With the expectant mother's permission, I'd appreciate the opportunity to pick everyone's brains about her situation.

Spoke to a mom (a friend of one of my sons) pregnant with her second child -- due in June. She has Lupus E and Raynaud's phenom, which is more common with lupus, and had both conditions prior to the first pregnancy. She breastfed/pumped for her previous baby for two months before stopping due to development of nipple Raynaud's and related extreme pain both with breastfeeding and pumping with a rental pump. On a pain scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high) she described the pain as an 11 -- caused toe curling and crying/sobbing and was afraid of squeezing her baby with her hand when the pain hit/continued.

According to her, she worked with a good LC. Latch did not appear to be a problem -- signs of nipple Raynaud's occurred almost immediately but no other BF-related tissue damage, no cracks, no creasing, no flattening, etc. She tried pumping with larger flanges, but it did not help. She reports trying warming, etc., prior to BF and took nifedipine without improvement. She stopped BF/pumping at about 2 months after developing PPD.

She'd like to try BF again but she's noticed some Raynaud's symptoms already. Hopefully, the weather change may help. And we've discussed trying the Symphony pump -- and possibly even larger flanges available now but not earlier. But her fear level is high and she's aware that "self-fulfilling prophecy" is a risk.

Anyone with experience and insights, your help will be most appreciated!

Karen

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
Mail all commands to [log in to unmask]
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or [log in to unmask])
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet or ([log in to unmask])
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]