A mother’s intuition is born as she becomes a mother. That may be a different moment for different women – conception may bring this intuition out, birth, adoption, holding your baby, or a specific moment after this may as well. There is not one magical second that it happens for all mothers, but I can tell you that it will happen. This intuition is nothing to mess around with – it is powerful and purposeful. It can be the difference between life and death for some children. That seems drastic, but I am not kidding. Doctors are wonderful; social media groups can be beyond helpful, but there is absolutely nothing that compares to a mother’s gut. Knowing your own self – and your baby, is something that no one else can understand like a parent can – more specifically, a mother.

There are these little alarms that seem to go off when something feels off with your baby. Some mothers silence them without thinking twice because a partner, a friend, or a doctor reassures them that all is fine, and sometimes it is… but not always. Those alarms may continue to go off, and each time they are silenced, another chance to dig to the root of a problem is being neglected. My point it this, if there is reason, a mother’s intuition will continue to alarm over and over again until that mother acts on it. She can be silenced and ignored for only so long before the Mama Bear in her reacts. Warning signs can include:

• Gut feelings that don't fade
• Heart racing
• Constant butterflies in the stomach
• Fear and doubt that worsens with research

I’ll share my own story, as it may help someone out there understand just how important it is to follow that intuition.

My second baby, Emmett, was born two-weeks early with a beautiful homebirth. He was jaundice and we rented the bili-blanket to help. He wasn’t transferring milk well and had his tongue-tie clipped. It was a rough few weeks. But there was something else that didn’t seem to bother any one else but me – his mother. He coughed A LOT. It was this dry, weird cough and I had never heard a newborn cough like this. Doctors laughed me off, even after I tried to tell them that he also DID.NOT.SLEEP – EVER. People thought I was complaining, but I knew something was wrong. He didn’t sleep longer than 45 minutes at a time until over two-years old. He could not sleep lying down at all, which meant that I slept sitting in the rocker with him on my shoulder for the first 8 months of his life.

It finally occurred to me to video what would happen when I laid him down. That video showed how his lips turned purple, the coughing worsened and he started going blue until I picked him up. That was all I needed. Doctors started listening to me. After allergy testing, we learned that he was severely allergic to eggs, which I was eating daily and he was consuming through my milk. If we had followed everyone’s advice to stay on track with medical recommendations, our son would have been in the NICU – or could have died due to this allergy. At this point, everyone thought the problem was solved, but my intuition alarms were still blaring loudly. It took another six months before anyone would hear me though. Emmett still didn’t sleep, and the coughing (while better) was still occurring. His speech was delayed, and he would not eat food – he only nursed. I pushed and pushed to having IgG testing on him to see what foods hurt his gut. FINALLY, a pediatrician listened to me. The list of foods that came back was crazy. Our entire lives changed. We researched everything about our food system, and our eyes were opened. Through diet, we have healed Emmett’s gut and helped him gain speech. Our lives are chemical and toxin- free now, and we are very careful as to knowing the sources of our foods.

I cannot stress this enough, as we were told by three doctors that we could have “Lost Emmett” had I not followed my intuition - I did not know any of this when I started. I didn’t know why I was fighting – except that Emmett was MINE, and I KNEW something was wrong. Mother’s Intuition is REAL. We are meant to protect our young, and no one else knows our babies like we do.