Breastfeeding Help

[HouseofWool]

Re: Breastfeeding Help

Lots and lots of fluids will help...

[Meenah]

Re: Breastfeeding Help

Thanks you all, I have passed all of this onfo on to her. Her milk came in on Saturday and nursing is going well. You would think she had been nursing for months!

[Auspicious]

Re: Breastfeeding Help

Excellent!

[GrayMatterWife]

Re: Breastfeeding Help

She did meet with the Lactation consultant here, but they are mostly the "nursing nazi" types and she felt worse. . . .

I had one of those. We finally had to ask her to leave. I was having a lot of trouble breastfeeding (not latching or it being painful--just making enough of it) and she made me feel like a complete failure. Essentially, "it's perfectly natural" (which sounded to me like, by failing, I was being unnatural) and "all moms can do it...it's just a matter of being committed" (which sounded to me like I couldn't do the bare minimum of what all moms could do, and that I wasn't particularly committed to providing for my child).

Luckily, my mom is an RN, too, like you, and was incredibly attuned to what I was going through and was AWESOME help when she got into town. And DS's pediatrician also was so supportive--she saw (about Week 3) that I was in bad shape (I didn't even realize how depressed I'd gotten), and that DS had lost too much weight. She told DH (pretty bluntly, too!) to back off and stop putting pressure on me to breastfeed exclusively and that supplementing was JUST FINE. Within a week, MAJOR turnaround for both me and DS!

Glad to see things are now going better for your daughter!

[MamaChristie]

Re: Breastfeeding Help

There are a few things I'd like to add/agree with... I've actually been helping quite a few women start off with breastfeeding and keeping them going, and am still breastfeeding my 17 month old son (who was delivered c-section after 52 hours of labor). So a couple of things...

Before your milk comes in in full force, you give the baby colostrum which is really, really important stuff. You want the baby to get that, and nursing every 2 hours is a great idea from the very start.

There is absolutely no need to supplement with formula. The colostrum is SO important and if she can nurse, she should. It can take up to a week or even a few days longer for milk to come in after a c-section.

If she is large breasted, she may not know that her milk has come in. Over the course of the last 17 months, I've never felt engorged like lots of women do. I didn't feel my milk come in and that's common for women with larger breasts.

Spend lots of time skin to skin. If the baby is having problems latching on (which is common), she should have the lactation consultant help her with that. Otherwise, time together at the breast is what will help.

The baby will more than likely loose weight at the beginning. That's just the norm. That doesn't mean to supplement with formula, it's just the way things happen.

There are quite a few books on breastfeeding as well as great websites. My favorite is http://www.kellymom.com, which has TONS of resources that are actually backed by research. In addition, she can contact me whenever and I'd be happy to help if I can. I'm not a lactation consultant and definitely not an expert, but I have lots of resources I can look up answers in and I'm not a nursing nazi like the folks she has run into thus far.

Wish her luck- the first few months can be really really hard. Tell her to relax and know that she is doing everything right- just to let things happen. It's really hard, but that's what seems to work best.

Hope that helps!

[MamaChristie]

Re: Breastfeeding Help

Sorry, just saw your post that she is doing well and nursing is going fine- Yay! Glad things turned out well.

[Meenah]

Re: Breastfeeding Help

All is well! He gained 14 oz. the first week he was home. She is really small breasted, an A cup before the pregnancy. My other daughter is a C cup, go figure :huh:

Thanks again everyone.