Wedding Photography : Mistakes Make Magic
A Business Podcast for Wedding Photographers and Creatives : including interviews of successful entrepreneurs, business advice, and a ton of stories on failures and lessons learned. This podcast is dedicated to embracing imperfection and pushing others to pursue their creative passion!
Wedding Photography : Mistakes Make Magic
174: Balancing Breastfeeding with a Thriving Wedding Photography Career
I realize this is a VERY niche episode..but it's something that I wondered about: the demands of a thriving wedding photography career while breastfeeding?
In this episode, I dive into the real journey of balancing motherhood with a high-stress job. Through my personal story, I recount the steep learning curve of those initial three weeks of breastfeeding and the perseverance it requires. My aim is to offer encouragement and practical insights for anyone considering breastfeeding while maintaining a demanding career.
As we navigate through the logistics of returning to wedding photography postpartum, I share invaluable tips from my own experiences of getting back to work at eight and ten weeks postpartum. Learn about the physical, mental, and emotional healing necessary during this period and why taking at least twelve weeks can make a difference.
I dive into practical strategies for pumping on wedding days, including a comparison of the Willow and Elvie Stride pumps, and how to maintain milk supply without compromising your professional commitments.
Tune in for inspiration and actionable advice on harmonizing the roles of motherhood and career success.
CLICK HERE TO RATE & REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS
(Click the link, scroll down to where it says "Ratings & Reviews" and click the small ink that says "Write a Review")
Watch our FREE Posing Master Class
Watch our FREE Business Master Class
Download the FREE PRICING GUIDE
Download the FREE POSING GUIDE
Access the FREE FACEBOOK GROUP
Trial SHOWIT
Join the WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY SOCIETY
Check out our EDUCATION SHOP
Access the FULL TIME WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE
View our TEMPLATES and CONTRACTS
More PHOTO RESOURCES
View our ...
Hello and thank you for tuning in to our most recent episode of the podcast. I'm Katherine Guidry, I'm a wedding photographer and educator for wedding photographers, and I am so excited to be chatting with you today about motherhood and, specifically, motherhood as a wedding photographer. If you are planning to breastfeed, and so this is a very niche episode, it may not be for everyone, and that is okay. However, the number of people that reach out and ask how I breastfed while being a wedding photographer is kind of crazy. It's apparently something that we've all wondered about. I know I personally was not sure how to do this. Again, our occupation is very unique. It's very challenging mentally, physically, but it's also very rewarding, and I am so excited and so proud to say that this is something that I did want to do and I was able to successfully do for both of my girls my first, I breastfed her for almost five months. For both of my girls, my first, I breastfed her for almost five months, and my second, I just stopped breastfeeding, probably about a week ago, and she's eight months old. I think the AAP recommendation is a year. I was proud of myself to get to six months and I think, if this is something that you are interested in doing.
Speaker 1:I'm going to talk a little bit about today why I decided to breastfeed and then, of course, how I was able to execute that as a wedding photographer, which, as I already said, is a little bit challenging but, in my opinion, totally worth it, which we'll get into in the why. So let me start with that. Why did I decide to breastfeed? Well, as a first time mom, I really didn't know the difference when I was pregnant, but everyone just said you know well, if you can, you should try. And, of course, you know the medical staff, my doctor, they encouraged it and so I did a little bit of research on my own because I feel like if enough people are recommending something to me, I am going to receive that, do a little bit of my own and then make my own decision about it. And I now, having done it twice, I do see the value in it and I understand why they encouraged me to at least try.
Speaker 1:So the why I think it's incredible for bonding, especially with my second. Especially with my second, I already had a two and a half year old and life was still very busy with you know, my social life and my friends and my job and my husband and just being a person on the earth, and so I wasn't sure, like, how things were going to work out. But I can tell you this having that exclusive time with my youngest to stop everything that I was doing and breastfeed her I told Brad one time. I said I'm really glad I'm breastfeeding the baby because, you know, a life is so busy that I just could see me maybe even just like I don't know, like forgetting to take that time with her, and so it really forced me to stop and to bond with her and have that same level of bond that I have with my oldest and everything that I'm saying. I just want to acknowledge that you can absolutely bond with both of your children without breastfeeding. I think that every family is different. I am truly just sharing my story and what has helped me, so I never want to come across as like this is the only way or this is the best way. That's like a such a pet peeve of mine Whenever people say, oh, this is the right way, it's this, this is just what worked for me and my story. So thank you for, you know, hearing my story and considering it potentially for yourself, so having that time to bond was really incredible.
