'Baby Badger was born 24 days early and was more interested in sleeping than feeding. Who can blame her? She was robbed of three lovely weeks' slumber in the womb. She was a good weight for her age - 5lb 14oz - but lost 12oz in the first four days. That was 12% of her initial body weight, which is more than the expected 5-10% that breastfed babies often lose.
The community midwife gave me two options: either try to get her to feed more and monitor it myself; or take her to the special baby unit at the hospital and get her checked over, with the expectation that we would have to stay the night. I was reluctant to go back into hospital, but didn't feel confident that I knew what I was doing in terms of feeding, so the midwife made the hospital appointment and in we went. A pediatrician took some bloods and checked her over, and we were admitted for the night with a written feeding plan: feed three hourly and top up with a bottle, then express, the top up being the expressed milk from the previous feed.
Once up on the ward I was introduced to Clover. Clover is a hospital-grade double breast pump, looking like something left over from world war two (at this point I was very glad I was in my own room). The nurse showed me how to assemble the pump and how to sterilise the pieces and left me to it. What followed was three days and nights of almost constant feeding, pumping and boredom, interspersed with visits from family, but I would do it all over again: Baby Badger put on a couple of ounces and, just a importantly, latching on improved, I learnt how to pump and I came away much more confident that I was providing for my daughter.
Baby Badger is now seven weeks old and 8lb 1oz, so it was all worth the effort! I no longer have to pump to top up, but at least know that it's an option if I want an evening off.
I'll leave you with some top tips from my experience:
• If you want to exclusively breastfeed and the staff suggest topping up with formula, tell them you'd rather top up with breastmilk and ask for a pump.
• If you're struggling to get much milk when you express try a different pump. The first one I was given in the hospital seemed to be all about ferocious sucking, but I was swapped to one that had a two stage action to mimic baby's sucking and my milk yield improved.
• Once home I used a Medela Swing Electric Breastpump
electric breast pump. It's not the cheapest option (manual pumps are far cheaper, and your local midwifery or Sure Start centre may be able to lend you one), but it was worth the money.
• Milk yield is much better in the morning when you're less tired.'
Alex writes her own blog (which is a great read!) at www.badgermad.blogspot.com and you can learn more about her experiences by there.
My breastfeeding story ~ Meryl
'Long before I gave birth, I already felt well-prepared for breastfeeding. My mother breastfed my three siblings and I. Nearly all of my friends had been breastfed as babies, and breastfeeding mothers are a common sight in New Zealand, which has high breastfeeding rates. When I found out I was pregnant there was a lot of good, accurate breastfeeding advice and stories passed on to me from friends and relatives. It was just assumed that I would breastfeed as it's the normal thing to do here.
My midwife was very supportive of breastfeeding and gave me DVDs and books on the subject as well as recommending breastfeeding classes. My antenatal classes covered breastfeeding reasonably in depth and highlighted common problems, as well as what to to about them. We were told that our babies would be fine on colostrum until our milk came in, that cluster feeding and very frequent feeding/night wakings were normal in newborns - and didn't mean we weren't producing enough milk! This was, I might add, from a childbirth educator who for medical reasons had been unable to breastfeed herself.
My beautiful baby girl Mila was born on May 16, 2010 after an uneventful pregnancy and a relatively straight-forward 13 hour labour. I was advised to avoid pain relief if I could, because of the effect it could have on the baby. In the end I had no pain relief at all - I was helped hugely by having a midwife who had a very relaxed attitude towards birth and said that my body was designed to birth babies and that I could do it. Mila and I had immediate skin-to-skin contact and I latched her on myself, with my midwife offering some guidance and checking her latch. This is really the only thing that I can fault my midwife for - my baby had a low-grade tongue-tie but my midwife thought she was latching on perfectly.
I spent only 24 hours in hospital as I was keen to get home. In hindsight, I wished I'd stayed longer until we had breastfeeding fully established. This is because it took a couple of days for my nipples to get really sore, so the developing problems weren't picked up. While I was in hospital Mila didn't want to do anything except for feed, all night long and then most of the next day. The hospital midwives were good at offering support and showing me how to breastfeed in different positions, but they never checked for tongue-tie. There was a lactation consultant in the hospital I could have gone and seen, but I was too tired so I just watched the videos on breastfeeding that the hospital brought round to our rooms. Oh the benefit of hindsight! I should have gone to see the lactation consultant there and then.
