[deejie]

DD is now 14 months, and will ask for “boobie” or the “udder one” ….… I look at her each day and thank myself, that for once in my life … I just kept trying …..

Well done It does make it all the battles worth it, doesn't it.

[lady lady]

bump ...

[Tess1]

My journey began with the birth of my daughter who was born at 40 weeks. She was placed immediately on my chest and was breastfeeding within an hour of being born. Over the course of my stay in hospital she continued to feed well, although I began to develop very sore nipples. I did have very supportive midwives, and the hospital that I gave birth at had a wonderful breastfeeding room with a LC in attendance for 12 hours a day.

When I left hospital I felt confident and determined that I would continue to breastfeed. Over the course of the next 2 weeks I continued to breastfeed successfully, despite toe curling pain from sore and cracked nipples and often through tears because of the pain.

By week 3 my nipples had improved, I was no longer in pain and I began to enjoy feeding. At 6 weeks I began to notice a red painful lump in my breast. Next thing I know I have developed mastitis and are bedridden. I continue to feed through the mastitis and recover only to find the lump has not.

After an ultra sound I am referred to a surgeon who confirms that I have developed a breast abscess. For the next 6 weeks, I visit the surgeon on a weekly basis so the abscess can be aspirated with a very big needle as well as taking multiple courses of antibiotics. All the while I am continuing to breastfeed. Eventually, the surgeon advises me that I should consider surgery to insert a drain into the breast to get rid of the abscess, but I would need to give up breastfeeding as it would not heal unless I did.

On hearing this, I was devastated. I absorbed this advise, went away and thought about it for a week and then rang the surgeon and said that I was not prepared to give up breastfeeding just yet and said that as the infection was now under control, I wanted to leave the abscess alone and see what happened. I'm happy to say, that after a couple of months, my body absorbed the abscess and I have not had any complications from taking this course of action. In hindsight, I don't no why I didn't contact ABA or a LC for advise.


Fast forward to when my DD was 4 months old and she was hospitalised for 5 days. Trying to feed while my DD was vey sick and had an IV in was very difficult. Add lack of sleep to the mix and a pead unit manager who refused to provide any hospital meals because I was breastfeeding; she said that if she gave me meals, then she would have to give them to all mothers staying with their children in hospital. I was the only breastfeeding mother and I have since learnt that it is standard practice to provide meals to breastfeeding mothers in paed wards looking after their children at other hospitals. I lost 5kg in 5 days through not eating enough. This is a hospital that had a plaque on the wall outlining their accreditation from WHO as a breastfeeding friendly hospital. Despite the stress of my DDs stay in hospital, again we managed to continue on our breastfeeding journey together.

When my DD reached 5 months I experienced what I later learnt was breast refusal. This went on for a week. After 24 hours of refusing my breast I gave her a bottle of EBM. After a week of expressing, my DD eventually took to the breast again and it was pretty much plain sailing from then on.

I managed to continue breastfeeding until she was 15 months old and I was 3 months pregnant. She chose to wean herself at this point and while I was sad, I was grateful that she chose to do so without any fuss and we managed to breastfeed together for so long.


If I look back in hindsight, I still cannot believe that I managed to get through some of those hurdles without seeking advise. I think it was just sheer determination that got me through. If I had my time over again I wouldn't have tried to do it on my own.

I now have a DS who is 12 weeks old. Our journey has generally be positive so far. He took to the breast straight after his birth and I have and minimal pain while establishing breastfeeding - sore nipples for a couple of days only. Unfortuanately, I did suffer from a post epidural headache for a week after the birth, then tonsilitis. While recovering from tonsilitis I developed mastitis concurrently in both breasts which just floored me for about a week. Needless to say it wasn't the breastfeeding itself but my health that made it difficult at the start. Although I felt awful for the first 3 weeks , I knew I would get through it and just kept saying to myself "that this too shall pass".

My DS was hospitalised at 7 weeks because of a viral infection and was on an IV etc. This time around we were at a different hospital with wonderful supportive staff.
Now at 12 weeks, everything is going well and I am hoping that our journey will continue until my DS is ready to wean.
Thanks for allowing me to share my journey.

[lucky 2]

Thanks for allowing me to share my journey

You are most welcome, thank you for sharing your bfing experiences, you are definitely a dedicated bfing mum .

[Tikiboo16]

Wow.. my story is quite as intense as some of these.. but I'll try anyway..

