She Wished for a Baby Under a 300-Year-Old Tree.

She Wished for a Baby Under a 300-Year-Old Tree.

Three Years Later, It Came True.

Mahfam Braithwaite is a wife, mom of two, and content creator who spent three and a half years trying to become a mother before welcoming her daughter Kinsey, and later her son Charlie, into the world. She shares the realities of her family's life across social media. She's built a community of women who know  what it means to navigate infertility, postpartum, and first-time motherhood without a roadmap. When we asked her to share her story for our First-Time Mom Series, she didn't hold back. What follows is the kind of honest that most people save for close friends; and that every mom in the thick of it deserves to hear.

Mahfam never imagined getting pregnant would be hard.

She was newly married, deeply in love, and full of plans for a big family. She and her husband Colin walked the streets of Williamsburg, Virginia, holding hands and talking about how many children they wanted. The future felt wide open.

Then a year passed. Then two. Then three. What followed was a season Mahfam describes as one of the most isolating experiences of her life. A fertility journey marked by five failed IUI cycles, a fear of needles so severe it made routine appointments overwhelming, solo doctor visits during COVID, a dismissive specialist who left her crying the entire drive home, and the quiet grief of watching everyone around her seem to get pregnant with ease.

She didn't know then that her story would end with two children and a hard-won perspective on motherhood that not enough women feel safe enough saying out loud.

The Numbers Behind the Quiet Struggle of Infertility

Mahfam's experience is far more common than most people realize, yet infertility remains one of the most under-discussed health challenges women face, often carried in silence while the world around them celebrates pregnancies that seem to come easily.

• 13.4%: The percentage of women ages 15–49 in the United States that have some form of impaired fertility 1

• 1 in 5: the infertility rate of married women who haven't yet had children

• $15,000 to $30,000: the cost of a single IVF cycle 

• 2.5: the average number of cycles needed to achieve pregnancy.2 

The financial and emotional toll accumulates quickly. For many women, including Mahfam, the hardest part isn't even the procedures themselves.

"One of the hardest parts," Mahfam says, "wasn't necessarily the fertility treatments themselves. It was the fear. There were medications I couldn't even insert myself. I needed support from my pelvic therapist and my husband. I cried before appointments, shook during procedures, and often had to work through fears that felt overwhelming."

She also learned, the hard way, how much the right doctor matters. After one specialist left her feeling dismissed and unheard, a different fertility doctor, Dr. Johnston, changed everything. "She treated us with kindness, answered every question, and helped us feel like people instead of just another fertility case."

A Wish Under an Old Church Tree

After five failed IUIs, Mahfam and Colin sold their Virginia home and relocated to Florida. They took a break from treatments and tried to start a new chapter.

During a trip to England to visit Colin's family, they wandered through the Cotswolds and came across an old church. A local told them that if they stood beneath a certain tree and made a wish, it would come true. They stood together and wished for a healthy baby.

A few weeks later, after three and a half years of infertility, Mahfam found out she was pregnant with her daughter, Kinsey.

"I actually forgot to check the test at first," she says. "I left it in the bathroom and went about my day because I was so sure it would be negative. When I came back and saw the result, I was completely shocked."

Disbelief came first, then gratitude, then fear. Infertility taught her to guard her heart.

When You Finally Get There, the Hard Part Isn't Over

Kinsey arrived five weeks early.

What followed was a crash course in the kind of motherhood no one's baby book prepares you for: weight checks, hospital visits, the words "failure to thrive" in a doctor's appointment, an occupational therapist who became one of the most important people in Mahfam's life.

"I remember sitting in the hospital crying because I couldn't even bring myself to take her clothes off for the doctors to examine her," she says. "I was so overwhelmed that Colin had to step in and do it for me."

That was the moment her definition of motherhood shifted. It wasn't about doing everything perfectly. It was about showing up scared and doing it anyway.

Postpartum brought its own wave. Grief layered onto exhaustion; she lost her grandfather before Kinsey was born, and her grandmother passed away before she had the chance to share her second pregnancy. She struggled emotionally in ways she wasn't prepared for and, with her first baby, was afraid to admit it.

She's not alone in that silence. Maternal mental health disorders like postpartum depression affect roughly 600,000 (or 20%) of U.S. mothers each year. It's estimated that up to 50% of mothers are never diagnosed by a healthcare professional, and that 75% of women who need treatment never receive it.3

"With my first baby, I was afraid to admit that I was struggling. With my second, I was much more open with my doctors and accepted help when I needed it. I realized I wasn't meant to carry everything alone."

The Feeding Journey Nobody Warned Her About

Before Kinsey arrived, Mahfam assumed breastfeeding would come naturally. She knew it might be challenging, she just didn't know how much.

Because Kinsey was premature, her milk didn't come in right away. She breastfed, pumped, tracked every ounce, attended lactation visits, and worried constantly. Then came the dairy allergy:blood in Kinsey's stool, a late-night call from the pediatrician, an immediate dietary overhaul. "There were a lot of tears during that season," she says.

