Veronica writes:

<The husband called me to cancel the follow up appointment we had set up
at our initial visit and said he would be taking the MDs advice because
after
all, that was her doctor and would know more. Is there a piece of the
puzzle I am missing here? I did explain to the dad that if her intention
is to BF, that this would really crimp her milk supply. He (a NICU nurse,
himself) said he was aware of this, but that mom was going to follow
medical advice. How could I compete with that? I told them that I would be
happy to help if and when she was feeling up to it, and I left it at that..

Is there anything more that I could have done?>

I am glad to hear you taught him RPS and that it helped, for at least that
feeding. It's a shame he didn't understand that keeping it up prior to every
feeding and every pumping for a few days, would allow time and the baby to
have "cured" the engorgment.

Even though he is not under the same hormonal and medical stresses that the
mother is, as an advocate for his wife and baby, under sleep deprivation
himself, he too is perhaps under more stress than other new fathers, because
as a NICU nurse, he may have "baggage" of familiarity with supplementation,
etc. that other fathers don't.

It may or may not be too late to "save" this particular "train wreck", but I
am hoping you can supply him with a little medically oriented educational
material (which I forwarded privately). He is in a position to help many
future parents with more complete information as a result of his own
experience. Perhaps his "flight" to the "safety" of his professional
allegiance to MD opinions may be the easiest way for him to cope right now.
Lets hope that the usual physiological time limitation of this type
of swelling to 7-14 days may not completely "crash" the whole experience,
providing she does in fact resume EBF.

It might help if he understands that the OB is so familiar with swelling as
a sequela to standard OB interventions that he no doubt considers it
"normal". Perhaps he might be able to educate the MD a little on postpartum
breast swelling in the future.

I hope you keep us posted.

Jean
***************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton OH USA

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