I've always believed in breastfeeding.. never even considered bottle feeding as I believe my breasts are there for a reason.. and why would I give my baby something artificial when I had 24x7 access to the most natural food supply a human being can have? I was very naive and I didn't realise that it was so difficult.

I had a difficult birth, even the epidural didn't help the pain entirely, and I bled very badly when DD was born. 800mL my OB told me later. I breast fed DD about 20 mins after she was born and she seemed sleepy and content... wasn't so hard!

DD slept most of her first day of life and didn't seem to want too much to eat, and I was very groggy and not really with it, so day 1 was spent mostly in bed staring at my DD. I was vaguely aware that nurses were taking my blood every few hours but didn't think much of it.

Then DD started screaming her little lungs out. She was hungry. I was putting her on my boob, but I hadn't seen the LC and really didn't know what I was doing. She would spend ages sucking away at me but nothing seemed to suppress the intense wailing. She would eventually fall asleep on my breast but would wake up within 20 mins and scream some more. She did that for three days and three nights.

On day 2 my doctor came to see me and told my why I was feeling like I had overdosed on valium. I had lost too much blood and was severely anaemic. He explained to me that my body would likely not produce much milk while my haemoglobin was so low, and I needed a blood transfusion right away. So I got a blood transfusion and expected that this would fix my screaming child and give me back the sleepy angel I had the day before.

...but she kept crying. The midwives started teaching me all sorts of holds and gave me as many tricks as they could, but DD kept screaming all night long. I was exhausted and started getting very emotional.

On day 4 they weighed DD again. She had lost more than 10% of her bodyweight and the nurses were now very concerned. They consulted the paed and he advised comp feeds. I was really upset.. I had tried so hard to feed her and I couldn't believe my body wasn't cooperating. I agreed to the comp feeds and DD settled right away.. finally I managed to get some sleep... but not for long. I was told I had to be back at 7pm to feed her again..

so I woke up 2 hours later and took my DD to the nursery for a feed. That's when they gave me my new feeding routine... breastffed for at least 20 mins on each breast.. then express for another 20 mins on each breast, then comp feed. The process took at least 1.5 hours all up and this had to be done every 4 hours. If I was 10 mins late I got harrassed by the LC.

By this stage I had badly cracked and bleeding nipples as DD was trying to suck the life out of them in a vain attempt for a feed. Everytime I had to feed her I had to mentally prepare myself for the pain. I was tired, sore and a very insensitive remark from a midwife set me over the edge and I cried for an hour.. that's when they started watching me for signs of PND.

On my last day in the hospital, my OB came and saw me and started suggesting that maybe I should come to terms with the fact that I can't bf, and I should just be kind to myself and switch to formula. I didn't want to hear it, but a part of me was thinking that it would be a whole lot easier. The doc suggested motilium though and said that if I don't see results in a week, that I should consider giving up.

So I got the motilium and went home. That week I noticed that DD was a lot more settled and my breasts felt heavy.. my milk had finally come in. I was ecstatic. I still wasn't producing much.. only 10mls or so for the first couple of weeks.. but slowly, the bottles of EBM were filling up. I still had to go through my four hourly feeding, expressing and comp feeding routine for another 3 weeks or so, but I got there. My OB was shocked at my 6 week follow up when I proudly announced that I was solely breastfeeding.

DD is now 18 months and we still bf at morning and before bedtime and I'm loathe to stop it as it's "our time". I love that it's something I can do for her that no one else can.. and she still loves it.

wow.. what an essay.. didn't mean for it to be so long. If you've gotten this far, thanks for listening.

[lucky 2]

Yay for you Tikiboo, what a rotten start you had but you did it! Fantastic.
A couple of things stood out to me, that even if you have a rough start you can build to a full supply. You did it with bfing, expressing and Motilium and of cours perserverence.
When you lose enough blood you will make milk (unless extreme and the pituitary gland stops working/very rare) but you will lose some of the prolactin that was in your blood, so the Motilium sounds wise.
Your OB didn't have faith in your female body, wrongly.
Also poor you being hassled by the LC, that's not a part of the job description.
Thanks for sharing , mine ended up an essay too.

[ladybeetle1]

What inspirational stories. Breastfeeding stories always move me to tears for some reason, must be the hormones

I don't have much of a story, breastfed my first until she self weaned at 15 months and I am still feeding my second who is 11 months.

I found the first three weeks feeding both of them excruciating with sore nipples but once that healed we were fine. I have faced breast refusal with both of them when they have had tonsillitis/sore throat but have managed to get them feeding again.

