Yesterday at our mom's group, I saw a mom with an 8 day-old who was
not gaining well, now supplementing with formula, barely getting 1/8
teaspoon with a hospital-grade pump.  Baby willing to go to breast
briefly and appears to nurse well when there.  She had minimal
changes during pregnancy, but did leak some colostrum.  What little
milk is there now has the appearance of mature milk, but mom has
never felt any signs of milk "coming in".  When she proceeded to
latch baby on, I noticed her breasts were widely spaced and
pre-pubescent in shape.  I fear this may be a case of insufficient
mammary tissue although she will be working on improved pumping
techniques and galactagogues.  This mom worked to have a
non-medicated birth, wants everything natural and is really
committed to breastfeeding (she does not like the idea of any kind
of supplementer, however-would prefer to use bottle or Haberman).
While we will work on kicking up her supply, I fear she may not be
able to fully nurse this baby.  Then I go to the unit and see a mom
with textbook breasts and nipples, copious colostrum and a baby that
latches beautifully.  Mom has decided she "just doesn't feel
comfortable with" breastfeeding and has decided to go to formula.
Why couldn't the first mom have had the second mom's breasts!!!

Then there is the mom I saw last week for sore nipples, we worked on
latch and nursing was becoming more comfortable.  At that point, mom
wound up in ER and was admitted for a kidney infection and went to
pumping/dumping due to the antibiotic she was put on (an L3).
Antiobiotic is done today and she will be getting baby back on
breast.  (I was "out of the loop" while this was going on, so had no
imput into whether she could nurse with the med.)  So, just as she
was overcoming one challenge, along comes another one.

Like I said, sometimes life just ain't fair!

Winnie

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

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html