Dear debra and midwife,
Sorry to reply to this about 10 days after you posted it but I have been away
on vacation and am getting caught up on my lactnet. I have had several cases
like the one you mentioned, and have talked about it with an LC in the next
big city over from our small town to ask her if she has also seen it and she
concurs. Symptoms have been similar. Tip off has been as follows: small
amounts of breast tissue, or tubular shaped breasts with regular areola oand
nipple (occasionally puffy areola). Just doesn't look like a usual lactating
breast at all. Babies to thse moms always lose weight, usually lots of it,
but have and have normal palate, suck, etc. I have not had success with any
of these mothers ever producing enough milk for their babies to grow on
exclusively. All of them have elected to use the SNS or Lact-Aid and have
been very happy. By my calculations, these babies were getting (depending
on the mom) anywhere from 8-14 oz of mom's milk, and the rest supplementary
formula. One of these mom's I think was secondary to a thyroid condition (hx
of difficulty conceiving, just had that hypothryoid look) but she and doc did
not pursue this(!). This is a different situation than the FTT babies I
might see at 3-4 weeks out, who have not gained much weight since birth, but
have not lost. The type of mom you are talking about seems to really have
PMI. It will be interesting to track these moms with subsequent babies to
see what happens during next lactation experience to see if this happens
again, any change in quantity of milk produced, etc. Yes this really does
exist! First task is to feed the baby! 3 lbs--yikes!! I had one mom who had
an undeveloped breast on one side, had that augmented at age 18 and had her
other "functioning" and fully developed breast reduced to have a "matched
set". She attempted lactation and her baby lose 2 pounds in just a few days.
She lost the ability to breastfeed by this early breast surgery for cosmetic
purposes, but as a 16 year old in our culture very selfconscious about her
breasts, etc. doesn't blame herself , nor do I. I probably would have done
the same at that age, if I had been in her shoes. --Betsy Wall,IBCLC
|