Becoming a Mother and Learning to Breastfeed: An Emergent Autoethnography.

A woman's journey into motherhood and first encounters with breastfeeding are profound learning experiences. During the perinatal period of my first pregnancy, I kept a journal documenting my thoughts and feelings. What emerged from my journals is an autoethnography, revealing my new understandings of myself as a woman within a culture of mothers and a deeper understanding of myself as a learner. Anecdotal stories shared with me by other women became the impetus for my reflection during my journey into motherhood. Although learning to breastfeed for the first time, I became aware of the significance of lived experience on my learning. As I interweave my personal and scholarly voices, I present to you my journals layered with my research.