My firstborn is just 45 - and the answer to how did I learn to breastfeed
him effectively is - well, I didn`t.
After a straightforward birth in a hospital on the Surrey-Hampshire border
in England, I was hospitalised for ten days during which the baby was
brought to me every four hours for "ten minutes each side." He sucked
beautifully and enthusiastically and I thought it was a doddle. On the
fourth day I was extremely engorged and didn`t know what had happened - my
prenatal class at the same hospital only discussed pregnancy and birth (in a
limited way) and like all the leaflets given out, breastfeeding and
postpartum was just not mentioned. I asked a nurse why my breasts were so
painful and instead of explaining she gave me a pill which would "make me
feel better". I found out afterwards that this pill was to reduce the milk
and my supply never caught up afterwards. Nobody told me that the baby was
also fed from bottles after every feed and I assumed I had enough milk
until we got home and he never stopped crying. I went through a nightmare
for two months, trying to keep to that four hours schedule and not
understanding why he was crying all the time and not gaining much weight.
The well-baby nurse, relatives, distraught neighbours who told me that my
baby`s crying disturbed them all convinced me that my milk was no good and
when he was two months old I started giving him formula. Peace at last, he
devoured bottle after bottle, put on weight and seemed to thrive. My milk
fizzled out to almost nothing. During that time my mother was terminally
ill and by the time she died, my first baby was eight months old and I was
again pregnant.
He is the only one in the family with allergies, breathing problems and for
many years he was small for his age. More problematic was the effect of all
this on bonding and our relationship which thankfully is now wonderful.
Baby No. 2 is just 44, was born at home. I never let him out of my sight
and breastfed him whenever he opened his mouth. I fed him for a year and
also breastfed my third and fourth with much more confidence.
Apart from the home birth and the lack of separation, what made the
difference? The National Childbirth Trust. I went to one of their prenatal
courses for a refresher, learned the basics of breastfeeding, got help from
their breastfeeding counsellors and attended the local postnatal support
group where at last I met mothers with a breastfeeding culture.
That made the difference also in my life because after all my children were
born and I had completed studies in psychology, I trained with NCT to be a
childbirth educator and breastfeeding counsellor.
Wendy Blumfield
Israel Childbirth Education Centre
----- Original Message -----
From: "Diane Wiessinger" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2009 4:10 PM
Subject: how did you learn?
Those of you whose firstborns are older than 28 or so:
How did you learn to breastfeed effectively? How did you learn to hand
express? How did you learn to breastfeed lying down?
Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL Ithaca, NY USA
www.normalfed.com
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