Breastfeed Anyway
by Catherine Young of The Compleat Mother Magazine
Unique Spiritual Training: Motherhood
by Karin Harris
I don�t need to go to a Shaolin Temple, like Kwai Chang
Cain of the TV show Kung Fu. My monk training happens here at home, with the
three children. Let me explain.
by Linsey Warner, Barrie, Ontario
My older sister was pregnant too, due three months before
me. She planned a homebirth: I thought she was crazy.
by Rev. Vivian Dietemann, St. Louis,
Missouri
Knowing how to breastfeed should be as common as knowing
how to brush your teeth. My mother told me the family doctor said I had inverted
nipples, and would never be able to breastfeed. (This same man told her she had
thin, watery, blue milk that didn�t have enough fat in it, so she weaned me at
six weeks).
By Catherine Young, Clifford, Ontario
Rebecca was fuzzy headed and laughing at seven months. At eight she
hiked up on wobbly legs and giggled at me in the kitchen. She was a
love-bunny, the darling of my heart, the joy of my life, and then
she
bit me.
Breastfeeding After Breast Reduction
by Heather Belford, Midwife, Hinchinbrooke
Hospital, Huntingdon, England
Women who have undergone breast-reduction surgery have successfully breastfed.
by James Prescott, PhD, Boone, North Carolina
I challenge the justice system to find one murderer, rapist or drug addict in
any correctional facility who was breastfed �two years and beyond,� as
recommended by the World Health Organization. If a national health policy would
support mothers being nurturant mothers our culture would transform from
violence to peace.
by Eileen McAllister, Knoxville, Tennessee
I tried nursing Vaughn Robert ten minutes after he was born. He didn�t seem
interested so I continued to try every thirty minutes or so until I was
exhausted and had to sleep. About ten hours after his birth, Vaughn woke up on
my chest and began rooting on. I let him suck ten minutes on each breast; he
seemed satisfied and we both went back to sleep.
Cracked Nipples/It Hurt While I Nursed
by Tammy Frederiksen, Matheson Island, Manitoba
My labour was routine, with my water breaking at noon and Rebekka making her
entrance at 10 PM. When she was placed on me I felt overwhelming joy. I put her
to my breast immediately, but she didn�t do anything. So much for my romantic
ideas that we would both be great at breastfeeding immediately.
Tongue Tie
by Nicole Miller, Toronto, Ontario
I had my first child in New Zealand. My pregnancy was difficult near the end, and preeclampsia forced an induction
by prostaglandins at 39 weeks. My son was a healthy, seven pound baby with a
tongue tie. (His septum holds his tongue down and he is unable to project his
tongue out of his mouth.)
Dehydrated Baby
and Floppy Boy
by Susan Schubert, Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania
My second child, Chase, was born in a birthing center, three years after his
sister. I went home five hours later.
Being Blind (and a damn-good Mom)
by Christine Faltz, Merrick, New York
I was born blind, unexplained. My eye condition,
congenital microopthalmia is known to be caused by exposure to toxoplasmosis,
cytomegalovirus, herpes, TORCH infection, or HIV. I used to be able to
distinguish colors and shadows, but no forms.
Flat Nipples, Large, Soft Breasts
Anonymous Mother, Ottawa, Ontario
Jessica had problems with sucking and latching,
and compounded with my having flat nipples and very large, soft breasts, I was
not successful in nursing her. I tried for eight days; I went to hell and back.
Flat Nipples, Poor Weight Gain
by Kathy Parkes Dupuis, Nakusp,
British Columbia
I discovered I had flat nipples during my seventh
month of pregnancy with my first child. Since they stuck out when they were
cold, I figured I�d be OK. Oh, was I wrong.
Hyperlactation
by Shireen Fink
I had strong convictions about breastfeeding
and believed I could, though both my mother and only sister were told by doctors
that they didn�t have enough milk. I gave birth to a beautiful boy at home, in
the loving presence of my mother, husband and two midwives. It was the happiest
moment of my life.
Nipple Shield Hell
by Deidre Rautenberg, New
Westminster, British Columbia
Our horror started after and �it will never
happen to me� cesarean section. I woke from a general anesthetic and my friend
tried to put Chloe to my breast to nurse. She snuggled there but was too groggy
from the drugs to do more.
Nipple Shield Help
by Susan Markland, Escondido,
California
I considered myself fortunate, because despite my
much anticipated VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) turning into a second
cesarean section, and despite not holding my baby girl until she was two hours
old, when I did finally hold her to my breast her little mouth opened wide,
eagerly latched on and sucked vigorously.
Pierced Nipple
by Melanie Fike, Lytton, British
Columbia
When I was young and foolish, I pierced my
nipple. When my milk first came in, and for six months after, I leaked profusely
from the piercing holes that never did close up.
