I helped a mom at her home on Monday with some latch problems. The baby has a
short frenulum that could very easily be clipped. The mom's nipples are
smashed flat when she takes him off the breast. I did get them in a better position
so that she is more comfortable after the initial latch. Her left side is so
bruised and cracked (was bleeding) that she is going to pump for 24-48 hours
for it to heal a bit.

Mom's sister was there to help. She was so nice. The pediatrician had already
said the frenulum was short but that they would just watch it as the baby
grew. Doctor never even watched baby nurse. Mom's milk supply is good so this was
all they were concerned about. When I was at the house the mom and sister had
me talk to the doctor to get an appointment to get this clipped. Mom tried to
talk to them but the doctor was not being very nice and mom could not stop
crying (made the sister very upset too). Her doctor was out-of-town so I spoke
to another gentleman. This doctor did see in the chart the fenulum information
but said it was not something they would need to see now. I did go over all of
the problems the mom was having from breastfeeding. He finally agreed to see
the baby. The receptionist was put on and said she had no appointments until
the next day! Then she said this was not really an emergency (per doctor). I
wanted to ask the doctor if his p..... were bleeding would it be an emergency!

Long story short I acted in my best manner possible and explained very
politely that mom and baby needed a consult to get a referral (for insurance) to get
this procedure done ASAP. The lovely woman said she could squeeze them in at
2:30.

The doctor did agree that this needed to be clipped and referred to an ENT
because they do not do this procedure in their office. The ENT could see them
the next day, Tuesday. Today is Wed. I talked to mom again. She said that the
ENT now referred them to the main hospital to have this tiny procedure done on
Thursday.

I did call my family doctor because he can do this in his office. He is not
on her plan so the amount would be $75 plus about $55 for new patient check. I
did give her this information as a back-up plan.

I really need some good research on why this can help breastfeeding moms.
This doctor just insisted that it probably would make no difference. He said the
baby could take a bottle. Ahhhhhhhh!

Thanks,
Annette Leibovitz, IBCLC

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