Comments on: Overcoming jaundice, nipple confusion and other interruptions in early breastfeeding relationships

By: Breastfeeding: what boobs were made for, after all… – Parenting from Scratch

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:14:54 +0000

[...] give birth. And I used to feel that way about breastfeeding. But when I read about some of the problems that can disrupt breastfeeding, when I hear about friends having difficulty establishing or [...]

By: Breastfeeding: what boobs were made for, after all… « Brooke’s Baby Belly Blog

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:03:17 +0000

By: Megan

Megan — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:49:35 +0000

Amy,

Thanks for this post. It was so timely for our family. We just had our 4th and he was jaundiced. I was really reassured both by my doctor and by your post. The doctor just encouraged me to nurse, nurse, nurse and get a lot of fluids. He gave the baby tests for the Bilirubin levels, but we did not even need the lights or anything. We never had to return to the hospital and just treated it at home. My milk is in now and all is well!

Thanks,
Megan

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:58:48 +0000

Sometimes, all those things STILL don’t work out. My son was jaundiced. I tried breastfeeding and it wasn’t going well. We did the SNS, I saw no less than three lactation consultants. I read every BF book I could get my hands on…scoured the internet…talked to other BF moms. But my milk never came in. Nobody can tell me why…but I’ve had two kids, and never made any milk. I was devastated when I couldn’t BF, as I always believed all the women who say that any woman can do it, as long as she perseveres through. But that’s not always the case.

By: SJ

SJ — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:07:38 +0000

I have to say that this post had me torn. On the one hand I believe that hospitals and pediatricians should do everything possible to support a breastfeeding mother, including supply an SNS and offer options to continue breastfeeding in a case of jaundice. On the other hand, I was frustrated by yet another instance of turning the breast vs bottle controversy into “breastmilk” vs “formula.” I understand that in the case of most mothers who were referenced or who posted that formula was suggested to assist with the jaundice. It would be nice though to point out that if for some reason your baby does not breastfeed, this does not mean that he/she cannot get all the benefits.

My daughter was born 6 weeks early and at 3.5lbs was physically incapable of breastfeeding or bottlefeeding. She was primarily tube-fed for 2 weeks while the nurses, her dad and I worked with her to learn to drink from either bottle or breast. But here’s the important part- she was tube-fed and bottle-fed my breastmilk and took exclusively my breastmilk for the first 5 months of her life until we began introducing solids as well. From the day she was born, I was pumping like a maniac to stimulate my milk supply and provide her with all the milk she could take. I was dead-set on breastfeeding from day 1 of my pregnancy but for our tiny little baby, it was not in the cards. So I pumped around the clock and I don’t feel that she suffered because the milk didn’t go into her mouth straight from my nipple. In order for her to come home with us she needed to be able to feed from either breast, bottle or a combination and bottle-feeding is much easier for smaller babies to master. We continued to work on breastfeeding but because of the bottle it was very difficult. Going on a feeding strike until she decided to nurse was not an option as she was already so tiny and gaining weight was much more important.

Mothers need to feel like they are not failures if they cannot breastfeed. They also should know that pumping is a completely valid and worthy option in that situation. The baby gets all the benefits of exclusive breastmilk and it is not hard to keep up a good supply if you pump as often as you would breastfeed. It is an extra step and definitely wasn’t my first choice but I was glad that my doctors suggested that option so I didn’t assume that not breastfeeding meant going straight to formula. I hope to breastfeed any babies I have in the future but I’m also glad to know that if I can’t, they can still get the benefits of exclusive breastmilk.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:48:22 +0000

Imagine my dismay when I was encouraged to switch from breast-milk to formula by the APN we regularly saw at the pediatrician’s office who was also the lactation consultant! I was very determined to breast feed and continued to do so even after big complications the first week of my daughter’s life. I continued after returning for work and did so until my daughter was about 5 months old. At that time, the APN decided she was not gaining enough weight (she’d gone from the 65th percentile at birth to the 30th) and encouraged me to switch to formula. I was so completely overcome with emotion at the mere suggestion that my baby was constantly hungry and not getting enough to eat that, of course, I made the switch. Although work life is more simple minus pumping and I certainly have more freedom to come and go, I still wish I could have breast-fed her for a year. And now I know better than to take everything a pediatrician (or our APN) says as gospel. I’m much more skeptical about everything they say now, honestly.

All that to say, great post! We could never, ever educate each other enough about breast-feeding, the challenges it brings, and the importance of continuing.