Getting Started.

Your sweet and precious babe is in your arms. The thrill of this miracle is enough to dim the memory of the preceding hours.

"It will be like a woman suffering the pains of labor. 
When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world.:

John 16:21 NLT

You are so thankful for this little blessing and reward. Your life as a mother is about to blossom with the reality of this little one you have carried within you for so many months, and now you finally get to meet them and hold them and see who they are. Your whole family rejoices with you and are filled with all the anticipation of what lies ahead.

Even after my first emergency caesarian birth, nothing could have robbed me of that first unforgettable moment when I gazed on my son's face a couple of hours after his birth. I could hardly believe he was really mine! He didn't look like the little one in my imagination at all! He had dark hair and dark skin and I always imagined my baby would be fair skinned and fair haired. Funny what we dream up over the long months of pregnancy, and in my case, the years before that when I wanted a baby so much but had to wait on God's perfect timing. Babies don't always come when they are planned for and hungered after, sometimes we have to wait. 

Anyway, I gazed at that unfamiliar and yet familiar little face and just reveled in the miracle that was my newborn son. Any doubt, that he was in fact mine, evaporated as he latched hungrily to my welcoming breast. 

A new journey began, unknown territory with this little one, one who had never had a book written about him or his unique ways and needs, one I had to get to know and discover and develop my maternal instincts to love and nurture as the Lord Himself intended. Such an exciting, challenging, scary, wonderful adventure. 

The Lord's plan always includes breastfeeding. Of course there are cases where it is not possible for whatever reason, and over the last thirty years I have come across one woman who could not physically breastfeed or express milk either because of a medical/skin condition called neurofibromatosis which deformed her nipples, and another whose baby had a severe cleft lip and palate and the baby could not attach to the breast at all. There are other women who have only been able to partially breastfeed due to breast reductions or hormonal issues which affect their milk supply. These are also rare.

I have met far too many mothers who have had their breastfeeding relationship with their baby, or several babies, spoiled, interrupted and often terminated prematurely. This has usually been caused by one of several ways; bad advice disguised as being somehow "Biblical" by alleged Christian "experts"; a combination of old wives tales and negative personal experiences of family or friends; or advice that is deemed as "medically necessary' by well meaning health professionals, often compounded by blatant misinformation and lack of appropriate support. 

God's perfect plan is for us all to be in fellowship with one another, as described so beautifully here;

"Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. 

They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers. 

Instead, they should teach others what is good.

These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. 

Then they will not bring shame on the word of God." Titus 2:3-5 NLT

Young women need to have Godly "older women" (women who have successfully raised Godly adult children) to teach them these things. Sadly, there is a dearth of these women. Instead we hear worldly advice and humanist opinions that you would never guess come from Christians. Or we hear or read extreme unbiblical teaching held up as Godly and unquestionable. 

That's why I am writing here, in an effort to offer support, facts and Godly counsel in the midst of the false teaching within the church and in the wider community, to anyone who is interested.

It grieves me, and I know it grieves the Lord, when babies, (His blessings and rewards), are treated as burdens to be controlled, manipulated and often neglected into some kind of allegedly "ideal routine" to suit some self professed "expert" that has never even seen your baby, never mind been given any Christ like compassion towards him or her. 

Being a mother is a life of service, a time to grow up in Christ, a time to lay aside selfishness and false expectations and begin to grow into the woman of God you were designed to be. If you don't agree with me, you are on the wrong blog and I wish you God's blessing as you dust off your feet and move on. 

For those of you still with me, I look forward to your questions and comments, your fellowship and your friendship, to the glory of God.

Breast "Preparation"? (this will be brief)

Don't be misled by all the worldly hype about "breast preparation"! Research has proven none of it is of any value!

The Lord, in all His wisdom, will make all the necessary "preparations" necessary for birth and breastfeeding. You don't need to do anything. You can trust Him!

Before the Beginning.

Way before your baby was conceived God had a plan for his or her life, as He did for each one of us. Your baby wasn't any "mistake" or as a result or any of your planning or determination to have a child - God planned your baby and allowed conception to occur.

You can also be just as confident that you are God's chosen parent for your baby, and that together with your husband or partner, if you have one, you will be the best people to lovingly nurture and train your child up to lead a Godly adult life.

The Lord gave me this message:

" I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.
    Before you were born I set you apart.."  Jeremiah 1: 4 and 5 NLT

and 

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
    and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

   Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 

 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion

    as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 

You saw me before I was born.

    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
       Every moment was laid out
           before a single day had passed." Psalm 139:13-16 NLT