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Breastfeeding - why bother?

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    #92
    scarepanda
    Registered Users Posts: 3,452 ✭✭✭scarepanda


    Beanybabog wrote: »
    fit nipple shields before they leave so the ones struggling have a chance to actually keep going.

    You get lambasted for using nipple shields. I was told when my lo was 8 days old after struggling for those 8 days to keep going that my baby 'was not on the breast' because i was using shields.

    A friend of mine recently ended up using them and when she went to a lactation consultant they told her to stop using them without any support as to what she should do after she stopped using them. She was given out to for even starting to use them. And when she asked about exclusive pumping she was told 'its not the done thing' and that was it. No further support. That lady went to combined feeding via pumping rather than on the breast breastfeeding and after a few days wasn't producing a whole lot. As far as a can gather she's not breastfeeding in any way now. I won't ask her anything about it till/if she brings it up with me. But I do know she wanted to breastfeed and I feel very sad for her that she hasn't been able to keep it up because the support wasn't there for her.

    I'm 14 months in and using nipple shields, without them I'd have been done before I left the hospital because the pain was that bad. In don't remember the contraction pains, nor the section, but i sure as hell remember the nipple pain.

    *I do know that there can be issues with nipple shields and they should be used under the supervision of a trained health professional.


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    #93
    Beanybabog
    Registered Users Posts: 1,455 ✭✭✭Beanybabog


    My lactation consultant put me on shields and they were the only thing that saved my breastfeeding! I was supposed to wean off them when the tongue tie was cut but my baby refused. I ended up using them for 9 ish weeks and they were fantastic. My baby took a bottle too- when she was weaned off the shields she refused! If I had to keep going shieldless I would have ended up on bottles the first week


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    #94
    Obvious Otter
    Closed Accounts Posts: 132 ✭✭Obvious Otter


    Do whatever keeps your baby happy and healthy.


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    #95
    chooey
    Registered Users Posts: 328 ✭✭chooey


    I had a anted to breast feed my little one but I had to have a general anaesthetic and a section in the end and I just didn't get a supply. I pumped for four weeks and was only getting 1oz after 40 mins. I felt and still feel guilty about not bf my daughter. I hated being the only one at a group pulling out the bottle instead of the boob. As I was in recovery for a good few hours they had already given my baby formula which she needed as she was starving and she was polishing off 4-7 oz from the beginning so not sure if I ever would have kept up with her demands.


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    #96
    spottybananas
    Registered Users Posts: 1,832 ✭✭✭spottybananas


    chooey wrote: »
    I had a anted to breast feed my little one but I had to have a general anaesthetic and a section in the end and I just didn't get a supply. I pumped for four weeks and was only getting 1oz after 40 mins. I felt and still feel guilty about not bf my daughter. I hated being the only one at a group pulling out the bottle instead of the boob. As I was in recovery for a good few hours they had already given my baby formula which she needed as she was starving and she was polishing off 4-7 oz from the beginning so not sure if I ever would have kept up with her demands.

    Babies drink way more formula than colostrum in first days because it's not as dense and fatty as colostrum and because it flows freely from the bottle teat into their mouth, whereas there's work/control involved in suckling colostrum/breastmilk. I also had a csection (emergency but epidural, not GA), didn't get to hold or feed baby until 30 hours later in scbu by which point he had received formula and one tiny syringe of 0.5ml of colostrum. I had to pump for the first five days, never got even 1oz, even when he was 6-24 months I never got much at all if I pumped! I had to tell the lactation consultant that the hospital pump wasn't working correctly, nobody had even noticed it's suction was being misdirected, for days I was getting barely a drop because of the fecking thing, pure chance that I got thick with it and noticed the problem.

    Don't feel guilty about it, you did what was best at the time with the advice you were given.


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