Once we were home things rapidly deteriorated into a mess. Mila's long and frequent feeds with her tongue-tie were destroying my nipples in the process - I had blisters, blood blisters and cracks. It never really occured to me not to breastfeed but I did cry through every feed, curling my toes and trying not to pull away when my baby latched on. The pain was excruciating. My midwife was really concerned and came round twice each day for the first two weeks. Even though she wasn't able to diagnose the problem, her support was invaluable. She showed me how to hand express, how to spoon or cup feed, and showed me breastfeeding positions like the rugby hold which did lessen the pain. She also gave me the numbers of the LLL, a free lactation consulant and another private lactation consultant. Finally, she brought round a breastfeeding peer supporter to see me and this woman told me that it was possible my baby had tongue tie that had been missed while we were in hospital, and that I could see a consultant to have it snipped.
I rang the private consultant (because I was told she was available at short notice) and she came round two hours later. She immediately diagnosed tongue-tie and snipped it there and then. Seconds later my baby was feeding greedily and I was shocked at the sensation. "Oh, so this is what it's supposed to feel like!" It was still painful at that stage, but only because of the damage that had already been done.
Feeling like breastfeeding was actually going well took probably the first two months - because that's how long it took me to heal. I saw the lactation consultant again and was given really good advice, and I saw my midwife on a regular (near daily) basis. I was also getting lots of advice from family and friends, who were all keen to see me succeed.
Everyone else's attitudes helped me a lot. Breastfeeding just felt so normal - nearly all my new-mum friends were breastfeeding too and were going through the same things. I had thought my Dad might have been embarrassed to watch me feed but he didn't mind a bit and asked me how things were going every now and then, or would mention to me things like how mum had fed us all lying down at night. At one point I developed mastitis but I knew when I felt flu-ey and my breast turned red and blotchy what it was. I went straight to the doctor who also recognised it, put me on antibiotics and advised me to keep feeding through it. It was all over in a few days - knowing what was going on made it so much easier.
I am still exclusively breastfeeding at 5 months and Mila has never had any formula. Not once did anyone ever suggest formula to me and so I was never really tempted by it or encouraged to use it. When I'm breastfeeding out and about nobody bats an eyelid, except sometimes for cafe staff - and that's only to offer me a glass of water or cushions! Feeding my little girl now is just the easiest and most natural thing in the world. While the support I had wasn't perfect, it was a pretty damn good second - I never felt like I had run out of options or had nowhere to turn. That made all the difference during those first few weeks.'
By email:
'I was very surprised to learn that in the UK it takes a long time (if ever) to have the tongue-tie snipped. A few of my breastfeeding friend's babies also had tongue-tie [ed. in NZ] and saw the free govt funded lactation consultants - apparently the wait to see one of them is only a couple of days, so even if you couldn't see a private one you wouldn't be left high and dry. All of them had the baby's frenulum cut immediately too (and none of them had babies more than a week old).
Oh and I might add - my lovely midwife was so horrified she'd missed tongue-tie in my baby that she has been in contact with the LC ever since and attends some of the LC's breastfeeding counselling sessions to see tongue-tie being diagnosed.'
Ed: Where is it you live again Meryl? Utopia? ;) Sounds like we could learn quite a lot over here from the NZ way of doing things!
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| Meryl feeding her 5 month old. |
Petra's Story
'After the birth of my first child I breastfed without any major problems. I had sore nipples, but nothing that couldnt be remedied by lanolin and getting his latch improved... he always had a poorly latch but at 3 1/2 years we're still breastfeeding!
I assumed, that when I got pregnant with number 2 it would all go the same way. For the first three weeks it looked like it would too, I enjoyed having my new baby (who wouldnt!!) and breastfed both my firstborn and newborn together.(that was when the tandem nursing picture was taken, 4 days after the birth)
I felt great after my homebirth and only 3 days later we went for a pub meal! In hindsight though I did far too much far too soon and didnt enjoy my babymoon as i maybe should have done.
