JanetF
11-10-2005, 10:16
Like birth stories but about breastfeeding. Who wants to share theirs? Here's mine :D
My mum bf us both and I remember her bf my sister. Actually the first time my sister smiled at me when I came into the room she did it on the booby LOL. She was feeding and she flipped her head over and gave me a huge gummy grin with a milky sea in her mouth. So cute! Mum was always pretty positive about it even though her attitude to birth was very negative - choose caesarean over natural birth, Janet, natural birth is horrible and pointless. Hmmm. Mum also saw women's bodies as basically malfunctioning all the time and had her tubes tied then a hysterectomy while going through a pretty normal menopause. Just get those useless women's bits out!
So I always assumed that I would bf. I saw other women bf a little when I was growing up but like most people it was largely restricted to private spaces.
When I was pg I felt irritated by the negativity around bf - like the Kaz Cooke type thing. "Oh well some of us can and some of us can't but it's always hard and terrible and difficult and you won't get any useful information or support...yada yada yada..." Women constantly saying, "I hope to be able to bf." like it was some impossible ideal and virtually unattainable. I liked advice that said things like it can be hard work but it's worth it or sucking is a reflex, bf is learnt. I liked to read that the difference between women who do and women who don't is (often) persistence not a lack of problems.
I freely acknowledge that a small number of us can't but we know that compared with the number who choose to not bf that this is a small percentage. So please don't interpret what I'm saying as an attack on you if you were one of that small number for whom it truly was impossible. I can only imagine how heartbreaking that would be!
So while I was pg I researched everything! Not just birth but bf since I figured that labour would only last for so long and then he'd be here for quite a while! My MW lent me many books, articles, pamphlets and videos on bf. I went to some seminars at Choices. I asked other women what they had done. Lots had gone to the ABA for support and one friend to what she called "Breastfeeding Bootcamp" at the Mercy. So I made mysefl well aware of the support out there. I also bought and read books on bf that contained all manner of info about latching, nutrition, you name it, as well as lots of stories from bf women - just like I read hundreds of birth stories. And I massaged a lot of expressed colostrum into my nipples.
So here I am in hospital, drugged to the gills (without my knowledge or consent), faced with a baby who had been taken away from me for the first 2 hours of his life because of vindictive staff. What I had planned for was a lovely gentle HB, scoop him out of the water and pop him on the booby. Well not quite the go. I had a MW hovering in the hospital giving me what I knew was somewhat silly advice so I just ignored her and he latched on and off fine all day. I came home the same day as the c-sec, what with one thing and another, and straight into my own bed to cosleep with my little darling.
He latched on now and then over the next few days while we waited for The Milk to arrive. He arrived on Thursday and on Sat night I began to feel a headache. I wondered, at first, if it was from the epidural. I had also had hallucinations from the morphine so more side effects seemed natural to me. I had avoided the nasty drugs the hospital tried to get me to take home. When I asked the doc point blank "Will this cross into my bm?" He lied through his teeth and said no. My MW said to me when she came for a postnatal visit the following day that they were class C drugs, and totally contraindicated in bf. I researched myself and she was absolutely right. They cross straight into bm and can cause comas in babies - but then so does pethidine, which also causes fetal distress and everyone thinks it's some soft option in labour. I had refused it completely because of what it does to babies but now the hospital had, yet again, tried to sneak big drugs into me. But I digress! The headache got worse and worse and by 4am Sunday Trev and I were in the car looking for a 24 hour medical centre. I was in excruciating agony and ended up taking the big drugs as they were the only thing that worked. And not only was I not producing milk yet, I was only producing minute spots of colostrum by Saturday (it decreased significantly) and then nothing at all by Sunday. So we called a doc to the house and he dx the worst kind of ear infection it's possible to get. I spent the next few days off my face on the drugs and in agony. My whole face was swollen beyond recognition and my jaw dislocated from the swelling. Thank goddess we had my best friend staying!
I had no milk and a very distressed baby. My next door neighbour, who had been in ABA in the 80s with her kids, rang the local branch and teed up a feed line which was attached with tape to my breast. Yvette (best friend) woke me up when Conor cried, Trev attached the feedline and Conor's sucks were rewarded with dribbles of formula - poor little blighter! I knew that babies can and do survive against all the odds and without any milk but Conor was becoming very distressed when he sucked and nothing came out. I would sit in an arm chair, latch him on, he'd suck and suck and then start to cry with frustration and hunger, so I'd pass him to her and she would cuddle and calm and then pass him back. We did this for about 48 hours before resorting to the feed line on the Wednesday - 6 days from birth. I also tried lying down and in the bath but still no milk or even colostrum. My MW called a lactation consultant on the Tuesday (he was born Thurs before, remember) who patronised me a lot by telling me to not panic when I was definitely not panicking. She also told me that my PCOS simply couldn't affect milk production but had to admit that she didn't actually know what PCOS is! Anyway, my MW rang my naturopath who supplied a herb mix plus some Chinese pills and a smoothy recipe and 24 hours later lashings of lovely colstrum laiden milk! Magnificent! My breasts looked like a bowling ball in the end of a sock. Huge! Incredible! I took to showing visitors LOL.
