My name is Pilar Davila Olivo. I am from Peru and my story begins like this.
In 2003 I gave birth to a premature baby. I was seven months pregnant when he was born. He weighted 4+11 lbs. In my culture is very important to breastfeed your baby.
In my country we had special classes in middle school that covered the importance of breast milk to infants in their first 6 months of life. What I did not know even with that early learning, is that having a premature baby would require special care for him and myself and it required a lot of work. To me this is labor of love, because I wanted nothing less than to give him the very best. I knew that my breast milk would be vital nourishment for my baby, and after realizing that I needed extra help, I found myself very blessed that when I woke up in the recovery room I had tools such as an electric pump and information provided by the hospital and BELLAS in Spanish which I read and learned from.
From there I learned how the stimulation to the breast helps keep your milk supply plenty for the pumping routine ahead. In the days that followed, I saw that my baby was only receiving my milk and gaining weight little by little at first. I never gave up and with the support from BELLAS and my labor of love, my baby looked a full term baby by 2 months. I am eternally grateful to BELLAS and what they did for me because my goal to give my baby the best was achieved even with the circumstances. I now encourage other moms to do the same labor of love for their babies because I have seen the benefits that breast milk has done for my son.
