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From:
Norma Ritter <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 9 Feb 2009 23:33:28 -0500
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I am one of those people who likes to research every aspect of a
project before starting it, so when I became pregnant for the first
time in 1976, I read every book on baby care that I could find. The
only ones about breastfeeding in our local library were The Womanly
Art of Breastfeeding and Nursing your Baby, both of which had been
donated by the local LLL Group. This led me to contacting the local
LLL LLeaders and attending meetings, starting when I was six months
pregnant. I saw lots of mothers nursing there, but they were all so
discreetly covered that there was no way to actually see what was
happening. I did learn, however, that it was common for breastfeeding
to be painful in the early weeks, but that this was a temporary
problem which would resolve itself as my nipples grew calluses.
Somebody evened likened it to learning to play the guitar.

The OB/GYN who attended my baby's birth believed in natural
childbirth,  so I did not have any meds. I was also lucky to have our
Lamaze instructor as my doula. However, after pushing for three hours,
it was obvious that this baby did not seem to want to come out, and I
was given general anesthesia so that the doc could do a low forceps
delivery. I later learned that Dan came out with the next contraction,
but in the process I was badly torn and needed fifteen stitches. The
reason for this was a very short umbilical cord, only nine inches
long.

I was not allowed to even see my baby for the first 24 hours. That was
the rule at at that hospital. Although the nurses assured my that he
was not hungry and did not need any food, I later found out that they
had given him formula. This was against my express wishes, and it
triggered his having a  milk allergy. In the meantime, I bled heavily
and was very groggy from the anesthesia. The woman in the next bed
(semi-private room) was nursing her 11lb son, which made me cry.  I
was grieving for my baby.

Finally, they brought me my son. I asked if there was a nurse on duty
who could show me what to do. The one who came had nursed her own
babies. She had me sit upright in an armchair (which did nothing for
my very sore perineum) and hold the baby face upwards, as if I was
bottle feeding. I was instructed to rub my nipple on his cheek so that
he would root towards the nipple, and then latch him on. It hurt like
the dickens,  but I was determined to nurse, so I persevered, despite
cracked and bleeding  nipples. Sure enough, after about three weeks,
it stopped hurting, just like those kind ladies had told me. In fact,
Diane Wiessinger has a photo of me nursing Dan in this position, and
you can see the grimace on my face. We both use that pic as an
illustration of what NOT to do!

My MIL insisted that I keep the baby in our bedroom, instead of a
separate nursery, because of her own experiences. She had woken in the
night to the realisation that her baby daughter was not breathing. If
she had not been able to grab the baby right there and then and blow
into her mouth, that daughter would not have survived.

However, I was determined not to allow the baby into our bed, for fear
of forming bad habits. I would get up several times a night to nurse
him in the rocking chair. This state of affairs lasted until the night
I fell asleep with him in my arms and he rolled onto the floor. After
that, he came into bed with us, at least to nurse. I have no idea how
I learned how to sleep and nurse at the same time, it just happened.

My MIL was insistent that I learn how to express milk so that he could
eat if i was not available. I bought a bicycle horn pump, the only
kind  that was available at the local pharmacy, and tried to use it.
It hurt and it didn't work, so I tried hand expressing, but I wasn't
very good at that
either. It wasn't a big deal since I always found a way to take the
baby with me anyway.

By the time my second baby arrived, I had taught myself to
hand-express. Our LLL Group was getting a number of requests for milk
donations and I wanted to help. At that time the LLLI ruling was that
we could donate  milk for a relactating mother until her own
production was adequate. This, of course, was before the AIDs scare,
when everything changed.

It was not until my third child was born that I was able to nurse
without pain. We had finally figured out that babies could not turn
their heads until they were about three weeks old, so it made more
sense to turn the baby over, tummy to tummy, so he actually faced the
nipple. That was, indeed, a huge step for nursing mothers everywhere.
I am so grateful for all the research that has, and still is, being
done on how babies breastfeed, because it has made such a difference
for my own daughters' and daughter-in-law's experiences


Norma Ritter, IBCLC, RLC
www.NormaRitter.com

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