I am really surprised at the responses Julie has gotten to the post below.

I wonder how an infant is supposed to overcome the injury and trauma caused by a forceps delivery all on his own. Lots of babies who are injured are able to feed in a sub-optimal position with a shield. If you watch them closely, they will often avoid turning in a certain direction or avoid proper positioning for a good latch at breast, but can manage a compensatory position on the shield. 

I use shields in these circumstances, too, but ONLY while baby's traumas and injuries are being treated, not instead of treating them. Some LCs have suggested lots of STS and time. Time is a wonderful healer, but in this case, time is just going to give the baby the opportunity to build neural pathways that integrate compensatory behaviors. I am frustrated with the idea that we can brutalize babies at birth and that they need no support in healing from such interventions. 

Mom may not be "into alternative" therapies, but her baby probably wasn't into being hauled out of the birth canal by his head, either. Most moms are pretty clear that such actions, while possibly necessary (okay--almost never necessary, but let's pretend for the sake of the baby) are still not nature's design and might cause injury. I find that the most resistant moms respond much better when given reading material. I use Dee Kassing and Sharon Vallone's articles on chiropractic for babies. While my preference is a chiro, I will try to find a practitioner that mom might be most amenable to--when I had a client married to a DO, I found a DO for her. Sometimes moms are more receptive to a PT who does CST than a CST who might be, say a massage therapist. 

The other thing I would do is get this mom and baby into a bath together with Bach Flower Remedies. I sent a list I compiled to LN a few weeks ago of the remedies I use for helping babies feed. I find that moms are often more responsive to the needs of their babies when they use the remedies as well. This baby has probably spent his entire life to date in a sympathetic state and he is not going to be able to get himself out of it. He needs help and I think that when the LC is confident about such ideas, the mom is more likely to pursue them. 

I would urge Julie to go back to mom and explain structural trauma to her. Use Dee and Sharon's articles. I always tell mom we have to start from where we are--that if she feels the need to go back and address the birth in any way, she can do that--but right now, we have tools to correct the situation and it is a lot easier to work through things after that. Women are smart and they usually know when something makes sense. If you can explain it in such a way that mom can see how an injury might have happened AND that it is easily attended to, she can approach the healing w/o guilt.? I will often arrange for an unsure mom to talk to another mom who had the same fears and had great results. Mom to mom support makes the world turn, IMO. 

I recently worked with a mom who had seen another LC three times before I saw her. Baby could use a nipple shield, although not perfectly and was causing some nipple trauma. Mom had been treated for thrush, which I doubt she ever had. Mom wanted off the shield and the LC told her it was no big deal to continue to use it. In a sense, that might be true, but when I watched the baby, I saw enormous compensations in her feeding. After one chiro adjustment, she was able to feed well on the shield--causing no more pain for mom. Then we had the TT clipped and baby was able to transition fully to the breast. Mom said to me today, of her baby, "I think she's cured."? So do I.




 Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA
Intuitive Parenting Network LLC

 





Julie wrote:

"I have a client with a 4 week old infant who was a forcep delivery and would NOT
 latch. Mom pumped and bottle fed for two weeks because the baby refused to nurse
 and he was losing weight. When I started working with her, I couldn't get the 
baby to breastfed either. That is unusual for me. We started finger feeding and 
avoiding ALL rubber nipples. That went really well except at the next week we 
tried to offer the breast...skin to skin, half asleep. He will lick but as soon 
as he figured out he is at the breast, he screams! He cries and gets very upset.
 We back off, calm him down, give him something to eat and do it again. Cries and
 freaks out. Then I moved onto a nipple shield because my philosophy is that I 
perfer baby at breast vs. away from mom. Baby latches and is happy. Now mom a 
week later, mom wants shield off and I am not confident that the baby is going 
to nurse without it. I see this baby as very high strung. Freaks at diaper 
changes. Freaks at anything out of his routine. My next idea is to try to offer 
the breast in a dark room. Any more thoughts? The baby is extremely tense and 
does not like anything different. Mom is not into alternative therapies as I 
would think CST would benefit baby."











 


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