I remember when I first started out 14 yrs ago.the babies I worked with had
latch issues that were mostly positioning and latch technique.  Help the mom
and that helped the baby.  However, over the years I've seen a dramatic
increase in the women who have low milk supply issues due to PCOS and other
undiagnosed hormonal issues and hypoplasia.  I see more and more babies with
posterior and submucosal tongue ties - neither of which I can find anyone in
my area to clip.  The vast majority of my practice now is babies who have
extremely tight muscles in their jaw, neck and back - and upon evaluation of
the body I find mild to severe misalignments in the muscles leading to mild
to severe breastfeeding problems.  Luckily I have someone to refer to to
help these babies.  

 

I think about this often and have to wonder what is the cause of me seeing
this increase?  I think it is a couple things.  First the birthing practices
in our country SUCK.  Babies are harmed regularly by epidurals, vacuum and
forceps, inductions, etc.  I have seen brutal c-sections resulting in babies
with terrible body trauma leaving them unable to breastfeed at all.  I had a
mom with a 28 hour epidural who was told that the epidural meds were not a
problem.choke!  Her baby showed NO interest in latching, rooting, feeding
cues at all for over 4 weeks.  Second, moms are more and more likely to have
just enough information to know that things shouldn't be that hard and are
looking for help.  They find me on the web (approx. 50% of my clients now
find me this way), through friends and family and on the hospital LC list
(if they are lucky enough to get the list!).  Many find me as a last resort
when no one else can help them - I am a damn good train wreck cleaner-upper
now - sad to say.  Many of my babies are well over 3 weeks of age now.

 

So, I think it is a myriad of things that are causing us to see more of
certain issues; moms have more information and look for help now, birthing
practices damage moms and babies so they are looking for help, as our
education grows on a personal level and we get better at what we do we see
more of the challenging BF problems (I see basic L-O and positioning issues
maybe once a month now - at most!).  I think the Universe (or whoever your
deity is if you have one) sends us who needs us most, challenging many of us
to increase our level of education and skill.  Had I known 14 yrs ago the
level of skill I was going to need to help the moms I work with now I'd have
walked away from this career out of fear feeling I'd be in way over my head
and wondering just how I was going to get the education to deal with what I
am now dealing with. 

 

So the big question for me is - how do we CHANGE this?  How do we change the
establishment and help the babies and moms NOT need us?  I don't know.  I
don't work in the hospital setting (it just wouldn't be pretty if I did.I'd
get fired day 1 for telling some HCP off for giving out stupid and harmful
information!) and therefore have no clue what can be changed there.  For
those of you who do work there - I applaud you for being able to do
something I never could.  My part is when I talk to pregnant women I try to
encourage them to do their research on healthier, safer birthing so that
they can reduce the risk of NEEDING to see me after the baby is born.
Sometimes it works - sometimes not.

 

These are just some of my random thoughts.I know I have more but I'll give
it a rest for now.  In just 2 hours I will be sitting down for a prenatal
consult with a mom and dad who went through HELL with baby #1.  BF was an
absolute nightmare as a result of HCP very poor and damaging information and
LC's who simply told her to 'hang in there, it will get better' but didn't
tell her WHY she was having the problems she was having.  She finally gave
up and pumped for a couple months and then went on to formula.  It caused
great pain for mom, dad and the marriage.  So, I get to help them heal from
the past issues and address their fears for this next baby due in 6 weeks.I
know I can help them.but darn it all - I shouldn't HAVE to - they shouldn't
NEED this type of prenatal consult.  

 

Take care all - I am loving this discussion.

 

Jaye Simpson, IBCLC, CIIM

Breastfeeding Network

Sacramento, CA

www.breastfeedingnetwork.net

 


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