I have loved the breast feeding journey with both of them and each journey has been different. We have encountered many stages where I wondered if something was wrong (eg baby fussing at boob) and my first born rejected my right breast (evil boob) towards the end of her journey. My second child is still going very strong and still feeds several times a night, sigh. But I know he will not need my boobs to settle himself forever. As my last child I am savoring those middle of the night feeds when the house is quiet and he is still, hungrily sucking with eyes closed.

I am looking forward to having some independence back when he self weans, but I know I will also be devastated that it is over. Such a magical time that I often cannot find the words to describe it.

[ez21]

Here is my breast feeding journey. I hope you find it interesting and helpful.

DS was born at 10.50am in August of 2010. The birth was a little drawn out but other than that, I can't complain. DS was born naturally and thankfully without the need for an epidural or any pain relief other than some gas. He was 8lb 8ozs and healthy. He was put on my chest immediately following birth but showed little interest in feeding and failed to latch on.

I had lots of support from midwives who tried to get him to latch but, I was forced to feed him colostrum with a cup for the first 2 days until he finally latched.

It was day three when one of the midwives discovered that DS had a severe tongue tie. DS had inherited this from my grandfather who is still tongue tied to this day! I was disappointed that it was not detected sooner because by the time that it was I had already sustained significant nipple damage from poor latch.

Day 4 was when the TT was released. The procedure didn't even make DS cry. His latch improved quite a bit but there was still something wrong with his suckling action. He had a short chomping action and there was a clicking sound. I knew this meant that the nipple wasn't being drawn back far enough and this was evident in the shape of my nipple after a feed - it looked like the top of a lipstick, with a distinct slope on one side.

I sought help from midwives and LCs but they couldn't help. DS was still learning how to use his tongue properly. He didn't even know how to stick his tongue out, which made a good latch impossible.

We left hospital at the end of day 4. I battled on with feeding...I had numerous visits from LCs, nurses and speech pathologists. All observed a problem with his suckling action but were unable to advise on how to correct it. I was doing all that I could to ensure a good latch. DS was still learning and it would take some time.

I continued on with very damaged nipples and by week 6 I discovered that I had nipple vasospasm (I have suffered from Raynaud's Syndrome since my teens so this was not really a surprise). The pain during a feed was bad enough but, I had to deal with pain from vasospasm anywhere from 1-2 hours following a feed. The pain was like sharp knives being drawn through my breast and my Dr even thought I had thrush. The pain would often bring me to tears. I used heat pack and breast warmers, which helped a little. I live in a cold climate so that didn't help. I also had repeated mastitis, which was not fun.

My LC and I kept doing research on correcting DS' suckling action and I discovered the use of finger feeding as a possible solution. The idea is to finger feed with a syringe of EBM, concentrating on keeping the finger back in the mouth and as flat as possible, to help prevent the constant hump in the middle of DS' tongue. He slowly started to develop a roll of the tongue. Instead of balling his tongue up into a hump, he started to use a wave-like motion and stopped chomping. As soon as I felt the correct motion, I would instantly put him on the breast and the difference was staggering.

Things really started to improve by week 7-8 and by week 10 I had the first pain-free feed. I was ecstatic!

My breast feeding journey continued until around 18 months (only recently) and, I would have continued but he just wasn't that interested anymore.

I am so happy with our achievement and I thank DH who was incredibly supporting and encouraging. My LC was also fantastic and even when she couldn't offer any new advice, her constant encouragement was great. Support and determination is crucial...without it, I would not have succeeded.

I am now 7 weeks pregnant and I know I will be better prepared this time. One thing won't change, I will always seek help when I need it. Breast feeding is very natural but does not always come naturally to everyone, including your baby.

Thank you so much for reading.

[MrsW87]

I thought I would share my breastfeeding journey, after a complete failure to feed my DS1 past 6 weeks, mainly due to me having no idea, DS2 and I are proudly still feeding at 9 months.

