Hi there,
I’ve been in silent mode for the last couple of years due to a very rough and
rocky personal live, but I can assure you that I’ve read every Lactnet digest
that came into my inbox…. :-)
I’m looking for your collective wisdom for a maternity nurse colleague of mine.
She asked me if I could share her story with you and see if you could shed
some light on the how’s and why’s of her breastfeeding experience and how to
prevent this from happening next time.
Her story:
Mom had a slow functioning thyroid three years ago. It went away without
treatment.
42 weeks gestation – induced – delivered after 9 hours by vacuum extraction
because she got stuck into the moms’ pelvic.
Postpartum haemorrhage > 800 mls.
Baby’s birth weight was 4400 gr.
Mom and baby stayed in hospital for three days.
Baby got administered paracetamol once for a headache.
It was cold outside ( last January ) but the baby was exceptionally warm all
the time ( and she still is BTW ).
First attachment only occurred only 6 hours postpartum, prior to the fluxus
mom tried but it didn’t work at the time.
As per mom the first feed went very well ( peaceful and energetic ), lasted for
an hour, followed by a long period of sleep ( 4 -5 hours). She couldn’t be
interested in a feed.
Day 3 baby was unsettled in the evening had an elevated temperature ( 38
degrees centigrade ) and refused to feed at breast.
Therefore mom decided to start expressing her milk with a Medela mini electric
and finger fed 30 mls. to the baby.
Expression lasted for a maximum of 5 minutes only and it was always enough
for a full feed.
Mom did not suffer at any time from painful engorgement, nor leaking breasts.
The next day mom used a nipple shield, First finger fed 20 mls. then fed at
breast using nipple shield and that went well…. Finally she was back at breast
even though it needed the use of a nipple shield in order to work ( mom says
she’s usually against the use of a nipple shield ).
After a few suckles nipple shield was completely filled and baby continued to
suckle…. Which led to a great deal of milk spilling if you held her up straight
after the feed. From that moment on only one breast was offered per feed.
After ten days there was no need any more for the use of the shield but the
vomiting continued, even though she was still on one side per feed.
After a month the baby well-clinic advised to feed in the Australian hold ( anti-
gravity ) and to mix the expressed breastmilk with Nutriton; give 30-40 mls
prior to each feed.
The Nutriton lessened the vomiting, the Australian hold didn’t work.
Mom also tried to pause the feed right after she felt the milk eject, but that
resulted in an agitated and frustrated child.
Yes, mom did try to completely empty her breasts once but said that it didn’t
work to truly empty them because whatever she tried and how long she
pumped, milk kept coming [ DUH ! – the duh here is mine, sorry couldn’t help
it ].
Mom tried to express as little as possible but whenever she started
expressing, milk came rushing in, MER was very quick to occur and the bottle
was filled to the brim before she knew it ( although amounts became smaller
after she went back to work).
After 3 months mom had to return to her job again ( as a maternity nurse at
home ), she worked 8 hours a day 2 x 5 days a month.
At work, expressing was terrible….it really took an effort to get 150 mls from
BOTH breasts and it took more than an hour at times. She knew that baby
drank so much more in less time.
When mom is at work baby takes 200 mls of expressed breastmilk with one
scoop of Nutriton added and she doesn’t vomit afterwards.
After 4 months mom only feeds 4 times a day and still one breast per feed.
There however was a need to express the other breast in the morning and
late at night. If she didn’t the breasts became painful and engorged.
She also had three ‘near’ breast infections ( Very engorged, hard and painful
spots, but no fever ).
Ever since it became warmer outside and the baby reached the age of 6
months production seems to have stabilized somewhat.
Usually the baby feeds from both breasts and ends the feeds by herself.
She does vomit, but it is less, no more great deals of milk spilling….
Weight gain:
1 week – 4460 gram
2 weeks – 4740 gram
3 weeks – 5130 gram
1 month – 5550 gram
2 months – 6500 gram
3 months – 7800 gram
4 months – 8000 gram
5 months – 8300 gram
6 months – 8700 gram
At the beginning I even doubted stimulating my breasts enough for the long
run because baby only took one breast and because of the duration for I was
the one who decided how long a feed would last because of the vomiting ( I
followed my gut feeling here, feeds lasted somewhere between 5 – 20
minutes) .
There is one benefit to this all though, I do still have a freezer full of
expressed milk :-)
--------
Any words of wisdom are welcomed by the mom, for she really wants to learn
from this experience and is wondering what might have been going on :-) and
how to prevent it from happening next time.
I’ve added no comments or opinions of my own in the text above. Except for
the [ DUH ] comment between brackets.
Thanks for your time, comments and expertise….
Kind regards,
Renate Rietveld, The Netherlands.
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