I know this womyn who is having problems, I am hoping that from the skills on this list, someone might be able to help her.
I thought may, thrush, raynauds, but she doesn't think that it is. I have asked if there is a hx of sexual abuse, and that is denied also. I know she is desparate for help and advice.
This is her story.
"My baby is nearly 6m, since she was 4 weeks old I've had pain with feeding, after no initial problems other than some grazes that healed in the first 10 days. The pain initially felt like a sensitivity, like someone was flicking my nipples with their finger. It got gradually worse until I was in tears every feed and felt very confined to my home (it's really embarrassing breaking down every time your baby attaches), I couldn't just grin and bear it.
My baby shows no signs of discomfort, she's very chubby and clearly thrivng. She absolutely LOVES breastfeeding, she has a grin and gives a sigh of contentment after each feed.
I'm a qualified Western Herbalist, I've been to old lecturers and spoken to colleagues, I tried to treat myself naturopathically first and when I had no luck after giving each of the treatments a fair try I finally relented and went with allopathic medicine.
I've seen 7 IBCLC (including the child health nurse), been to the BF centre at KEMH (Perth) 3 times and 6 GPs (the last one is an IBCLC also).
The basic (medical) model of care I received from all of these people has been
"I don't know what this is, it's not immediately obvious to me, so I'm going to refer you."
Everyone suggested I take a pharmaceutical drug "to see if it works, and if it doesn't, we'll just try another one"
Call me crazy, I'm completely against pharmaceuticals, and I have serious issues with the mentality that if one poison doesn't fix me then just try another one...
No one offered to do any diagnostic tests other than repeated swabs of my nipples that always came back negative but each new person I saw was convinced all the people before them must have just not taken the swabs correctly. It was 4 months after I'd first had the pain and asked for help that someone finally responded to my request for a blood test to see if there were any systemic pathogens.
(My blood test result only showed that I have extremely low iron (which explains other symptoms such as extreme fatigue, hair falling out in clumps, poor wound healing etc.). How ironic, I was vego for 4.5yrs and maintained excellent iron levels, got pregnant, introduced small amounts of organic/biodynamic meat into my diet (cravings) and my levels have never been lower!! I'm having iron injections now, so hopefully that will be sorted soon)
I've been treated for thrush, vaso-spasm, eczema, dermatitis and tinea... Like I said, I hate pharmaceuticals, I don't even have paracetamol in my house, but in desperation I finally relented and ended up trying oral nystatin, nystatin cream, miconazole cream, oral fluconazole, clotrimazole cream, corticosteroid cream, and oral BP lowering medications (for vaso-spasm, I already had low BP). We've wasted so much money on poisons that I never felt comfortable about putting into my body (or my milk!!), poisons that have actually made it worse each time (miconazole (daktarin) cream caused the skin on my nipples to redden, go hard like leather and then flake off!!)
Now finally the last Dr (the IBCLC) has told me I've exhausted her knowlege on BF and she can't help me. I feel really upset that no one is willing to say
"Ok, I have no idea what this is, but I'm going to stick with you and try my hardest to work out what it could be and I won't put your case in the 'too hard basket'"
Ok sorry for my rant, I have absolutely no idea what is causing the pain, I'm getting really down because everyone I speak to just tells me I gave it a good shot and I should just chuck her on a bottle. I am very opposed to bottlefeeding unless there's a very good physiological or psychological reason that BF can't happen. I have the milk there, a very good supply, there's no chance I'll put her on a bottle when I have far superior breastmilk to give her, but I really need the chance to feed without pain for my own sake.
Can anyone shed some light on what may possibly be causing the pain?"
Thankyou for your help in advance.
Blessings,
Rachael
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
GentleBirth Pregnancy and Birth Education
Rachael Austin
RN, EM, IPN, Adv. CBE
Midwife in Private Practice
Ph: (07) 49 931 213
Fax: (07) 49 931 341
Mob: 0419750 780
Email: [log in to unmask]
www.gentlebirth.com.au
2008 - The Year of Homebirth Awareness.
Help support and value women. Protect their babies.
Tell everyone you know that homebirth exists as a VALID birthing choice!
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