what's best for my child - emotionally and physically. My body was made to do this. My daughter is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I feel that breastfeeding has given us a bond that no one can take away or replace. She is “My Heart.”

Second Prize: Nourishment
The term “breastfeeding” implies that as a breastfeeding mother, you simply feed your baby with your body. But this is not the whole truth. Breastfeeding does nourish your baby with the richest food on earth. When I became a mother, I learned about the ways in which breastfeeding nourishes lives. When I breastfeed my son, I connect more deeply to him, to all of the breastfeeding mothers before me, and to myself. In the quiet darkness of night, my son and I communicate. My body knows as he prepares to tell me he is hungry. While he eats, I smooth the slope of his tiny nose and admire the beautiful half-moon shape of his closed eyes. His crinkly little hands cup each side of my breast as he drinks, and I’m almost overwhelmed at how deeply I love him in these peaceful, twilight moments we share with no one but each other. I feel powerful in my motherhood. I, alone, am providing a perfect elixir on which he thrives. Although I “chose” to breastfeed, like my mother, and her mother, and many of the mothers in my family, I realize that breastfeeding had a hidden agenda - it chose me. Mothers and their babies were designed to breathe each other in, in the middle of the night. Breastfeeding gives mothers those necessary moments to study and fall in love with their babies repeatedly - and to reflect on their own strength as mothers. Often when I am nursing I imagine how my own mother must have studied my infant face as she fed me, and the sense of knowing I have now for her experience adds a layer of richness to my role as a mother. As my son eats, breastfeeding nourishes both of us.

Third Prize: The Bond That Heals
My name is Krista, I'm 24 years old, and the proud mommy of Kyla. The past year, my life hasn't been the typical life of a “mommy-to-be” mommy. Most girls get to celebrate this time with their moms, but that's not the case for me. My husband, Matt, and I found out we were pregnant in May of 2008, and due in January .In September 2008, my mom - at 44 years of age - passed away from breast cancer after fighting it for ten years. My mom and I were so close and I was devastated. Once I thought things couldn't get worse, I went into labor six weeks before my due date. I was so scared that, along with my mother, I was going to lose my baby girl. But thanks to God, I delivered a healthy 5 pounds and 7 ounces baby girl. She was only in the NICU for one week! During my whole pregnancy, I planned to breastfeed, but now it made more sense to do so. I researched that breastfeeding premature babies is very important for their health and helps them thrive! The first time I breastfed Kyla, my life felt complete and the gaps missing in my heart, felt whole again. I still miss my mom, but the bond I receive from breastfeeding my daughter, helps me heal emotionally and spiritually, from the loss of my mom, and it has helped me physically heal quicker from my pregnancy. Kyla's now 7 1/2 months old, and is still breastfeeding. It's something we both look forward to...a bonding time together. I hope that Kyla and I have a strong bond and relationship like my mom and I had, and I know that breastfeeding her is the first step to getting there.