Breastfeeding a Bottlefed Early Baby
by Karin Harris, Calgary, Alberta
I never liked the word �premature�, so I use
Early. Much to my shock, my first born child came 5 1/2 weeks early. I was
ambulated, in labour, to the teaching hospital where my child was born and ended
up staying the next eight days in and out of an incubator.
Cup feeding: an alternative method of infant feeding
Lang, S., Lawrence, C.J. and L�E
Orme, R. Arch of Dis of Child 71:365-369, 1995
The primary purpose of cup feeding is to provide
a safe method of feeding low birthweight and premature infants until the infant
is strong and mature enough to take the breast. A second reason is to avoid the
use of bottled and artificial nipples and to prevent the increased mortality and
morbidity associated with bottle feeding.
I Had To Do Something-
Breastfeeding in a Neonatal Intensive Care
Unit
by Martine Engel, Thunder Bay,
Ontario
The morning of the first day of my 33rd week of
pregnancy, I reminded my husband we had an appointment with the midwife. He went
up to get ready for work and I went to the kitchen to get some breakfast. First
a trickle, then a gush of water. My waters had broken. I called the midwife and
she met us at the hospital.
by Claire Roy, London, Ontario
I found out very late that I was pregnant. We
were both out of work, living on unemployment insurance, and my mind and body
were elsewhere. Only my body remained to carry out the duties of motherhood, and
it was grossly underweight, dehydrated and tense.
Tube Feeding One and Tandem Feeding Twins
by Nancy Lomax, Pickering, Ontario
Six years ago, when we decided to start a family,
I thought it would be �nice� to breastfeed my children. I would give it a
try and hope for the best. After a rocky start of three miscarriages, we finally
gave birth to our daughter Nicole.
by Maureen van der Stoel, Enchant, Alberta
I had quite
smooth deliveries of our first three daughters, but the forth threw everyone,
including, our doctor, for a loop.
Mastitis
by Toni LaVerne Mattox, Omaha, Nebraska
Russel was born in February, and I had an
avalanche of colostrum the next day. I was in awe, and in pain. My 36A breasts
measured DD. Maybe if my mother or grandmother had breastfed, I would have known
it was hereditary but not even my sister did.
Two Tongued Baby
by Anne Stocker Goorhuis, Malone, New
York
Jonathan, my first born, was born with a growth
on his tongue, long, narrow, and free moving. It was pale, pink, attached in the
rear portion of the tongue and laid on top.
Breastfeeding Through Surgery
by Ruth-Ann Currie, Mississauga, Ontario
My son was injured during the hospital birth; the
nerves to his left arm and hand were severed by pulling his head and shoulder
away from each other.
Thrush
By Cathy Johnson, Lethbridge,
Alberta
When my daughter was born I didn�t know what
thrush was, and had no idea I could harbour yeast in my breasts and pass it on
to my baby by breastfeeding. We seem to be a family that is particularly
susceptible to thrush; how I wish I had known then what I know now!
Thrush, and Nursing on One Side
By Heather Fairley, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
When Sam got to be a month old he got colicky.
Soon after, we got thrush, and I went to several doctors, and was given yellow
liquid for his mouth and cream for my nipples. The liquid never did work.
Baby Refused to Suck
By Marjolein Dallinga, St. Sauveur, Quebec
The labour was short and very intense, but the
birth was painful because the doctor painfully pulled my baby into the world. We
were both quite damaged. My baby was unhappy, and anxious and would only sleep
in my arms.
Latch-on Problems
By Carey Bryson, Anderson, Indiana
I was a single, teenage, pregnant high-school
dropout on top of the world, in love with my unborn child and her father. All I
heard about breastfeeding was that I was too young, didn�t eat well enough,
and wouldn�t have time for that and my friends. After a horrible birth, 20
stitches in my crotch and the shakes from Pitocin and Nubain, I wanted nothing
to do with my baby.
Unilateral Breastfeeding
By Donna Nye, Cranston, Rhode Island
Although I alternated breasts at feedings since
my son�s birth, I noticed at two months that my left breast seemed to make
more than my right. At five months, he just refused my right breast altogether.
Weaning
By Sarah Everitt
When I was pregnant, I thought I would nurse my
baby six months. A year tops. I was living in Nelson, a tourist town, with a
population mixture of red neck tree loggers, tourists and hippies nursing their
three year olds in slings. I thought the hippie mommies were weird.
The Weaning of Amy Grace
by Mary-Tim Hare
When Amy Grace was born she latched on, nursed,
and stole my heart. I thought it would be easy. I�d been attending La Leche
League meetings for months before her birth, I�d read The Womanly Art of
Breastfeeding over and over and had watched my mother nurse my three younger
siblings. But it wasn�t easy. It was very difficult and that was my first
necessary lesson in humility.
|
|
|