Speaker 1:I will acknowledge that the first three weeks of breastfeeding is quite awful. Honestly and I'm going to just say it like it is, I'm not I'm a no fluff person it is really really hard. I had multiple conversations with my best friends like why are people doing this? This is brutal Because you know you've just carried the baby for 40 weeks. If you carried her, um, you know, like as if you were pregnant for the baby, um, you've gone through labor, whether that's a C-section or a vaginal delivery you're recovering and then, like for me, I had vaginal deliveries for both and then you're healing. So you're like healing and you're breastfeeding and it is just brutal.
Speaker 1:No one else can feed the baby. You are around the clock, on call, and sometimes that's from the start of one feeding to the next an hour and a half, and babies at that age will feed sometimes for like 30 to 45 minutes. So for 45 minutes you might be feeding, you might have a 20 minute break and then your baby's crying again and wants you to feed. And it's around the clock for three weeks and it's just exhausting. I did not pump for either baby for three weeks. I think that's the recommendation to really establish their latch, establish that bond and then move into pumping. With that being said, I do have friends and know people that pumped right out the gate and I'll talk about that as well, because I did pump for both but for the first three weeks exclusively breastfed, and it was. I'm just gonna go ahead and acknowledge it is not fun, it is very hard and you will wonder why you were doing it. But once you sort of get past that first stage, you kind of get into a routine and the feedings get further apart. So now you're moving into maybe every three hours or every four hours. Even breastfed babies do tend to feed in a little bit closer of gaps. But you know, outside of the bonding there are statistics around a breastfed baby's ability to really establish their ability to determine how hungry they are and they're not just being told or like shown how much to eat through a bottle or through a spoon. You know, later on, when they start eating solids with breastfeeding they're in control, they're able to say, okay, I am not hungry anymore, I'm going to stop. And that establishment does statistically carry on.
Speaker 1:For me, the biggest thing that I was so grateful for, I actually didn't even realize until I had my second baby. She had a horrible bout of sickness for, oh my gosh, we were off and on for about eight weeks and during that eight week period this is very, very, very fresh, which is why part of why I wanted to record this now because, like I said, I just stopped breastfeeding a week ago. And so I wanted to record this now because, like I said, I just stopped breastfeeding a week ago and so I wanted to record this while everything's super fresh. But basically, during the eight-week period, there was two bouts of sickness that she had where she would not take a bottle. One was 10 days long and one was about five days long. And when I say she refused a bottle, she would not eat anything out of a bottle, she would only feed on the breast.
Speaker 1:In both of those situations she did have an ear infection and apparently the doctors and research has shown that there's like pain that comes when they suck on the bottle, but when they feed on the breast, that pain is not there. It's also comforting for them, they feel a sense of security, and so they are willing to eat, and I know my baby was very sick, but her ability to breastfeed, kept her out of the hospital for dehydration because she was still feeding. And when you're breastfeeding, the body this is like the coolest, craziest thing that I read is that the body is receiving the baby's saliva and understanding that they're sick and then releasing antibodies into the saliva back into their bodies so that your antibodies can then protect them. And being someone who, like I, hate seeing my baby sick I mean, who doesn't, who hates seeing their little one sick, knowing that breastfeeding protects them and gives them those antibodies, to myself I just kept saying I don't care how hard this, this is, I'm going to do what I can to push through to give them those antibodies as long as I can. My youngest, like I said, she's now eight months old and she does have tubes. She just had tube surgery and I felt like once we were able to get the tubes in, that would also give her that other layer of you know, quick healing, essentially when she has a cold, that now her, like the mucus and whatnot, isn't going to get stuck in her sinus and ears, it's gonna go ahead and drain through the tubes. And so I felt a lot of peace after the tube surgery and it kind of allowed me to feel comfortable scaling back on the feeding. I also just started losing my supply. What happens? There's a lot of ways in which you can lose your supply and a lot of it has to do with how often you're feeding them.
