Beautiful imagery, Margaret! Thank you for the wonderful and thorough
description.This could help many people.
I, too, am surprised that there aren't more easily found resources for the
visually impaired.
Wishing LACTNET was more active. I try to avoid diving into Facebook.
The robust conversation here is priceless.
All the best,
Allison Laverty Montag RLC, IBCLC
Wisconsin


>
>
>> Date:    Mon, 28 Feb 2022 10:33:14 -0500
>> From:    Margaret Wills <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: supporting visually impaired dyads -- blind mother --
>>
>> Hi Leah;
>> Adding to the previous post:
>>
>> Sometimes it helps,  with counseling a new family with less common
>> physical anomalies affecting breastfeeding, to discuss how much common
>> ground the family is on.  Along with targeting their special concern,
>> they can also feel that they are grappling with the information and
>> practice everyone needs.  *All* new breastfeeding parents feel
>> overwhelmed, and everyone is figuring out how to get a comfortable and
>> effective latch (often the same thing). All new families need a lot of
>> practical help around the house in the early weeks -- does she have any
>> resources to draw on?  All new parents are empowered by being around
>> other breastfeeding families that seem like themselves.  Can you help
>> her find support groups for parents who are also blind?
>>
>> She is already the expert about being blind -- ask her how she deals
>> with other other daily skills -- cooking, getting dressed, brushing her
>> teeth? *Everyone* hates all the fussy little parts that pumps have --
>> would laying the pieces out to dry in a particular order help her
>> reassemble them? Could any tactile notches be added to help align parts
>> and dials?   In the assembly/pumping practice sessions, move the flange
>> from side to side, so she has a sense-memory of how it feels when the
>> nipple moving freely, not rubbing on the sides.  Can she hear milk
>> dripping in the bottles?   Can she use big bottles so she doesn't worry
>> about overflowing them?
>>
>> How important is the pump/bottle in the daily routine right now? Do they
>> have a term baby able to breastfeed well?  Should feeding at the breast
>> be the skill to work on first, to help her feel competent and connected
>> to her child?  Mothers and babies are feeding as much by feel as sight,
>> and they did it in dark caves at night for a long time.
>>
>> In recent decades, LCs helping with latch encourage all breastfeeding
>> parents to lean back a bit and use gravity to make both bodies secure
>> and stable.  And to start with smart little baby mammal upright and wait
>> for them to organize and start the search, and then keep the baby in
>> contact while helping them search down the mother's body.   If she
>> experiments with a feeding pillow, to remember that her body remains the
>> contact point.
>>
>> Someone who is blind tends to have a strong kinesthetic sense of their
>> own body.  Describe the deep off-center "sandwich" latch. One good
>> teaching tool to convey this to any parent -- have them plant the base
>> of their thumb on their chin, with the thumb up past their nose.  To
>> reach the thumb/nipple, they would tip their head back,  drag their
>> lower jaw, and the thumb's base/areolaenters the mouth first and the
>> thumb/nipple flips in last.
>>
>> If the mother pushes her own head, she can see that it curls the chin
>> into the chest -- not a good way to eat! If she's supporting the baby's
>> shoulders with the neck/base of the baby's head in the web between thumb
>> and forefinger, the baby's head can hinge back.
>>
>> Can she feel the baby's chin on her breast and the nipple under the
>> baby's nose?  With the supporting finger by the baby's ear, (or slipping
>> a finger up under the baby's chin from the hand supporting the breast) a
>> mother would be able to feel that slow, jaw-dropping suck, and to listen
>> for the steady swallows and feel the breast softening, and judge whether
>> it feels like a big, comfortable mouthful.
>>
>> Everyone is worried about whether the baby is getting enough to eat, so
>> diapers and weight gain are monitored carefully for the early weeks.
>> Maybe a few pre-and-post weights would encourage confidence. Once a baby
>> is gaining well, they will certainly not be polite about making sure
>> they get enough.  It's healthy eating habits for a baby to learn about
>> their own body and eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full
>> -- we don't measure how much we as adults eat.
>>
>> This is turning out to be a long post, and full of information that you
>> and other readers already know -- so maybe the note was just affirming
>> that you already have so many good tools for helping this new family!
>>
>> Good luck to us all.
>>
>> Margaret Wills, IBCLC, Maryland, USA
>>
>>
> --

Nurturing yourself is not selfish

It's *essential* to your survival and your well-being

-Renee Peterson Trudeau-










*“Remember we are one in this We breathe one air We drink from one water We
rise from one ocean And we live under one sky Our hearts beat the same song
Our children cry the same And the colour of our blood is red We are all
brothers and sisters.”  — Anwar Fazal*
"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we often might win, by
fearing to attempt."
William Shakespeare
Measure for Measure

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