The Second Week - breast feeding

7 1/2 years ago I had a breast reduction. It was medically necessary or I'd have to have back surgery. At 19 years old it was something that I had to do. Unfortunately it would mean that I would drastically reduce the chances of breast feeding with a full supply or at all.

I struggled in the hospital with breast feeding and spoke to several consultants. My post partum nurse, Alison, suggested seeing Dr. Laurie Jones who is a pediatrician who specializes in lactation. After a week of struggling and having very traumatized nipples and an angry newborn I decided to call for an appointment.

Josh took the day off from work to take me to the appointment. I was very thankful that he came with us. Dr. Jones was very interested in my situation and listened to me as I cried and opened my heart to her.

Breast feeding was not the experience I had hoped it would be. The milk was not flowing from my breast and my baby was not happy. Every time I'd put Silas to the breast he would latch on and suck with earnest. We had been using an SNS and I was pumping frequently to give him breast milk through the SNS and then also using formula as much as I didn't want to.

Dr. Jones weighed Silas and he was up from his pediatrician appointment. He came in at 8 lbs 1oz, which was 7oz more than at his appointment. Dr. Jones watched as I nursed Silas and she helped me see that my breast were working against us. They are soft, the nipples are flat and smooth, and pointed upwards. And from the week of improper latch they were scabbed over and there was some scaring on the areola.

To get Silas to latch properly he had to be elevated. She provided me with a special nursing pillow call My Brest Friend and rolled a towel under his head. This helped the latch stop hurting. She gave us a lot of information to look through including a website called BFAR and a book to begin reading called Defining Your Own Success.

After the feeding Dr. Jones weighed Silas again and he had taken in about 20cc. She suggested taking fenugreek for milk production, which I already was, but she wanted me to increase the amount.

We spent about 2 hours with Dr. Jones. Afterwards we went to a store she recommended called Healthy Baby Happy Earth and bought the brest friend pillow and a few other things she had suggested.

It made breast feeding much easier and a lot less painful. We made an appointment for the next week, which I'll write about in another entry.