My daughter lives in the greater Oslo area, where nearly one fourth of
Norwegian babies are born. She is a volunteer mother-to-mother counselor.
She invited a new mother to come to her apartment for a personal
consultation because the mother was having more and more nipple pain. Baby
was three weeks and seems to have been getting enough milk. First
impression (by phone) was oversupply.  There was some oversupply as well,
but when the mother sat down to feed the baby in a laid-back position, my
daughter's eyes nearly popped out of her head because (in her words) 'he
CHEWED the milk out'. Mother had bruises rather than abrasions. Baby's
tongue was so restricted that my daughter, whose professional education is
librarianship and not in anything remotely clinical, could tell he needed
help. 'Mum, there was no suckling going on whatsoever! He just chomped on
her breasts, and the band under his tongue went all the way to the tip of
it, he couldn't raise it more than a centimeter from the bottom of his
mouth.'
The staff on the unit where this baby was born assured the mother that her
pain had nothing to do with technique. They, and the health visitor, had
all judged the baby to have *great* technique, because his jaws were in
obvious motion.  Urk.
Sigh.
The mother tried immediately to get hold of her health visitor and her GP
to get an ENT referral. Then, when no one took the phone, she called a
private acute care facility (it was at the end of office hours by this
time).  'We have a doc coming on at 5 pm who can help you.'  Got it clipped
an hour or so after the phone call and is now working on getting him used
to extending his tongue to feed.
Why oh why is it so hard to get staff to believe that breastfeeding need
not be excruciatingly painful, and indeed that pain is a sign that
something is the matter?
Rachel Myr
frustrated again in Kristiansand, Norway

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