007 - When your breast pump breaks, you lose your shit, and you don’t have the mental sanity to get up every 2 hours with Cora Poage

In today's episode, I interviewed one of my best friends and fellow mamas, Cora Poage. She and I have known each other since we worked together at a summer job in college, and we’ve been really fortunate that our growth trajectory has mirrored each other's in many ways. So much so that we both had our first babies in 2022, almost twenty years after we initially met. My daughter is seven months older than Cora’s son, Nico.

Today, Cora shares how she went from hoping to have an unmedicated homebirth in a tub with a midwife to a hospital birth with pitocin and an epidural thanks to high blood pressure and stalled labor.  She was so grateful to her friends who told her to have a birth plan but to be prepared to throw it out. This allowed her to stay strong and advocate for herself and her baby.

We Also Hear:

• How a Nurse Hand Expressed Cora's Breast To Get Her Colostrum to Flow 
• The breastfeeding, pumping, and bottle feeding regimen was around the clock for the first few weeks. 
• How Cora kept her sanity and fed her baby without having to get up every two hours in the middle of the night.
• How Cora released her pre-mama self and found surprising joys in motherhood.
• Gender role challenges
• What happened one night when her pump broke? 
• Breastmilk supply food recommendations like oatmeal, quinoa, and post-natal vitamins
• How to be gentle with yourself when you lose your shit!

And so much more!

You can find Cora at: https://www.instagram.com/coachcoco/ or CoraPoage.com.

Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode, it would mean the world to me if you'd be willing to take 30 seconds to rate and review the podcast.

And, if you're interested in coming on to share your own baby-feeding story, head to mollyrider.com and click on "Share Your Story."