Hello everyone. I just came home from an evening shift and worked with a woman who, with her first, she nursed for 2 weeks and had very sore
nipples the whole time, quit cold turkey and got engorged. On admission, she said she really wanted to breastfeed this baby and was
glad that I was there to help as she "had no help" the first time around. I worked with her for 2 nursing sessions this evening and another nurse
helped with the third. Baby likes to tongue-suck but both mom and babe were learning what to do. With a number of latches the mom would
say "It's pinching", and about 1/2 the time the nipple would be flattened or like a new tube of lipstick, the other 1/2 the nipple would be round.
Each time she'd take the baby off and re-latch. Both mom and babe were very patient through it all, although the mom said her nipples were
getting sore. Anyway, just before I left for the night she called me in to tell me she decided she wants to breastfeed so her baby gets the
colostrum and then switch to formula feeding. She wanted to know the best/easiest way to do this. I talked about gradually transitioning to
bottle feeding by replacing some nursing sessions with formula feeding over a couple of days until she's just formula feeding. I asked if I could
check my resources (ie. you all) to see if anyone knows of any other way and she agreed.
My question is, because her plan (at this time) is to nurse only a couple of days, does she even need to gradually switch over to a bottle if she
switches before her milk comes in? Maybe at this early stage she could just switch cold turkey?
Also, does anyone know of any research regarding stimulating breasts prior to the milk coming in and the impact (if any) on engorgement? I've
been telling formula-feeding moms ever since I can remember to not stimulate their breasts after the birth, but do we have any research to base
that on? I've worked with women who still got severe engorgement without touching their breasts, so if a mom breastfeeds for a day or two, does
she really need to do anything different if she then switches to formula?
Let me know what you think.
Have a good day.
Wanda Mertick, RN, MN, IBCLC
Port Matilda, Pennsylvania
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