The Beauties of Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding can be one of the most beautiful moments between mom and baby. These moments come easily and naturally for some women and for others, this time is one filled with confusion, difficulty and even pain.
When I gave birth to my firsts child, I pulled her close and she started to eat with no problem. I was so happy and relieved that everything went so well right from the start. Well, that wonderful moment in the hospital was short lived.
Shortly after returning home that wonderful peaceful moment of nursing became one of horror and tears. I dreaded most moments with my baby, because I was afraid she was going to want to eat and I just couldn't take the pain any more. My nipples were cracked and bleeding and my baby would feed forever, just to pull off and be hungry again a short time later.
If my husband wasn't so supportive and adamant about the need for me to breastfeed our baby, I would have given up. Despite the fact that it was so difficult I managed to get past the hardest month of my life and on to enjoying my baby.
I nursed her for 1 year and stopped when I found out I was pregnant with my second child. That was due to a nurse telling me I needed to ween the baby, because it wasn't healthy to nurse and be pregnant at the same time.
This was my first experience with nursing, but not my last. Before I move on, I want to clarify a few points.
- You do not need to stop nursing your baby because you are pregnant with another child. If you had a high risk pregnancy, your doctor may talk to you about weening and this may be appropriate for your situation, but if you had a perfectly healthy pregnancy, then you do not need to ween your child.
- If you are bleeding or have sore nipples, please get assistance from an IBCLC. They are the most reliable source on breastfeeding support. Until then, use coconut oil to sooth and heal the nipple.
While I was nursing my 6 week baby, I had a numbing pain in a couple of my fingers that over time spread up my arm, then went to my shoulder and landed itself in my neck. I was unable to turn my neck do to the stiff pain. It took me months to figure out that I had a herniated disk in my neck.
Though I had a baby who breastfeed well, I realize now looking back, that I did not have the support under my arms, like a pillow, that I should have had so my body was not relaxed while nursing. It is very important to relax all of your muscles while feeding or you chance injury. I certainly didn't think this could happen from feeding my baby, but it did.
My third birth, was the birth of my son and once again I was to nurse my baby and was very optimistic that everything would go well. I was a nursing mama pro now, right? Once again, everything went very well in the hospital, except that my son was a tired one. When we got home, things continued to go well until about a week into the process. Then I got engorged and had intense pain. I soaked my large, hard breasts in very hot water (I do not recommend this, warm water would be better) to try and loosen any plugged ducts, because that is what I figured the problem must be. I did my research on the internet and read that you should take a steril needle and carefully remove any white heads from the nipple. I did this and still the pain was intense and my baby was struggling to latch on, he would move his head back and forth. I had to do a pacifier switch to fake him out, to get him to take the breast and when he finally got on I remember screaming in pain because it hurt so badly.
After another day or two of this, I got out a pump that I had been given and pumped all the excess milk and finally had some sweet relief. I thought that would solve all my problems, but it didn't. My baby and I had learned how to nurse now with out nearly as much difficulty or pain of screaming magnitude, but a new pain crept in to my life.
Once I was done nursing my son, who by the way became the speediest nurser known to man, I would notice a stabbing pain in my breast that would last the entire length between feedings. I now longed for feedings and dreaded the in between time. This sure was a change in comparison to my first baby. Along with this horrible pain was the strange fact that my left nipple would turn white after my baby finished eating or when I got out of the shower.
I went back to the hospital to talk to a lactation consultant and she said my latch looked great and didn't know why this was happening. I did a bunch of research on the matter and finally found an article on Raynauds of the nipple. I then went to my family doctor, who sent me to a OBGYN and he looked me over, did an exam and said that he hadn't heard of Raynauds of the nipple and didn't have any suggestions for me. He was very nice, but just of no help. I learned from the article to keep myself warm, so that is what I did and it did seem to help. Eventually spring came and so did relief from my pain. I had no more problems for the duration of feeding my son for 16 months.
If you are having such difficulties as I had with feeding my son, please go see an IBCLC for help. They can help with proper latch and help in determining plugged ducks, Raynauds, or any other problems that can arise during breastfeeding.
Also, I have been reading a great book that gives helps in all different areas of nursing. This book is called The Nursing Mother's Companion 6th Edition by Kathleen Huggins.
Because of the pain that came form nursing my baby in the cold, we tried not to have a birth during the winter months. We were very blessed to be able to give birth to a little girl in April. Things started out beautifully, but then it was discovered that our new little baby, despite being post due by 5 days, had difficulty breathing and needed to be in the NICU for a week. This was a new challenging experience for us and nursing was that much more difficult. I had always nursed all of my babies and never gave them a bottle, I didn't even pump other than a total of two or three times. Pumping just didn't work for me, I hardly got anything out that way.
Not only was pumping very hard for me, but so was the strict schedule that the NICU required. There were certain times you were not allowed to be there, for very good reasons, but that made it so you had to feed your baby by the clock and not very from this by more than 15 minutes or so. I would go to the hospital every three hours to feed my baby and the first night I was exhausted and just crawled back into bed after the 1:00am feeding and received a call saying my baby was hungry again.
I just started to cry, my husband told me that it was OK for our baby to have a bottle. This was one of the hardest things for me to allow, but there is a time and a place for a bottle. I didn't look down on others for feeding their babies bottles, but I just didn't want this for my baby.. But at this moment a bottle was just what the two of us needed. I would have burnt myself out if I continued with the 1:00am feedings. Instead we decided that we would let the nurses feed her a bottle at this time and as my milk increased a little it became more and more breast milk and less formula, so it was a good thing.
I learned some good tricks while in the NICU. I leaned that when my baby was struggling to latch and getting very upset, that you just need to put a little milk on your nipple and it makes them think that there is food their and they will eventually latch on. I got pretty good at this and I think the nurses were pretty impressed with how patient I was at attempting this technique. They wanted me to just give my baby a bottle, but I would say, let me try a little longer and I would just calmly try again and eventually we got it. This was such a confidence booster to me. You can have beautiful moments of nursing no matter where you are.
There were times with all my children that nursing just hurt. There were times with all my children that nursing was calming, spiritual and even humorous. I learned so much over the years, but I realize now with taking classes that there is still so much I don't know. I wish I had taken more breastfeeding classes before my first. I really thought it would just happen, because it was natural. Well, it didn't and I think there may have been some underlining factors for this, like I think my first daughter had a lip and tongue tie, but I would never have known that on my own. That is what professionals are for. The thing is, I wouldn't have known the right person to go to. I thought that my doctor or the lactation consultants at the hospital would know the answers to my questions, but they didn't. They may know some answers, but they may not know as much as an IBCLC.
An IBCLC stands for International Board Certified Lactation Consultant who has 90 hours of lactation education and 1,000 hours of supervised clinical training. This is the person you want to see if you have any questions for breastfeeding.
Another good resource is La Leche League. This is a support group for nursing mothers and their babies. You can find their information on the Leagues Utah web page www.lllutah.org.
Success with breastfeeding has many different dynamics. Having the right support is key. Know that just desiring to give your baby the best, mothers milk, is the first step. If times get hard, don't think you have failed, you have not, you have gotten this far and that is wonderful! Take a moment and turn to your supports for help, it may be just what you need to bring the beauty back to breastfeeding.
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