Mama's Magic Milk Shoppe

Hello! I’m Sarah and I am a stay-at-home mom in Bucks County, PA. I’ll be completely honest: when I first heard about breastmilk jewelry, it was before I’d had a baby, and I was grossed out. “Ew!” I thought, “why would someone want to wear their milk?!” My motherhood journey began in March of 2020, when I found out TWO days into the initial shut-down of the COVID-19 pandemic that I was pregnant with our first child. Going through the pregnancy almost completely isolated due to restrictions, with HG, was one of the most difficult yet transformative things I have ever done. After knowing multiple women who experienced traumatic birth experiences, I decided to look into literally everything involving pregnancy, labor, and birth. I took classes, I asked around, I read books. It was well worth it, and after a 65-hour labor, I gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl. I can look back on my experience with positivity despite my birth going NOTHING like I expected it to! My passion surrounding motherhood was born. I have since helped educate and “coach” a few friends through their pregnancy and labors and helped them have a beautiful experience. Breastfeeding has been very similar. It started out beautifully. I was so thankful to have a natural start, a beautiful latch, and smooth sailing right from the start because I know that is not the experience of many. However, when my daughter was about 4 weeks old, that all changed. She developed thrush, and through a series of unfortunate events and mismanaged treatment, I struggled with the infection affecting my own milk ducts for nearly 5 months before we were finally free. In that time, I had gone back to work, I struggled sooo much with pumping, and I lost much of my supply due to the infection and the medications I ultimately ended up on to finally rid it. After three more months of supplementing and nursing and power pumping, I was able to get my supply back. I had a leftover bag of “thrush” milk that I didn’t want to give my daughter for fear of reinfection, but after so much loss I refused to throw it away. It was then that I “re-discovered” breastmilk jewelry. Before, I thought it was weird and gross, but now I wear my trophies with joy. I think that without going through it - the ups and downs, the struggles and the accomplishments - I never would have appreciated their beauty. Like many of you, I struggled with the idea of shipping my milk and if something went wrong in transit, and I also couldn’t get over how incredibly expensive it is to have a single piece made! I decided to look into how to make them myself, and spent months learning all the “ins and outs” of how it’s done, and then I made myself my first piece of jewelry in the fall of 2021. After seeing it, I had a few friends and family ask for pieces as well, and my practice only got better as I expanded my learning to make myself more pieces. Flash forward to now, and I am confident enough in my abilities to share this skill with the [mostly local] world, so that you can know that your milk is getting to me safely, and also have affordable options. I have met mothers who have experienced loss, mothers who are just getting home from the NICU, and families who are struggling. I don’t want anyone to not be able to celebrate such a beautiful part of life simply due to the price. My pieces are more simple, but as such I am able to make them significantly cheaper than almost any other option I have found online, and have so many options that I hope you will be able to find something you are happy with! I am so excited to embark on this adventure, and cannot wait to learn about all your beautiful journeys and help you commemorate them through something you can wear and show off to the world!