Speaker 1:Both of my girls started school very young. I think I could do a whole episode on how I approach motherhood with photography and like what's worked well for us, and I probably will do that. But both of them did start school young. My oldest started at eight months, my youngest started at three months and apparently school quote-unquote is very kind of like unique to New Orleans. I didn't realize this. In some cities they have a Mother's Day out or a daycare program. Whenever I see school, it is very similar. I think some of the teachings might be a little different. Her school is Reggio Emilia School and they have programs and play-based activities. But if you hear me say school, it's not like they're going to learn how to read and write yet. It's just a different setup. But anywho, going back to the age that they started, they're both very young, which means that they're around other kids, they're around other humans like adults, and they're going to get sick.
Speaker 1:That should describe my why, why I decided to do this, why I decided to go through the hard work of breastfeeding, and I am so thankful I really am and it was such an amazing experience that I'm very, very grateful to have experienced. I also can acknowledge that there are a lot of mothers that cannot breastfeed, for whatever reason. Maybe their baby doesn't latch well, maybe they don't have enough supply, and so that is, you know, something that people do experience, and I do understand that, and so I am very grateful to have had this experience For both of my girls. I wanted to dig a little bit into this, which is that when I first started breastfeeding, for each of them, they lost weight initially, which is always the case. Like always, in the beginning, your babies are going to lose weight, and once you get into the routine of breastfeeding, they do start to gain that weight back. However, for both of mine, at about the three-week mark, when they were doing their weight checkup, the doctors were like okay, they're not gaining enough weight, and so I think the tendency there was for me to immediately switch them to formula.
Speaker 1:However, what I did instead was I started pumping so that I could see exactly how much milk I was producing, and I kept a very regimented pumping schedule producing and I kept a very regimented pumping schedule. I used the Spectra plug-in pump, which I highly recommend, because it allows you to create like a similar feeling to your baby feeding and your body really responds well to that, or my body responded really well to that. But I have heard like pretty much across the board that the electric pumps which I'll talk about on a wedding date, aren't as great for keeping your supply. So the plug-in pump was amazing to actually build my supply. I started pumping at three weeks for both. I could see how much milk I was producing and, crazy enough, one side put out like one ounce and then the other side was putting out three ounces ounce and then the other side was putting out three ounces.
Speaker 1:Once I figured that out I was like, oh, she's losing weight because I'm equally splitting time on both sides and she's not getting enough milk because I'm cutting her off of the one side that's actually producing more milk and so pumping actually helped the side that wasn't producing as much produce more. But pretty much throughout the entire time that I was breastfeeding, the side that was producing more in the beginning always continued to produce more. So continue to pump and like used the appropriate amount of ounces to feed her and feed her more frequently, and then also, whenever I fed her, like on my actual breast, I pretty much just put her on that side and let her feed as long as she wanted. So, yes, I ended up having two breasts, two completely different sizes, for like eight months, but that's okay. I can safely say that they've returned to normal and they're the same size pretty much now. But yeah, so the Spectra pump was what I used when I was at home.
Speaker 1:It is absolutely obnoxious. I can't believe that it's like 2024 when I'm recording this and they still look like that. You cannot do it in front of people. You have to pretty much take your whole like top half of clothes off or wear a nursing shirt. I had a bra to hold the pumps in and you have to plug into the wall, so it's like very limiting.
