lee writes:
In most average cases, breastfeeding is simple and easy. Why are there so
many problems? Our birthing and breastfeeding practices create the train
wrecks; they are not normal. We need to remember that because what we as
LCs see are mostly the train wrecks. The serious medical situations are a
different story; but they are rare. Not rare, however, are the hard,
engorged breasts caused by the lack of frequent breastfeeding in the first 1-3
days by an undrugged baby who has been with its mom since birth. It's so
simple but our hospitals and women don't do it.
~~~
Ah that resonates so much with my experience, both as a new mom almost 25
years ago, and with the moms I see now. I had flat nipples, my son was
taken away since there was no rooming in, and he was given bottles behind my
back in the hospital for 36 hours before I got home. He screamed or shut
down every time I brought him near my breast. Those breast shells just helped
normalize things by giving me a little help, or him, or us both however
you want to look at it. I think the fact that I had no medications and he was
suffering "only" from being separated from me for those first two nights,
which we remedied as soon as I got home, but was not also drugged or
irritated by labor/delivery meds for days, helped us get back on track faster.
I didn't need them after a week or so. If it hadn't been for LLL's phone
help at that 36 hour mark, and someone at a meeting telling me about how
the shields helped them early on, I would have followed my
then-pediatrician's advice, and there would have been no hope of him ever breastfeeding.
Peace,
Judy
Judy LeVan Fram, PT, IBCLC, LLLL
Brooklyn, NY, USA
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