Dear Wise Women:

As I write this my sister-in-law is in labor having her first baby.  She has
so far been given 2 shots of Demerol and an epidural.  When last we spoke she
was 2+ and pushing.  I will consider it a miracle if she avoids a C-section.
 Let's see how the breastfeeding goes... She will be asking me all her
questions!

   On another note, one of the resident physicians that I work with just had
a baby, and everything under the sun has gone wrong for her in regards to
breastfeeding.  The baby is now 2 1/2 months old and is still only nursing on
one side, and she has just recently recovered from her 3rd mastitis!
    She was seen in the hospital by a lactation consultant who affirmed she
was using proper positioning, nevertheless, she developed severely sore and
cracked nipples to the point where there was blood in the baby's stool.  When
she sought help from LLL what she heard was basically "You don't get sore
nipples unless you have improper positioning"  That really turned her off to
LLL because she really felt like she was doing everything right, was
suffering greatly, and was kind of insulted.  Anyway, she pumped and nursed
and finally got the baby going on one breast, but when I talked to her today,
she said she still had pus coming out of a crack in one breast.  By the way,
her husband is also a physician, and has been very helpful and supportive.
    We are joking at work because I have a 15 month old that I have been
nursing on one side only since he was 10 months old. ( We both sheepishly
admit our breastfeeding difficulties to each other, as we are both big
breastfeeding advocates. Why we should feel that as health care providers we
would be smarter than these problems, I'm not sure)
   If any of you are familiar with a wonderful Utah writer, Terry Tempest
Williams, she has written a well known story called "The Clan of The One
Breasted Women", which is really about her family's exposure to nuclear
radition during above ground nuclear testing in the 50s, and refers to the
fact that all of the female members of her family have had breast cancer and
masectomies.  We are calling ourselves part of a different clan of one
breasted (nursing) women.  What an adventure.

Take Care Lacnetters,

Jennifer Myers Coombs, PA-C  mother to Thomas 15 months old and newly found
to be pregnant 2 days ago!!