Hi Lactnetters,



I'm fairly new to this list so I have hesitated putting my .02 in but
this topic is so newly close to home I had to.

First let me introduce myself.  My name is Stacey Bentz.  I'm a LLLL in
central NJ and a former WIC Peer Counselor (couldn't take the heat, got
out of the kitchen).
Shanna is my oldest (21), tried to breast feed but was unsuccessful
(accidental home birth, 5 hour separation, sugar water and formula
bottles, a hospital made pacifier and no instruction on breastfeeding).
At two weeks when my nipples had just about fallen off (slight
exaggeration) and the Ped had me using the bicycle horn pump (stop
cringing) we went with ABM for survival.
My second is now 4yo.  We experienced some difficulty with nursing due to
poor positioning (Everyone told me tummy to tummy, how come they never
demonstrated it?).
Which brought me to LLL and the rest of that part is history.
On November 13th I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Johnny.  I had
done all my research to make this a trauma free birth to make sure bf got
off to a good start.  I had discussed my birthing plan w/ my CNM and she
agreed with all the "wacky" requests I had made.  I even went so far as
to discuss with our Ped delaying PKU until 2 week c/u.
At 41 weeks gest. My midwife decided to help things along with
cervadil(sp).  Worked Great.  I have short labors so 3 hrs after labor
started I pushed out a wonderfully big 9.5 baby.
For some reason my midwife couldn't get his HB before last push so upon
birth was quite eager to "pink" him up.  Thinking he wasn't doing well
she wisked him across the room (LDR) to the baby cart Where some woman I
had never seen before proceeded to shove a tube down his throat while he
was held up by his arm pits.
Now anyone who has ever given birth knows that immediately after delivery
(yes, non-med.)  your in what I can only describe as a dream-like state.
After what seemed like an eternity I yelled across the room, "IS THAT
REALLY NECESSARY?", at which point my midwife went over and told them
that was enough.
OK  I get my baby back (poor little thing) and then they hit me with
*heel prick for sugar*.  *HURRY UP AND LATCH HIM ON SO HE HAS SOME BM AND
THE TEST WILL COME OUT WELL."
Needless to say he did not want to latch on.  After several attempts my
midwife stuffed my BREAST in his mouth and he reluctantly sucked, cried
,sucked.  (this is more difficult to tell than I thought it would be) :.<
I didn't consent right away to the heel stick but when I did, of course
he was fine.
Sorry this is so long but that's the history.  Three days later when my
nipples were about to fall off due to his tongue curling, I rented a pump
from one of my wonderful co-Leaders (also INCLUDE) and tried to finger
feed him.  Not only was he curling his tongue, but he was bunching up the
back of his tongue and tightening the back of his mouth as well.  It was
impossible to get my finger in.  I had tried all the proper exercises and
nothing was working.  We started cup feeding which was suggested due to
the fact that it would draw his tongue out.  I even went so far as to
contact a PT specializing in tongue bunching and jaw clenching.
After three weeks of cup feeding we were finally able to get a proper
latch and now things are fine.
I can't tell you the emotional trauma *I* went through over this.  First,
as a BF failure (I was on constant watch for the LLL police to come and
strip me of my accreditation :-))  and I was wondering if there was
something neurologically wrong with my beautiful son.  On top of that the
ped office kept threatening me with a bottle "he's losing too much
weight" (lost 8 oz. and I believe most was water weight due to my
elevated BP).  Not to mention the ridiculous notion that his suck could
only be evaluated with a bottle (what kind of ridiculous criteria is
this??? What about a finger, Doc?)

Reading these posts on oral trauma have opened my eyes to the fact that
the reason he didn't want anything to do with
BF was because he had suffered and didn't want a repeat of the torture.
Had someone told me that he might be orally sensitive after the deep
suctioning (unnecessary, there was nothing wrong with him) I would have
been prepared for what we went through.
Is that careless Maternity worker going to pay for my pump rental?  Does
the hospital care that we both suffered physically due to an unnecessary
procedure?  What about the mom who doesn't have the supports, background
and backbone that I have?  If I hadn't been in the Breastfeeding *field*
I would have given up on day 3 and then proceeded to tell family, friends
and anyone else who would listen, how BY hurts and how they should never
even try!

Sorry so long. I welcome any and all comments.

Stacey Bentz, LLLL, Lawrenceville, NJ

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