As a consumer I don't know if I should butt into this conversation, but I will anyway. I breastfeed my daughter for 2.5 years (and weaned her before either of us was completely ready for fertility reasons). The first 8 weeks of breastfeeding was utter hell, the next 8 was not great either but definitely better, over the two years I experienced grazes, cracks (polite term for gaping wounds), vaso spasm (which I still get now in my luteal phase but not as badly), blocked ducts, engorgement, 7 or 8 rounds of mastitis, cellulitis, over supply, under supply, and that is what I can remember. I wought help from midwives, IBCLS, GPs and called the ABA. I have to say that I have very little faith in the advice most people are getting when there are real problems with breasfeeding.
It seems to me that midwives and IBCLCs all dish out the same not very useful advice "If it hurts the latch is wrong, fix the latch and it won't hurt". How anyone thinks that damaged nipples that hurt non stop 24 hours a day will stop hurting because a baby starts sucking on them is beyond me. Poor attachment will increase the damage and good attachment will in time allow it to heal but good attachment WILL NOT stop damaged nipples from hurting and if this is what you tell women they won't believe anything else you say has credibility either. And when nipple/breast pain problems go beyond attachment or vasospasm there is virtually no advice available at all. In the end, of the various breastfeeding advisors that I saw my own GP (who is also and IBCLC) was the only one prepared to say to me "her mouth is small small, your breast is large, your areolas are huge and fat, your nipples are small and flat and extremely fiborous. You are doing all you can attachment wise and I can see that it still hurts and I can tell you that it will probably keep hurting for a while. You just have to wait until your nipples slowly and painfully stretch and her mouth gets bigger as she grows. If you persist it will get better around 8 weeks". It got better at eight weeks and three days. This advice was so much more helpful than the "You just need to attach her right.... oh look at that it's perfect... oh why are you crying in pain?... have you tried the football hold?.... and here is some lahnsino" that I got from everyone else. I paid a lot of attention to the breastfeeding women around me when I was breastfeeding and not many had the sort of problems I did, I heard only one story worse than mine and a only a few equally as bad but neither did I hear of many at the other end of the spectrum. I only ever met one woman who put her newborn first child straight to the breast and had never a single breastfeeding problem. In between were the women with minor problems through to those with truly dreadful stories and very few of them seemed to be getting great advice. My dear friend had her second child two weeks ago and the visiting midwife (from the RPA) tried to tell her to stop demand feeding, that she was feeding way to much, should feed only every 3-4 hours and that she must sleep more or she was in danger of hurting herself and hurting her baby (she is an experienced breastfeeder with great family support and knew this advice was laugable). In the end my friend agreed with everything she said just t! o get her out the door and make sure she never came back. So now she is trying to figure out on her own how to deal with a sever over supply problem and a late developing attachment problem.... Given she has over 2 years breastfeeding experience I know that she will sort it out but she should not have to do it on her own. I am sure that most australian women give up due to poor through to appalling advice from health professionals, possibly combined with lack of support from their families/partners not due to a physical inability to feed. sorry for rambling, my fertility treatment has gone seriously wrong in the last fortnight so my hormones are whacked and interfering with my concentration but I really wanted to say something... cheers Jo At 5:32 PM +1000 18/5/05, Denise Fisher wrote: >Hi Carina > >You've brought up some points that are good food for thought. It was a tragedy >the day that milk banks were closed in Australia due to the scare with HIV, >despite pasteurisation easily killing HIV (I wonder why sperm banks weren't >also closed??). I note that a new bank is opening in WA and perhaps one in >Melbourne. I wish them success. > >The incidence of physiological inability to breastfeed is somewhere in the >order of 1 - 2 per 100 women. I don't believe with an incidence at this level >that it warrants we guard everything we say to every woman. And then there's >that really fascinating topic of 'guilt'. >Can you induce guilt in someone? - maybe, if they really are guilty. However I >don't feel guilty about something I have no control over. For example if I had >no uterus I wouldn't feel guilty that I'm not adding to Australia's >population, no matter how much Mr Howard exhorts me to. If I had no breasts or >my breasts were not functional I would not feel guilty that I'm not >breastfeeding regardless of how many people told me it was best. > >My opinion is that some health professionals don't know how to support women >to breastfeed adequately and in covering their own feelings of guilt about >this they 'pretend' that it's the mother they are trying not to make feel >guilty. > >To give you lots of different opinions on guilt and breastfeeding do a google >search using those terms. > >Have fun >Denise > >At 03:23 PM 18/05/2005 +0930, you wrote: > >>Some food for thought, >> >> What about the women who simply cannot breastfeed and cannot produce enough >> milk???? The wet nurse is still in existence in many tribal cultures where >> formulary has no influence. It�s very easy to be passionate about something >> and sing it�s praises when you have experienced success, but what about >> those women who don�t succeed despite months of trying and perseverance. I, >> like all many midwives of course believe that breast is best and should be >> promoted as optimum nutrition for a baby but sometimes I believe that in >> trying to get this message across we need to be careful not to make other >> women lose their �confidence ands fall into the motherhood guilt trap�. >> >>Carina >> >*************************************** >Denise Fisher, MMP, BN, IBCLC >Health e-Learning > http://www.health-e-learning.com >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >**************************************** -- Jo Bourne Virtual Artists Pty Ltd -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe.