Her experience reflects a reality many new mothers face. A 2024 survey of nearly 7,000 breastfeeding parents found that the logistics of pumping (packing, transporting a pump, and cleaning parts) were cited by 60% of respondents as their top challenge. More than half said finding a place to pump or nurse on the go was their second-biggest hurdle. And between 20 and 50% of mothers stopped breastfeeding altogether or added formula sooner than they had planned.4

Mahfam's second baby, Charlie, was different. He latched immediately, right there in the recovery room after her C-section. "It was one of the most emotional moments for me because it was so different from what I had experienced before."

That contrast taught her something she now shares whenever she can: every baby is different. Every feeding journey is different.

"Whether you breastfeed, pump, formula feed, supplement, or do a combination of all of them, what matters most is that your baby is fed and loved."

A Year Later, the Impossible Happened Again

Doctors had told Mahfam her ovarian reserve was extremely low. Natural conception again would be very unlikely.

A year after Kinsey was born, she found out she was pregnant with her son, Charlie.

"After everything it took to become their mom, those little moments mean everything," she says, describing the first time Kinsey called her "Mamas." "Today, motherhood means hearing Kinsey call me that. It means Charlie reaching for me when he wants comfort. It means bedtime stories, messy kitchens, sleepless nights, and tiny arms wrapped around my neck."

What She Wants Every Struggling Mom to Hear

Mahfam has thought a lot about what she wishes someone had told her, both during infertility and during the postpartum season that came after.

• On infertility and mental health: 

"Don't give up on yourself. Your journey may not look like someone else's. Your timeline may not look like someone else's. And that's okay."

• On the hardest part of postpartum:

"Sometimes 'I'm coming to help' turns into someone coming over and holding the baby for an hour. Most babies want their mom. What many moms really need is someone to take care of them. Bring a meal, fold a load of laundry, ask her how she is doing."

• On comparing yourself to others: 

"A woman who needed IVF is not stronger than a woman who conceived naturally. A mom who breastfeeds is not better than a mom who pumps. A woman who gives birth vaginally is not more of a mother than a woman who delivers by C-section. Motherhood isn't defined by how your baby enters the world. It's defined by the love, sacrifice, patience, and care you give that child every single day."

• What she hopes other moms will hold onto: 

"You can be grateful and still be struggling. You can love your babies with your whole heart and still have hard days. You can be overwhelmed, exhausted, crying in the bathroom, questioning yourself, and still be an incredible mother. Asking for help doesn't make you weak. It makes you human."

Three and a half years of infertility, a premature baby, feeding challenges, and postpartum darkness. Personal losses she carried quietly while trying to be present for her children. On the other side of all of it: two healthy kids, a perspective earned the hard way, and a story that might just be the thing another mom needs to hear today

How Zomee Fits Into the Real Version of Motherhood

Mahfam was in the thick of the feeding challenges described above: tracking ounces, managing a dairy elimination diet, pumping around the clock. Then she found Zomee. She found it the way a lot of moms do: through other real moms sharing real experiences.

What stuck wasn't just the products. It was learning that Zomee was founded by a mom. In her words: "Knowing the company was built by someone who had personally experienced parts of this journey made it feel more relatable and meaningful to me."

That origin shapes everything. The Mother Nature W1 Warming Wearable Breast Pump was built for the mom chasing a toddler while trying to keep up her supply, "life with two children is busy," Mahfam says, "and being able to pump while still moving around and taking care of my family has made a huge difference." 

The Mother Nature H1 Hospital Grade Dual-Mode Breast Pump was designed for the mom who needs serious support from day one. 

The Warming Lactation Massager, the crossbody pumping bag that fits baby essentials alongside pump parts… each one the answer to a problem a real mom actually had.

"Sometimes it's the small things that make the biggest difference."

A pump built around your day, not the other way around. Products designed by someone who understood that a new mom's day doesn't stop for anything.

Mahfam spent three and a half years fighting to become a mother. She showed up to appointments alone, scared, and hoping. She figured out breastfeeding twice, in two completely different ways. She asked for help when she needed it and learned that doing so made her stronger, not weaker.

If you're somewhere in that journey right now, that's exactly who Zomee was made for. Browse Zomee's breast pumps and postpartum support at Zomee.com.

Sources:

1. CDC / National Center for Health Statistics — "Infertility and Impaired Fecundity in Women and Men in the United States, 2015–2019," National Health Statistics Reports No. 202, April 2024: cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr202.pdf

2. RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association — IVF process and cost overview: resolve.org/learn/family-building-options/in-vitro-fertilization/the-ivf-process

3. George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health — "2024 Maternal Mental Health State Report Cards Released," May 14, 2024: publichealth.gwu.edu/2024-maternal-mental-health-state-report-cards-released

4. Mamava / Medela — "The 2024 State of Breastfeeding Survey," August 2024: mamava.com/why-buy-blog/2024-state-of-breastfeeding-survey