I dealt with engorgement by feeding as much as Conor wanted (muuuuch happier boy!!!!) and very small amounts of occasional pumping but not so much as to confuse my breasts while they were sorting out supply, and cold cabbage leaves which I slept in. Trev said it was like sleeping in a greengrocer's LOL. Through this I was learning to latch, and so was Conor. It was always quite tender and not pleasant when he latched on but I persisted working on the theory that if it kept feeling bad then it wasn't a good latch, so I would take him off and start again. There was a distinct difference between just getting used to it pain and poor latch pain - like there was between good, strong healthy huge cx in labour and atonic, excruciating labour. It was about 3 months before I stoped wincing when I attached him but I only even had one tiny graze early on. I was just getting used to it. I'm very pale too so the fairskinned theory didn't play out with me. I also never had any problems with my c-sec wound and just naturally fed Conor in the madonna position without difficulty.
So now at 17 1/2 months we have a lovely bf relationship which I have worked hard to produce. I leak less than I used to - I could have drowned small animals in the first few months. I also can't express much without a lot of trying but since Conor has never taken a bottle that doesn't matter. I feel very sad that I had to resort to formula in the first week which will now have altered his gut. He did have a good dose of colostrum before it so I just hope that he was somewhat protected by that. He certainly hasn't displayed any food allergies yet. It wasn't my plan but then neither was a caesarean and you just have to roll with the punches as they arrive. To use an analogy, I gave myself the best possible chance at achieving a natural birth. You know that if you believe in natural birth and then go to a private OB in a private hospital you probably have about a 40% chance of having a c-sec. I went with a MW with a 3% transfer rate and about a 2% c-sec rate. So I gave myself good odds. I did the same with bf. I worked at it, researched and planned, and then went with the flow to do what was needed.
This was my bf story and I look forward to reading everyone else's!
My mum bf us both and I remember her bf my sister. Actually the first time my sister smiled at me when I came into the room she did it on the booby LOL. She was feeding and she flipped her head over and gave me a huge gummy grin with a milky sea in her mouth. So cute! Mum was always pretty positive about it even though her attitude to birth was very negative - choose caesarean over natural birth, Janet, natural birth is horrible and pointless. Hmmm. Mum also saw women's bodies as basically malfunctioning all the time and had her tubes tied then a hysterectomy while going through a pretty normal menopause. Just get those useless women's bits out!
So I always assumed that I would bf. I saw other women bf a little when I was growing up but like most people it was largely restricted to private spaces.
When I was pg I felt irritated by the negativity around bf - like the Kaz Cooke type thing. "Oh well some of us can and some of us can't but it's always hard and terrible and difficult and you won't get any useful information or support...yada yada yada..." Women constantly saying, "I hope to be able to bf." like it was some impossible ideal and virtually unattainable. I liked advice that said things like it can be hard work but it's worth it or sucking is a reflex, bf is learnt. I liked to read that the difference between women who do and women who don't is (often) persistence not a lack of problems.
I freely acknowledge that a small number of us can't but we know that compared with the number who choose to not bf that this is a small percentage. So please don't interpret what I'm saying as an attack on you if you were one of that small number for whom it truly was impossible. I can only imagine how heartbreaking that would be!
So while I was pg I researched everything! Not just birth but bf since I figured that labour would only last for so long and then he'd be here for quite a while! My MW lent me many books, articles, pamphlets and videos on bf. I went to some seminars at Choices. I asked other women what they had done. Lots had gone to the ABA for support and one friend to what she called "Breastfeeding Bootcamp" at the Mercy. So I made mysefl well aware of the support out there. I also bought and read books on bf that contained all manner of info about latching, nutrition, you name it, as well as lots of stories from bf women - just like I read hundreds of birth stories. And I massaged a lot of expressed colostrum into my nipples.
So here I am in hospital, drugged to the gills (without my knowledge or consent), faced with a baby who had been taken away from me for the first 2 hours of his life because of vindictive staff. What I had planned for was a lovely gentle HB, scoop him out of the water and pop him on the booby. Well not quite the go. I had a MW hovering in the hospital giving me what I knew was somewhat silly advice so I just ignored her and he latched on and off fine all day. I came home the same day as the c-sec, what with one thing and another, and straight into my own bed to cosleep with my little darling.