After lengthy and repeated fights with the hospital about me wanting to VBAC, I caved and accepted an elective c-section. As soon as he was born, I knew I had made the wrong choice. He was born at 12.06pm on the 27th of January 2012 at 38 weeks 5 days at a healthy 7lb 5oz. Within 5 minutes of his birth, he was whisked away to the special care nursery with breathing difficulties. Once I came out of recovery and got back to the ward, I begged to see him. They wouldn't let me. So I made DH go and get some syringes for me and I started hand expressing my colostrum. 4 hours after he was born, they finally agreed to let me see him. As soon as my bed was wheeled into the SCN, I cried. There was my tiny perfect baby, in a humidicrib, with wires and cords. It was so unnatural, so upsetting and wasn't what I had expected at all. I begged them to let me breastfeed him, or have skin to skin with him, but was told no, because he wasn't doing well with his breathing or temp. They handed me a form and said, here, we need you to sign this so that we can give him some formula for his blood sugar. My DH instantly, snatched the form off me and threw it back at them, then handed them the syringes of colostrum that I had expressed, saying, If he needs something, he can have this or my wife's breasts. NOTHING ELSE. (Ive never been so in love with him in my life )

At 8pm that night, I demanded that they get me up so I could go and see him, I was so paranoid they were going to give him formula. I had kept hand expressing, and DH was taking the syringes down and labeling them and putting them in the fridge in the SCN. They had even allowed DH to syringe feed him a little bit. They wouldn't get me up, so I got myself up. As soon as a nurse realized she came in to help me and said that I really shouldn't. I didn't care. I wanted skin to skin time and I wanted to breastfeed my baby.

She helped me shower, and set me up in a wheel chair with my catheter and all and wheeled me down to the nursery. As soon as I got there, I said I AM FEEDING AND CUDDLING MY BABY AND I DONT CARE WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT IT. Thankfully, the shift had changed and there was a lovely nurse who was more than willing to help me. She set me up in the chair, and passed my beautiful baby to me, wires and all and placed him on my bare chest. He started feeding straight away. His beautiful eyes shot open and I was ecstatic!

He fed for an hour, then came off sleepy and content. Then I noticed I had a small blister on my nipple. I showed the nurse, they said it might be because he wasn't attached properly. Then I had cuddles for a bit longer and went back to the room to rest. I was in a world of pain but I didn't care. The nurse came and woke me 3 hours later saying he was hungry. As soon as I went in and saw him crying, I noticed he had a complete tongue tie. I pointed it out to the nurse who called the pead. When the pead came, I was so worried they wouldn't do anything about it, but she cut it straight away. Then I fed him again. Hours after our first breastfeed, he was breathing fine, keeping his temp up, and maintaining his oxygen sats, so the pead agreed to take him out of the humidicrib and put him in a normal cot, provided that he kept doing well.

The next morning, he was still doing well so he was finally aloud in with me, and amazingly, my milk had come in, in full force, even after everything, my milk had come in early! I was exploding!!! I slept with him on my chest the whole day and next night despite the nurses telling me that co-sleeping was not safe or aloud. I told them I didn't care and that I wanted as much skin to skin as I could get. Then I asked to go home. They were hesitant, but I just wanted to be at home with DH and DS1, so they agreed.

Going home was great, except when on day 11, I had MASSIVE oversupply and a really forceful let down. DS was difficult to settle because I had so much milk and it came so fast that he would get tummy aches, and do massive green explosive poos.

When DS was 3 weeks old, I was put back into hospital with a badly infected c-section wound. It was extremely painful, and incredibly smelly and oozy. I had a staph infection. Thankfully, even though I was not in the maternity ward, DS could stay with me. I was put on 6 hourly IV antibiotics, which did go through my milk and upset DS a little bit, but they said it was fine, and they it would only take a few days after they had finished to leave us both. After another 4 days in hospital, I was allowed to go home again.

At his 1 month check up, the DR suggested I put him on formula for lactose intolerance because of how unsettled DS was and the green poos. I disagreed saying I just had over supply. I never went back to that Dr and just kept feeding. After heaps of phone calls to the ABA, I waited through 6,8,10,12 weeks for my milk to settle and was starting to get disheartened. It continued like this until 14 weeks, when all of a sudden my milk settled down and everything was good. His poos were normal, he was sleeping 4 and 5 hour stretches and everything was great!

Since then, we have had a bout of low supply, I have eaten my weight in lactation cookies, and had 2 courses of motillium, and a course of maxolon. I have taken more fengugreek and blessed thistle than I care to think about but we are still feeding. DS2 still feeds 3-4 hourly around the clock and I am so happy that we persisted through everything.

I can't say I have enjoyed every second of it, because there have been some really hard and trying times for all of us, but I am enjoying feeding him now, and he is a happy and thriving baby. He now weighs 9kgs!!!

Thanks for letting me share.

[Mum2TwoDSs]

Lucky2, I haven't finished readinypg your story and am already tearing. So sorry what you have gone through and so happy things worked out bfg wise. Hope you are well from PND today.