There is a particular kind of panic that only happens in the first week of motherhood. You catch sight of yourself in the bathroom mirror and something is wrong, and you have no idea whether it is normal, dangerous, or something nobody warned you about.

For Ivy, it was the moment she realised one breast was three times the size of the other.

"My breastfeeding journey started like so many other women's, a mix of pain, tears, and wonder. But I will never forget the moment I looked in the mirror, a couple of days after my milk came in, and noticed one boob was triple the size of the other. I ran out of the bathroom looking for my husband. I had no idea what was going on. This was a landmark moment in my breastfeeding journey."

The cause turned out to be an old nipple piercing. The scar tissue left behind had blocked the milk ducts on one side, and no amount of trying was going to change that.

"I sought advice from a lactation consultant and maternal and child health nurse, who both encouraged me to give my baby formula top ups if I was going to continue breastfeeding. This didn't feel right, but being new to motherhood and breastfeeding, I followed their advice. It only took a couple of days for me to realise that he didn't want, or need, a top up. My body was doing its thing, supply and demand. So I trusted my motherly instincts and continued feeding him exclusively from one breast, and we carried on until I was pregnant with my second and he self-weaned."

One breast. One baby, then another, then another.

"I'm now 2 months into breastfeeding my third baby, and I'm so confident in my body's ability to provide exactly what my bubbas need. The early days were gruelling, especially with one nipple taking the brunt of it, but I'd push through the pain any day to keep breastfeeding my beautiful babies. Here's to 3.5 years of breastfeeding from one boob and counting."

What Ivy's story tells us

Breastfeeding is rarely the symmetrical, straightforward thing the pamphlets suggest. Bodies are lopsided. Ducts get blocked. Old piercings from a decade ago turn up in the delivery ward with opinions.

What stands out in Ivy's story is not that she pushed through pain, though she did. It is how quickly she went from having no idea what was happening to understanding her own body well enough to make decisions about it. Three and a half years of feeding from one side is not stubbornness. It is a woman who learned what her body was doing and then backed it.

We hear versions of this constantly. The mum whose supply came in late. The mum who exclusively pumped for eight months. The mum who fed through mastitis, through a tongue tie, through going back to work at ten weeks. Almost nobody has the uncomplicated version, and almost everybody assumes they are the only one who didn't.

A note on advice

Ivy's decision was right for her baby, and she watched him closely to be sure of it. That part matters.

If you find yourself weighing up advice from a lactation consultant or child health nurse against your own instincts, it's worth saying plainly: top ups are recommended for real reasons, usually around weight gain, and those reasons are sometimes urgent. Ivy's story is not a case for ignoring professional advice. It is a case for staying close to your baby, asking questions until the answers make sense, and going back for a second opinion when something doesn't sit right.

Trusting your instincts and getting good support are not opposites. The mums who do best usually have both.

Ivy, you were born to be a mama

Here's to one-boob feeding, to bodies that surprise us, and to three and a half years and counting. 

If you have a story like Ivy's, we would love to hear it. Every one of them makes the next mum feel less alone.