Breastfeeding set backs - Real Mum story on MoM

9 Comments

It had finally sunk in, in less than 8 short months I was going to be a Mum! Naturally I started preparing myself for the trials and tribulations ahead. Nothing could prepare me for breastfeeding.

I was determined to breastfeed from the word go and I wasn’t going to give up!

Little D and I just couldn’t seem to get it right. We tried everything positioning, nipple shields, holding out feeding times and clustering feeding times, you name it we tried it.
D had a tongue tie which was picked up and cut when she was 3 days old but this made little to no difference.

I had so much support an amazing husband, family and friends. Some friends are midwives and ABA consultants and even they couldn’t give me the magic equation.

I dreaded feeding. I used to just sit on my bed and cry and think to myself “why is this so damn hard?”
“Why can’t I just get it right?” I had done all my research prior to having little D and I was determined to breastfeed and to be honest I was confident.

At 6 weeks an ABA counselor friend suggested seeing a GP to check out her upper lip as little D couldn’t seem to flange her top lip, that afternoon we seen a local GP who asked me why I was concerned I told him it was due to our troubles in breastfeeding and he simply said she was normal and sent us on our way.

Weeks later a child health nurse checked her lip tie and suggested I see a speech pathologist who then referred us to a dentist who then at 13 weeks did a Frenectomy. After this procedure things started improving quickly, there was an instant relief and within 3 weeks she was feeding like a dream! we haven’t used a nipple shields since!

The point I want to get out is that breastfeeding doesn’t come easy to everyone, I know many strong independent women who have struggled. Some have made it through the tough times others weren’t so lucky, there is no shame in giving up.

If you are having problems or know someone please just remember to ask questions, get second opinions and talk to everyone you can.

Posted by Jo, 26th May 2015

9 Comments

- - christial said
  - 12 Jun 2015
    4:10 pm
I had problems with my sons tongue tie. It wasn’t fixed til he was a few weeks old. I ended up expressing exclusively but it worked well for us because then I could get back to work and left him with others.

- - mom94125 said
  - 01 Jun 2015
    5:22 pm
don’t stress. you are not a failure
- mom94125 replied
  
  03 Jun 2015 , 7:26 pm
  also that is a very emotional journey that you went on.I am very glad that you and your bub got through it
- - mom93821 said
  - 31 May 2015
    7:49 am
There are so many people to help with breast feeding and it is good to find the right support people.

- - silvialee said
  - 29 May 2015
    3:49 am
so glad you found the solution.

- - mum86 said
  - 28 May 2015
    10:37 pm
Don’t get to down on yourself it’s a credit to you if you can breastfeed your child at all, plus think of wine in the evenings

- - mom138374 said
  - 27 May 2015
    10:32 pm
This is great to read, you did an amazing job to find out the root of the problem with breastfeeding your bub. Well done.

- - mum4107 said
  - 27 May 2015
    6:24 am
What a tough time you had. Glad you got it all sorted
Breastfeeding is not for every. Sometimes formula is the way to go.
There should be no shame either way

- - BellaB said
  - 26 May 2015
    10:50 pm
And if it really doesn’t work for you… Formula might be better for you and baby.