Jenny Potter
Oklahoma
I’m a proud mom of three boys: Silas is almost 4 years old, George is 2 years old, and Van is 4 months old. Motherhood has been a wonderful experience for me. Being a mother is very fulfilling! I was very fortunate to have great births with my boys.
After my son George was born, a mutual friend’s son went into The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical with pertussis. Aiden was kept in the hospital for five weeks, but didn’t make it out. The loss was very profound, even though I hadn’t met Aiden’s mom yet. I internalized Aiden’s grief – I wanted to turn it into something positive so his legacy could live on.
I learned about milk banking through Facebook, when a friend asked a question to the Oklahoma Mothers' Milk Bank and it made me look into milk banking as well. Since the OK Mothers' Milk Bank wasn’t open yet, I was told to contact Mothers’ Milk Bank of North Texas. I spoke to Simone and found that it was very easy to become a donor. I even inspired my friend Keri to do it! Now that Van and I have established our breastfeeding relationship, I will be donating once again. I am a big advocate for human milk banking and even spoke at a WIC luncheon about donation last year.
Jenny’s Breastfeeding Advice
My two older boys and I had to work hard to breastfeed. Silas had latch issues and I pumped exclusively for him until he was 6 months old. George had dairy and soy intolerances, which made eating tough to navigate – dairy is in everything! Luckily, breastfeeding Van has gone really well. He has a great latch and no intolerances!
If something isn’t going well with one baby, be sure to breastfeed the next baby. Not only is every baby different, but breastfeeding also gets easier over time.
You can read more about Jenny’s breastfeeding and milk donation journey on her blog, Spinning Jenny.