Just thought I'd give an update on my sister in law. I posted about her a
few weeks ago. Her baby was born 2.5 weeks early, weighing 4lb, had been
distressed in labour so was delivered via emergency CS. After birth the
baby was having difficulty breathing and so was flown to a larger hospital
in Sydney.  I emailed lactnet out of frustration because although my sil
had been asking for help to start expressing no help had been forthcoming
and we were having difficulty getting her transferred to be with her baby.

Well the current situation is that mum and baby is doing fine and
breastfeeding is going well.
She never did get someone to help her express at the local hospital but
24hrs after the baby was born she was transferred to Sydney and about 45
hrs after delivery she started expressing. Unfortunately, the baby was in a
children's hospital and my sil was in a hospital next door, about a km from
maternity to the NICU which is a long way when you've had a caesar. The
baby was not fed anything until 2-3 days after birth and by that time there
was colustrum to give her via tube. Unfortunately the progression for the
doctor looking after her was from tube to bottle to breast "she isn't
strong enough to try breastfeeding yet" When she was a week or so old they
were transferred back to our local hospital and mum and babe had their
first breastfeed. By that time my sil had worked out that the staff did not
necessarily know what was best for her and her baby and so she was able to
be assertive and manipulate the system to get what she thought was right.
So between nursing shifts the ratio of breast to tube feeds increased and
the nurses wanted the baby to be comped EBM after feeds she would give her
another breastfeed instead. It was when I could see my sil getting
confident in her ability to know what was best for her baby that I thought
to myself that everything was going to be alright. They have both been home
for a week now. So a happy ending.

Karleen




Karleen Gribble
Australia
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