Many moms struggle to breastfeed one baby, but when Alecia Staines saw a desperate call for help from a mom of twins she didn’t hesitate to step in and help.
Alecia had first met the young mom at childbirth education classes she was running in Noosa and struck up a relationship with her.
After the babies were born, the mom struggled to breastfeed with low milk supply due to a retained placenta and being separated from the twins while they were in special care.
“I’d seen she’d been reaching out online for donor milk,” Alecia tells Kidspot. “They had travelled up to an hour and a half away to collect milk.
“I knew she needed a break and offered to watch the babies overnight to give her a rest.
“I said I didn’t have the capacity to pump but was happy while I was there to breastfeed the babies.”
With her family overseas and COVID lockdowns the young mom had little support and jumped at the offer of having Alecia wet nurse her twelve-week-old twins.
Alecia was already breastfeeding her fifth child, who was two at the time.
“My daughter got a bit funny about it, wondering why I was feeding another baby,” the 40-year-old laughs.
“I was surprised how easily they attached because it was a different breast, and they were being supplemented with bottles of breastmilk.”
The mom of six also didn’t know if her flow would come as the babies weren’t her own.
Wet nursing common practice before formula
Alecia explains the family were keen to make sure their twins had breastmilk for the first 12 months and having the twins wet nursed gave them an opportunity to prolong their stash of donor milk.
“I knew how much milk they’d require, and it was easy to just breastfeed them while I was there,” she explains.
However, she recalls one awkward moment when the twins’ father walked in from work and saw her breastfeeding one of his babies on the couch, even though she knew this was his wish.
Wet nursing was once very common before formula was invented in the early twentieth century; it is not so well known nowadays.
Although Alecia believes with women’s knowledge of the importance of breastfeeding, more would be open to the idea in preference to formula if the opportunity arose and says breastfeeding is more effective at getting the milk out than using a pump.
“I’ve been breastfeeding for almost half my adult life”
Breastfeeding did not come easy to Alecia when she gave birth to her first child 15 years ago.
“My first experience was horrible. It was almost worse than birth because of the pain,” she reveals.
“I expressed and fed by a bottle for the first 12 weeks. It was really tough. I had nipple shields, but it was still excruciating.”
However, she’s grateful to the midwives who worked with her to get her son back on the breast.
“I’ve been breastfeeding for nine years in total – almost half my adult life,” she shares.
And with her sixth daughter just turned one and still breastfeeding she says she wouldn’t hesitate to wet nurse again.
August 1-7 is World Breastfeeding Week. For more information about the week, or how to get involved in one of the official events around the country, click here