Speaker 1:I was able to figure out how to pump and bottle feed her at the same time. It is awkward, but I would just kind of put her on the side of me and feed her the bottle while I was pumping, and it just made sense because I knew how much she was getting and I know people will give me a hard time, or did give me a hard time, like just breastfeed her, it's like but I want to know that she's getting exactly how much that she's getting to gain weight. You know, I think in the very beginning of the podcast I talked about like letting the baby choose versus you choose. Well, in this situation I think she was hungry and she wasn't getting enough milk because she cried so much for the first three weeks, and my oldest did too. But once I started bottle feeding both of them, they both gained the weight back and I both, like, I knew for both of them how much milk they were getting, and so sometimes your body may not ever put out enough. But I know, once I started using the spectra and bottle feeding consistently every two to three hours, my supply grew and I knew that the babies were getting enough milk. So that was like the first three months.
Speaker 1:Once I went back to weddings, which I went back at eight weeks for my oldest, I went back at 10 weeks for my youngest, which I think I mentioned this on the last podcast about pregnancy and wedding photography, I highly recommend taking 12 weeks. If you can and I think you should. I can now say that I've gone back at eight and 10 weeks and for both of them I wished I had had 12. Like the physical healing, the mental healing, the emotional healing, it is just hard. I'm eight weeks postpartum right now. Eight months postpartum. I keep on getting my weeks and months confused, can you tell? I'm postpartum, my eight months postpartum right now and I can truly say that I'm still not my myself 100%. It's just really taxing and if you're going back earlier than that, you're really just it's going to be hard on you. When I went back, here is how I think this is like.
Speaker 1:The biggest question for people is like how do you pump on wedding days? How do you? How do you do that? So I bought for my oldest the Willow and then for my youngest I used the LV Stride. I actually found the LV Stride to be more comfortable. It's also less expensive. The cord is a little bit frustrating and a few times I was like putting it on and leaking because I wasn't doing it right. So just kind of practice with it before the wedding day. Don't just show up like like any. You know, treat it like any other piece of gear. You're not going to show up to a wedding day with a new camera never having tested it before. So, like, take a day or two before the wedding to figure out how to use your equipment. I used the Willow. It was great. It is expensive and the containers don't work, but if you're buying it just to use on the wedding days with bags, I think you're fine. The LV Stride you do use with containers, it doesn't have bags, and then, of course, you would take that and pour it into a bag that you would refrigerate or put it into a bottle, whatever. For my oldest, I, of course, salvaged my milk, because I was like, oh, I don't want to waste any milk, and it does. You know, this is liquid gold.
Speaker 1:For my second, I understood that keeping my supply was more important than keeping the milk. I felt like it was an added element that I couldn't mentally wrap my head around for baby number two, and so I did pump and dump on wedding days, and again, did it hurt? Obviously it sucked, but I felt like I was keeping my supply, and so I didn't really care. For my oldest, though, I did bring just a little ice chest, a little ice bag, you know, with ice in it, and I put the milk in bags and I would save it and like it was fine. But again, you know it's for feedings. It's okay if you need to pump and dump for that day because you're thinking about big picture like how can you keep your supply up?
Speaker 1:When I would go to pump, I would start the day right before I would begin photographing. So essentially, you know, on the way to the wedding in the Uber, I'm pumping. When I get to the venue, I take them out, I dump them into a bag, I clean them, I use the Medalla spray and the Medalla wipes and paper towels. I discard all of that and I put the pump and the containers into a dry section, made that mistake At one point. I threw the pump into the ice water with the milk and, needless to say, I broke my pump. So don't do that. Put it in a dry area. I know there's a lot going on on a wedding day, so just remember that I said this put it in a dry bag and put the milk in a wet bag wet, cool bag if you're going to keep your milk. But on the way to the wedding, that's my first pump, clean them, put them away. So now I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1:When we start the day. Obviously we're jumping into details prep, you know. First look portraits. At the end of the portraits, before the ceremony, there's usually a window of like anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour where you have a little bit of downtime to use the restroom, snack up and, for me, pump. I did not ever stop. People never knew that I was pumping, and I think this is the biggest, in my opinion, trick to have to get through in order to pump because you don't want to have to impact. I never wanted I'll just speak for myself I never wanted my physical needs and preferences to impact my job and the expectation level from my client, like I never wanted them to even know that I was pumping.
