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Breastfeeding is not hard.

Wow, I can’t believe I just said that. Like many women, I faced challenges breastfeeding my first child and felt like a failure when I eventually abandoned it altogether. Now that I have succeeded in exclusively breastfeeding my second child, where I had “failed” the first time, I regard my previous experience in a much different way.

In the first part of this interview [click here] Lee-Ann Charszewski talked frankly about the shock of discovering that she was having twins, the physical and emotional struggles that come with a multiple pregnancy, and her experiences in the delivery room. In the second part, she opens up on post-partum depression, breastfeeding and changes in family dynamics.

I n this world of octomoms and Jon & Kate, our sense of having multiples may have become a bit skewed. For a reality check, I sat down with Lee-Ann Charszewski, who gave birth to twins in 2007. Twins may sound like small potatoes compared to sextuplets, octuplets and however many children the Duggars are at now. But as Lee-Ann clearly articulates, there's a lot more to having twins than what any reality show has bothered to show.

Breastfeeding. I love it. I hate it. Then I love it again. Then I hate it again. A few friends told me it would be hard. Others told me it would be wonderful. They were all right.

Firstly, I love that I figured it out.

Skylar Hill-Jackson (photo by Mimi Choi)

We recently spoke to Skylar Hill-Jackson, founder and director of Baby & Me Fitness, which provides fitness classes and discussion sessions for pregnant women and new mothers. Skylar started Baby & Me Fitness in 1987, but she developed and practised the philosophy behind her Toronto-based business even before she became a mother.