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Date: | Mon, 10 Oct 2005 21:06:02 -0700 |
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<<Also if there are specific emotional or supportive elements that
should be address and how to approach these.>>
This is just from my own experience of having my full-term infant on
life support and airlifted to a NICU (I left the hospital where I
birthed AMA and drove with DH down to meet up with my son). These are
things I would have liked to have had someone address for me while I was
in the NICU:
* that I wasn't a failure just b/c I was pumping and not able to put
my baby to the breast right away
* that there is a time/place for bottles (and at night in the NICU
is one of them -- I felt SOOO guilty that my baby had bottles at
night b/c LLL etc. can sometimes be a little too adamant about not
giving bottles if mother is around... I tried staying 24 hours and
nearly passed out from exhaustion; my blood pressure shot up and I
swelled up so much they nearly admitted me to the post-partum ward!)
* that breastfeeding can work even if the pumping/gavage feeding or
night-time bottles take weeks (my son was only on the vent for a
little less than a week so I can't imagine how a mother would feel
having to go weeks or months before nursing her baby)
I think a question you should ask point-blank is "How committed are you
to making this work?". A mother may not have thought about it but if
you'd asked me I'd have told you that hell would freeze over before my
baby got formula. He never did. I left the hospital an emotional mess
(elated to be taking my son home; confused and (realized months later)
depressed b/c of the trauma of the difficult birth and nearly having him
die etc.) and utterly exhausted. Some kind of follow-up would be nice
too. We live in a small town. Nobody called to see how things were
going. We have no home-health nurse visits like bigger communities
have. Nursing him at home was difficult, thankfully only for a week or
so, since (as discussed in another case) Liam was one of those "angry"
babies who seemed to be rejecting me/my breast at first.
Just rambling. I am not a professional. Just a mother grateful to hear
someone wants to do something like this and hoping that my thoughts as a
mom might help you figure out what the moms you'll be talking to might
need. I'm sure I haven't told you anything you don't already know or
haven't heard before.
Margo
LLL Leader
Mom to miracle babies Liam & Ceilidh
Professional tandem nursers now!
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