Dear Friends,

My name is Joanne Kondak and I'm an LLL Leader in Port Jervis, NY. I've
been lurking for a while and feel I should introduce myself, because I
want to respond to Robin's post. I've been a LLLeader since 1994. I'm
married to Charlie and I have three beautiful, breastfed children:
Jessica(6 1/2), Jeremy(5), and Zachary(2 1/2). I'm really enjoying the
posts here and the information I'm learning.

Robin,
I'm only talking from my own personal experience here, but some of these
things sound familiar. My son Zachary had pathological jaundice. They did
first transfusion when bili was at 28. It went down a little, but then
started going back up after a day, so they did another. In the meantime,
they were trying to talk me into giving him formula and/or water. Both
seemed rediculous to me, so I hit them with a bunch of facts. They
stopped pressuring me.

To make a long story short, he had ABO incompatability. From what I
understand, it had something to do with the fact that I hemmorraged with
my previous birth due to placenta previa, which resulted in a c-section 6
weeks early. It had something to do with anti-bodies fighting off his
blood cells like a virus. (I'm no doctor, so this is how I understood
it.) He never got a drop of formula, nor water, but I pumped ALOT to get
my milk to come in, so that when he could nurse (he needed an empty
stomach for the transfusions) there would be milk for him. My nipples
were sore, cracked and bleeding. Before and after I pumped, I would lay
warm to hot towels on my breasts. Then I would soak my nipples in warm to
hot salt water. (Something my first, now retired LLLL told me.) While
soaking, I would gently compress/express milk into the water. Then, after
soaking, I would coat my nipples with olive oil. Then air out for a
while. My nipples were fine in about 2 days of this treatment.

All of this might be unrelated, but I just thought I'd share it with you.
By the way, Zachary recovered, and was nursing wonderfully! By the time
we left (the neonatal unit in a big hospital in New York City) the head
neonatologist was asking ME questions about breastfeeding!

LLLove, Joanne Kondak, LLLL, Port Jervis, NY
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