Jeannie Mai Jenkins has shared more details about her motherhood journey. In a new video uploaded on her YouTube channel.
via: People
“All I was doing around the clock — even through my sleep by the way, 24 hours a day — was trying to take my vitamins, drink my tea, chew my gummies, and pump milk,” she said. “And nothing was coming out. It was maybe about an ounce.”
Mai Jenkins, 43, continued, “This was really, really, really upsetting. You feel so defeated when your baby’s hungry, you’re not producing enough for the baby. You’re seeing all these commercials and other women and even Instagram showing these amazing pictures of moms bonding with their kid and breastfeeding their babies, actually just getting really frustrated. You’re reading so many different pieces of advice that aren’t really just helping you see results.”
Admitting that she “got really, really depressed” during the experience, the fashion pro added, “I started to give up.”
Still, she said once she stopped, the small amount she was producing began to “build up inside of my breasts,” causing the star pain as they became engorged.
“I’ve never experienced this type of pain — mastitis started happening, and it was so, so painful. Imagine getting punched in the boob, but instead of getting punched and they let go, it’s like one big punch, and it stays there super impacted on your boob. Then I’d have to pump in order to get the milk out, but then I’d have clogged ducts,” Mai Jenkins said.
She recalled waking up one day and noticing that she had white dots on her nipple. “You couldn’t pop them, they weren’t something you could remove. It was literally milk stuck in a duct. It was so full that it was showing through my skin.”
“Is this gross? This is terrible, huh? This is crazy,” Mai Jenkins said to someone off-camera.
Mai Jenkins eventually found a sense of relief thanks to YouTube, friends, using hot compresses and using hot water in the shower. However, she still experienced difficulty.
“The whole time it’s throbbing like crazy. You literally can’t even eat. It hurts so bad. You can’t even talk about it with anybody ’cause you don’t have time to talk about it. You’re supposed to be taking another vitamin, you’re supposed to be trying to pump it out, or you’re supposed to be feeding your baby,” she explained. “And you’re supposed to try to keep calm the whole time.”
She said she later realized it simply “took my body time to actually settle in and relax and get into this. Even if it meant taking six weeks. I was stressing every day … Every day, every three hours you’re reminded that it’s not working for you.”
Mai Jenkins concluded, “I want to hear so much from everybody out there, and I have so much to learn, so thank you for being patient with my journey. Thank you for not judging me because I am learning, and I am open to learning more.”
