#351 | Inside A Difficult Breastfeeding Journey: Flat Nipples, Tongue Tie and Slow Weight Gain

Down to Birth

Cynthia Overgard & Trisha Ludwig

Pregnancy, Childbirth, Postpartum, Midwives, Alternative Health, Home Birth, Society & Culture, Newborn, Documentary, Hypnobirthing, Kids & Family, Health & Fitness, Breastfeeding, Pregnant, Birth, Maternity, Motherhood

4.8 • 586 Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2026

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, Jessica shares the breastfeeding journey she never expected. After a smooth birth at a birth center, feeding quickly became complicated: flat nipples, an early nipple shield, a missed first feeding window, a significant tongue tie, and a baby who grew increasingly sleepy and underweight. What followed was weeks of pumping, weighted feeds, donor milk, tongue-tie revision, and the ongoing effort to understand why breastfeeding wasn’t working despite doing everything “right.” Je...

Transcript

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0:00.0	I felt so inadequate. I also felt resentful towards my own anatomy. Let's set the record straight here.
0:12.8	Breastfeeding is not easy. Yeah. It's just not. Most of the time breastfeeding comes with
0:18.6	challenges. It's very natural. It is the most natural thing
0:22.5	that our bodies are designed to do. But we're talking about two people who have to work together.
0:28.9	The instinct in the mother and the instinct in the baby are very strong. We are designed to do this.
0:33.9	We are designed to make milk. But learning the process of making it work well
0:38.4	and comfortably and efficiently is not easy. It was that intuition. I just felt like she's not
0:45.7	getting what she needs. I dreaded passing her over to get Wade because I was like,
0:50.3	it's not going to be enough. It's not going to be enough.
0:57.5	It truly, truly felt like I was failing her.
1:06.5	And, um, like it just, you know, it just breaks my heart.
1:15.0	I'm Cynthia Overgard, birth educator, advocate for informed consent, and postpartum support specialist.
1:21.1	And I'm Tresha Ludwig, certified nurse midwife and international board certified lactation consultant.
1:23.7	And this is the Down to Birth Show.
1:29.7	Childbirth is something we're made to do. But how do we have our safest and most satisfying experience in today's medical culture? Let's dispel the myths and get down to birth.
1:42.8	My name is Jessica, and we live in Stafford, Virginia. And I have a 16-month-old daughter, and I'm actually
1:50.5	currently pregnant with baby number two right now. Congratulations. Thank you. So you're going to share with us
1:58.3	today, not a birth story, but a breastfeeding story, correct?
2:03.1	Yes, I did not have the breastfeeding journey that I was hoping for. I ended up exclusively pumping about 12 weeks into all the fun trials of breastfeeding.
2:15.2	And so I think I know I definitely struggled with, I looked around me and it was like everybody else had such easy breastfeeding journeys. And even though I know that's not necessarily the case, it was like, is there anybody who like has a story similar to mine? And I know we have a lot of birth stories on the on the show. So I was like, maybe we can do a little breastfeeding one too, just kind of
2:35.0	loop in some women who might have some struggles. And, you know, things just didn't pan out
2:41.2	the way that they wanted it to. Why don't you start from just telling us about your birth,
	...

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