Speaker 1:And so I chose these double electric pumps because you can have them assembled. So when you take them apart and you pump your milk on the way you know, before you start shooting, you reassemble them and you have them ready to go. So the next time you can pump, you put them in and you have them on for that 20 minute period. And then, same thing you take them out, you dump them, you clean them, but you can do all of that in about three minutes. You can dump them, clean them and reassemble them in about three minutes. That's as long as it would take you to go to the restroom.
Speaker 1:And so and I would do this in the restroom and I would just be really quick about it and I never impacted the day and that's why I found these specific windows, so pump one on the way to the wedding, pump two in between the portraits and the ceremony. Then I would photograph the ceremony, move into the formal events at the reception, so like first dance, formal dances and cake cutting, and then I would put the pumps again, pump, take them out and then at the very end of the night depending on how long I'm photographing the reception for, I would then pump at the very end of the night and then, of course, you know, go home, upload photos, download stuff, maybe don't work on their previews, maybe not potentially pump again, depending on how long it would be, and then go to bed. So you know, five to six pumps in a day is like the recommended amount, I think in the earlier time. It's like maybe six to eight. By the time I went back to weddings it was, you know, five to six a day, and so that schedule worked really well.
Speaker 1:If you feel like you want to use your spectra, you want to plug in, you want to sit down and not work, that's fine, but my recommendation is to make absolute sure that your second photographer is stepping in and able to take over the primary position for you during that time, so the events don't stop. The truth is, it's really not feasible to take an hour break during a wedding day without having those times documented, and each time you're pumping it's about 20 to 30 minutes by the time you set up, you know, take it apart, clean it, all that good stuff. So you know. If you're thinking 20, 40, oh, actually it's 20, 40, 60,. It's an hour and 20 minutes plus the setup. Yeah, it's almost two hours. So, realistically speaking, if you're gonna do this, you really need an electric pump and you probably need to adopt either this method or have someone there to step in for you.
Speaker 1:I know I was always really worried about oh my gosh, like, what if my baby doesn't feed? What if somebody has to bring the baby to me during the wedding day? That I know for sure has happened. I know two people in my own personal life whose babies would not take a bottle, so, like that does happen. But also give yourself a little bit of peace of mind and knowing that you're going to need a babysitter no matter what right or someone to watch your child while you're photographing a wedding, and so if that happens, then you hire someone to step in while you're feeding the baby. They can photograph the wedding day. Events do not stop. You find someone who's super qualified and you can breastfeed your baby. So there are plenty of options.
Speaker 1:I think the biggest message that I wanted to share is that have no fear about this. I had never heard anyone talk about how they breastfed, what they did, what supplies they use. I had no idea how to do this and I still figured it out. And here you're being given a roadmap like do these things feed at these times? And it will work out for you. I can say that with absolute confidence. You're going to be fine. You can do it. You do not have to have fear around this. If it's something that's important to you, it is absolutely possible. In my opinion, it is absolutely worth it if you're given the gift of being able to do this, and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. I hope that this episode was helpful. I know I would have loved to have heard this before I had my babies, because I just had so many questions.
Speaker 1:And if you want to have questions like this answered on the daily or participate in group and coaching calls where we talk about things like this, I would love for you to check out the Wedding Photography Society that is our membership community. It's WeddingPhotographySocietycom community. It's weddingphotographysocietycom. We are not always in open enrollment, but when we are, I highly encourage you to jump in, because it is such a great resource for you to get the information that you need when you need it, not just from me, but from other professionals in the industry as well. And if you're a mom, there are plenty of mothers in the group and we talk about things like this, so we'd love to have you. You would love for you to consider it, and even if you don't join, I wanted to let you know that, as a podcast listener, I so appreciate you.
Speaker 1:This is yet another episode that I'm recording on the road and, honestly, this has been amazing for me. I've upgraded. I am now recording from a headset. Brad was like your audio is not good enough. You got to upgrade your audio, so I hope this one was more clear than the last two that I recorded in the car and that you found this information helpful. Thank you for tuning in. I hope you have a wonderful day and best of luck at your next wedding. Talk to you soon.