He latched on now and then over the next few days while we waited for The Milk to arrive. He arrived on Thursday and on Sat night I began to feel a headache. I wondered, at first, if it was from the epidural. I had also had hallucinations from the morphine so more side effects seemed natural to me. I had avoided the nasty drugs the hospital tried to get me to take home. When I asked the doc point blank "Will this cross into my bm?" He lied through his teeth and said no. My MW said to me when she came for a postnatal visit the following day that they were class C drugs, and totally contraindicated in bf. I researched myself and she was absolutely right. They cross straight into bm and can cause comas in babies - but then so does pethidine, which also causes fetal distress and everyone thinks it's some soft option in labour. I had refused it completely because of what it does to babies but now the hospital had, yet again, tried to sneak big drugs into me. But I digress! The headache got worse and worse and by 4am Sunday Trev and I were in the car looking for a 24 hour medical centre. I was in excruciating agony and ended up taking the big drugs as they were the only thing that worked. And not only was I not producing milk yet, I was only producing minute spots of colostrum by Saturday (it decreased significantly) and then nothing at all by Sunday. So we called a doc to the house and he dx the worst kind of ear infection it's possible to get. I spent the next few days off my face on the drugs and in agony. My whole face was swollen beyond recognition and my jaw dislocated from the swelling. Thank goddess we had my best friend staying!
I had no milk and a very distressed baby. My next door neighbour, who had been in ABA in the 80s with her kids, rang the local branch and teed up a feed line which was attached with tape to my breast. Yvette (best friend) woke me up when Conor cried, Trev attached the feedline and Conor's sucks were rewarded with dribbles of formula - poor little blighter! I knew that babies can and do survive against all the odds and without any milk but Conor was becoming very distressed when he sucked and nothing came out. I would sit in an arm chair, latch him on, he'd suck and suck and then start to cry with frustration and hunger, so I'd pass him to her and she would cuddle and calm and then pass him back. We did this for about 48 hours before resorting to the feed line on the Wednesday - 6 days from birth. I also tried lying down and in the bath but still no milk or even colostrum. My MW called a lactation consultant on the Tuesday (he was born Thurs before, remember) who patronised me a lot by telling me to not panic when I was definitely not panicking. She also told me that my PCOS simply couldn't affect milk production but had to admit that she didn't actually know what PCOS is! Anyway, my MW rang my naturopath who supplied a herb mix plus some Chinese pills and a smoothy recipe and 24 hours later lashings of lovely colstrum laiden milk! Magnificent! My breasts looked like a bowling ball in the end of a sock. Huge! Incredible! I took to showing visitors LOL.
I dealt with engorgement by feeding as much as Conor wanted (muuuuch happier boy!!!!) and very small amounts of occasional pumping but not so much as to confuse my breasts while they were sorting out supply, and cold cabbage leaves which I slept in. Trev said it was like sleeping in a greengrocer's LOL. Through this I was learning to latch, and so was Conor. It was always quite tender and not pleasant when he latched on but I persisted working on the theory that if it kept feeling bad then it wasn't a good latch, so I would take him off and start again. There was a distinct difference between just getting used to it pain and poor latch pain - like there was between good, strong healthy huge cx in labour and atonic, excruciating labour. It was about 3 months before I stoped wincing when I attached him but I only even had one tiny graze early on. I was just getting used to it. I'm very pale too so the fairskinned theory didn't play out with me. I also never had any problems with my c-sec wound and just naturally fed Conor in the madonna position without difficulty.
So now at 17 1/2 months we have a lovely bf relationship which I have worked hard to produce. I leak less than I used to - I could have drowned small animals in the first few months. I also can't express much without a lot of trying but since Conor has never taken a bottle that doesn't matter. I feel very sad that I had to resort to formula in the first week which will now have altered his gut. He did have a good dose of colostrum before it so I just hope that he was somewhat protected by that. He certainly hasn't displayed any food allergies yet. It wasn't my plan but then neither was a caesarean and you just have to roll with the punches as they arrive. To use an analogy, I gave myself the best possible chance at achieving a natural birth. You know that if you believe in natural birth and then go to a private OB in a private hospital you probably have about a 40% chance of having a c-sec. I went with a MW with a 3% transfer rate and about a 2% c-sec rate. So I gave myself good odds. I did the same with bf. I worked at it, researched and planned, and then went with the flow to do what was needed.
This was my bf story and I look forward to reading everyone else's!