Due to all the discussion about epidurals and childbirth, I have decided to
tell what happened to my daughter in November 2004, when she gave birth for
the first time; it was at a hospital with a birth center (another bad joke).
I was in the waiting room during the birth.  When I went in to see my
granddaughter, my daughter said:  "Mom, you don't know how hard it was to
fight off everyone who wanted to 'help' me with pitocin, an epidural, fetal
monitoring, etc.  They became angry when I turned everything down, and the
resident OB even slammed the door to the room as she stormed out while I was
having a contraction."  (Very professional of that resident!)  I looked at
my daughter and she started to laugh; of course, she knew that I knew
exactly how much pressure they had put on her; we had discussed the
possibilities all through her pregnancy.  That's why I gave her a gift of a
labor doula - to help her fight off the doctors and nurses.  The doula
helped save the birth because she was a witness to what was going on and the
staff KNEW IT.  The doula explained to the OB my daughter's reactions to
what was going on, her contractions would stop because of all the stress.
The doula also reminded her of my daughter's goal:  a natural normal birth.
The doula was worth every penny I paid her, and then some.  I hope my
daughter has a home birth next time.  Oh, and we also had to fight to not
let them take the baby to the nursery.  The OB said that it would require
administrative permission to "go against hospital policy" and, of course, no
administrator was there at 3am.  When a nurse tried to take the baby, I
stepped in front of her and flatly stated that NO ONE was going to separate
my daughter and her baby.  She went away angry and we did not care.

The challenges did not end there.  My granddaughter, Isabel, was
tongue-tied.  When I tried to speak with the pediatrician about it, he would
not discuss it with me.  The baby did well (i.e., gained weight) so the MDs
were not concerned.  However, the weight gain was all due to the fact that
my daughter had a superabundant milk supply; I knew what could happen in the
near-future and beyond.  Seeing an ENT in NY City did no good; he assessed
it on a scale of 1-10 as a level 3 and advised my daughter that it was not
serious and did not require snipping, totally undermining my role as a
Lactation Specialist who was there to explain what I saw with the feeding
problems.  I don't think he was familiar with the four types of tongue-tie -
Type 4 being the hardest to diagnose and, IMO, the most serious.  A
wonderful pediatric surgeon in Queens, NY, said she would definitely clip it
and also the upper labial frenulum because that was tight also (I had looked
at it but was not skilled enough to know that it was moderately tight).

During the first 3 weeks, my daughter developed breast inflammation in the
middle of one night (surprise, surprise - the enormous milk supply was not
being drained well).  She called her OB and was sent to the ER because "it
might be a uterine infection."  The OB in the ER told her it was a bilateral
breast infection and not to breastfeed on the side that was worse.  (What is
the logic behind that?  If it is okay to feed on one side that is inflamed,
why is it not okay to feed on the other side that is inflamed?  Some of
these people cannot think straight and are not scientific.)  Thank goodness
my daughter knew better and continued to breastfeed.  But she was put on
antibiotics immediately, which I would have waited on.  Per my suggestion,
she took live acidophilus to fend off thrush, which she never developed, and
did get better.

Isabel's frenulum was clipped at 3 weeks and she breastfed exclusively for 9
months, at which time she started solids on a very limited basis due to
allergies in the family.  They are still breastfeeding beautifully at 15
months.  BTW, a few days after the frenulum was clipped, Isabel would stick
out her tongue, which she had not been able to do previously; then, she
would move it around (almost looking for something to lick) and a
BIGGGGGGGGGGGGG smile would light up her face.  She was happy to be able to
do what she had not done in utero or for the first 3 weeks of life on the
outside, and it was not painful to try.

With all the help that I was able to provide my daughter, she still had to
do battle with the medical establishment to get the proper care during labor
and for her baby's tight frenulum.  How can we expect women who don't have
that support to be able to do well?  Is it any wonder that they have
abnormal births, abnormal infant feeding, and then, when they are told the
truth, they become angry?  Sometimes, the anger is misplaced; they blame the
messenger instead of those who caused the problems.  

Lee Galasso, MS, IBCLC, RLC

Lactation Specialist

Westchester County in NY State

 

 

 


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