The problems started when my baby was 3 weeks old. My milk supply was still adapting, having a 3 year old breastfeeding too there was quite a lot of milk to make but his feeding was very sporadic! One evening, after wearing my baby in his sling for quite a while, i felt a dull pain under my armpit which at first I thought was from carrying him. after a couple of hours I could feel a lump building. I applied a warm rice sock and went to bed hoping it would clear up. It didnt and by morning my left breast was bright red and lumpy all over. I had developed the dreaded mastitis.The last thing I wanted to do was get antibiotics but as it just didnt improve with home remedies and I was feeling more ill by the minute I gave in and went to see my doctor. After 24 hours of taking antibiotics I felt much better but my breast was still a mess of lumps and a very sore and bleeding nipple. I couldnt breastfeed at all and I tried expressing but nothing could touch it. My breast was about twice its usual size. And I'm a G cup anyway!!! I finished my course of antibiotics and that lump was still there, in addition two new ones had developed... I couldnt believe it but of course I had to be the one to develop abscesses too!!! So I went to the doctor again who took one look and said "oh shit" I was put on a double dose of antibiotics to try and clear them up and got an appointment with the breast clinic. This was two weeks after I first developed mastitis. During this time I had to stop tandem nursing, as my left breast and nipple were still very sore. I also couldnt carry my baby as much as I wanted as it just hurt too much. luckily my mum came to stay and she could carry my baby and take care of the household while I tried to get rest and concentrate on getting better.
About 3 weeks after developing mastitis I felt absolutely fine within myself, and if i would have just been able to unscrew that breast and put a new one on, everything would have been perfect but those three lumps, the pus filled abscesses weren't going.
At my second appointment in the breast clinic the nurse managed to drain quite a bit off the lump under my armpit, which took the pressure off and felt amazing. The other two abscesses had opened up on their own and kept draining themselves, then filling up, then opening up and draining again. This went on for two weeks or so and I was in and out of the breast clinic to keep and eye on things and make sure the infection wasn't getting worse. however, as soon as i had finished the second round of antibiotics I woke up one morning, my breast being sore again and feeling flu like. I thought i was going to scream, how could this be happening???? on top of my abscesses mastitis AGAIN???? I cried because I knew too much about the effects of formula feeding to just quit but I couldn't bare for anyone to touch me, never mind a baby to suck at my breast! And I had a newborn to nurse!!!!
Throughout all of this my 3 1/2 year old had to draw the short straw as baby obviously came first with breastfeeding. He actually didn't breastfeed at all for more than a week during the worst time and he was great about it but I felt horrible as he had to sit and watch the baby feed...
Finally after about 5 weeks my body beat the abscesses and they stopped producing pus, however the biggest abscess on the inside of my breast left me with an open wound and i needed to replace the bandages twice a day.
We went camping(!) when baby was 2 months old, just as my breast was slowly starting to look normal again and the wound was slowly closing up. It was "The Mother magazine" camp and I wouldn't have missed it for the world!
I finally felt like things were back to normal three months after my baby was first born. I was due to go visit my mother in Austria and two days before the flight - guess what. Mastitis. Again. There must have still been some infection lingering in my breast from the abscess under my armpit which i could still see signs of. This time there was a difference though, I had met a woman just a few days before who wanted to come visit me that day. Instead she came round, bringing homeopathic remedies to help me heal. I think the act of knowing someone cared helped me heal as much as the remedies did. Thank you Gwen!
I got my flight and in Austria, where I could relax and let my mum take care of things completely, where I could breathe fresh mountain air and go for walks in the lovely sunshine, I could finally let my body heal properly. As I was mainly breastfeeding on my right breast throughout my illnesses I also used this time to try and build up the milk supply in my left breast again.
My son is 6 months old now and still exclusively breastfed. There are probably many in my family who would have suggested giving up had they not known this was never an option for me.
I am lucky to have supportive family and supportive health care providers who NEVER even hinted that I should give up. My doctor even said: "i know antibiotics arent great, but I'd rather a baby got some antibiotics through his mothers milk than be formula fed!"
My son is 6 months old now and still fully breastfed. I'm not a martyr for breastfeeding but I knew that those few weeks - yes they seemed like an eternity - would be nothing compared to the years of breastfeeding and benefits for my child.
