Empowering Birth Blog

The Breast Crawl

I heard about the breast crawl at my trip to The Farm last fall but couldn't download the video from breastcrawl.org.  So you can imagine my happiness when I found that the blog Descent Into Motherhood was able to download the video and had placed it on their blog!  Please check out this video and share it with friends.

I think breast-feeding advocates can sometimes be a bit too proactive about initiating breastfeeding.  As a doula, I have felt I must at least attempt to help mom nurse right away because baby is often whisked away for an undetermined amount of time and when returned, has often lost the alertness that a baby has immediately after birth.  The video notes that most babies will master the breastcrawl in 30-60 minutes.  Unfortunately many babies are lucky to get 30 minutes of skin to skin time directly after birth and may get less then that.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could put babies right between mom's breasts and hold off on weighing baby etc. until after he/she has initiated breastfeeding, even if that means waiting an hour or more?  Instead of taking the initiative to facilitate a good latch, what if we could let baby find the way by him/her self and step in only if there are problems.

Not Everyone Can Breastfeed

I've been meaning to write this post for awhile.  Writing it is a reminder to be careful about the language I choose, especially when I am passionate about the subject.  By implying in my conversation that breast is best, I have not always been sensitive to moms who are unable to nurse.  I used to teach a mommy and me yoga class and at the end of the class, would encourage women to feel free to nurse their babies during sivasana.  The well-meaning intent was to encourage new moms, nervous about nursing in public, to feel free to nurse in my class. Little did I know that a mom in my class had hypoplastic breasts. "Feel free to feed your child" might have been more inclusive, she noted in a thoughtful email.

Her story...

I had a non-medicated birth of my 9lb, 8 oz lovely at a birthing center and had long planned to nurse my baby.  When he was not pooping at all, lost two pounds, when I pumped and got a half of a drop, I went to several lactation specialists.  On day six of my son's life, I learned the word HYPOPLASIA and that was what I was....unable to produce milk....  For me, nursing was not hard, it was biologically impossible.  This revelation was pretty devastating to this new mom, for sure.  My husband and I opted to use a SNS (supplemental nursing system) - that's right, I had to tape a tube to my breast, fill a container with "artificial milk" - the horror - and feed Sam through those tubes while he latched to my breast.  It was cumbersome and humiliating yet this system bought me time to get a milk supply....or not.  After pumping on the hour, taking at least four herbs, drinking water....my supply was still non-existent.   So, then I got drugs from Canada -  domperidone.  Well, my supply went from three drops up to 5 cc's (no kidding...).  After hundreds of dollars that we could not afford, we still worked with a lactation consultant and continued to pray that my milk ducts would kick out what my son needed.  Then when he was seven weeks old, my mom died.  So, here I am now in NY with this SNS and my replacement meds are stuck at the Canadian border and oh, I have to plan a funeral, greet literally 100's of mourners and then bury my mom.  The supplemental nursing system and thus breastfeeding, my husband and I decided, was not meant to be.  This decision was not the one I would have wanted but seeing my son healthy and having to tend to other needs was my new reality.

While most women are able to nurse their children, approximately 2-5% of the population is unable to breastfeed.  If you have a condition known as hypoplastic or under-developed breasts, you may find breastfeeding very challenging or may not be able to breastfeed.

Fellow breast-feeding mom Moxie provides some good information about Hypoplasia.  Moxie also refers readers to another site that has pictures of hypoplastic breasts and additional information. Please help spread the word.  As my fellow mom noted in her email, many women don't know they have hypoplasia until it is too late.  If you find out before you are pregnant or during pregnancy, you can take steps to help the situation before the baby is born.  And many thanks to the mom in my yoga class who taught me about hypoplasia and reminded me to choose my words with care.

Fen is Weaned...

My goal was to wean Fen as gently as I could.  Knowing that nursing is painful for me during pregnancy (I nursed Khady the first three months of my pregnancy with Fen and gave it up due to the discomfort), I started the process of weaning shortly after I became pregnant.  As I approached six months, I was successfully nursing Fen only every two or three days and hoping my milk would hurry up and dry up!  Last Tuesday (Feb. 12) Fen asked to nurse before bed.  I said, ok but I think the milk might be all gone.  Sure enough, he nursed on one side and said, "all done, other side?," and then nursed on the other side for about thirty seconds only to declare "all done too."  So the milk is all gone and the weaning process complete.  He asks every now and then but I remind him that he tried and the milk was all gone and then distract him, which works.  Six months pregnant with very sore nipples, I am happy that the nursing is over but even more content that I was able to wean him gradually and with very few complaints.  Though it does tear a bit at my heart strings to have to wean a two year old who, without mom's gentle but firm efforts to redirect, would not have stopped nursing so soon...

Breast-fed babies just might be smarter

My father-in-law sent me a magazine with an article on a new study offering "proof" that breast-fed babies are smarter.  The study involved more then 3,000 children in England and New Zealand and breast-fed babies had higher IQs than bottle-fed babies.  Read about it here.

Gorillas and Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is a learned behavior.  Please be patient with yourself if you are struggling.  I learned in a lactation class that at some zoos gorillas are shown videos of other breastfeeding gorillas in order to teach them how to breastfeed.  Breastfeeding is mostly a learned behavior so unless you grew up watching your mom and Aunts breastfeed on a regular basis it might take you some time to get the hang of it.  But hang in there!  It is well worth the effort.

Two Baby Gorillas Are Born*

14/11/2006

This summer, two baby gorillas were born in the Zoo. N'tua, the daughter of Virunga and Xebo, arrived on 5th June, and N'goro, the son of Machinda and Xebo (again), on 25th August. They belong to the west coast sub-species of gorilla Gorilla gorilla gorilla. For the first time, the little ones have been brought up in the gorilla unit, without being separated from their mothers, thanks to a complicated method of bottle feeding. Machinda had already had some offspring, but these were bottle fed by their carers in the nursery, as she did not know how to breastfeed correctly. Females need to be brought up in the company of their mothers in order to learn proper maternal habits, as the greater part of behaviour in most primates is learnt, and instinct plays a small role. Virunga grew up with her mother, but the problem was that she did not have enough milk to feed her baby. As soon as Virunga returned a positive pregnancy test, a programme of patient training was started to help the carer get close to the mother, and so let the gorilla get very used to the presence of the bottle. This technique enabled the young to be properly fed without having to separate them from their mothers. They are growing at a very satisfactory rate and can already be seen for a few hours a day, together with the mothers and their father, in the gorilla unit.

*Accessed August 17, 2007

Bonding and The Breast

Some moms are concerned that when they have their baby, they will look at the baby and think, argh, I'm not ready yet, this is too much.  I have a few thoughts on this.

It is COMPLETELY normal to feel like you need to take a break after the birth, before welcoming baby, and you should be reassured that this is ok.  I mean you just spent hours preparing to and then pushing a rather large sized baby through a rather small hole and that is HARD work.  You deserve to relax for a bit, take a deep breath, have a glass of champagne (just kidding, you might have to wait a bit for that).  Hey, baby might need a moment too.  Place baby skin to skin on mom's tummy where he can hang out for a minute while you come back into your body and make sure your partner or doula affirms that what you are feeling is normal. 

When breastfeeding is initiated, your body will go through a hormonal shift that will help you fall in love with your baby.  So when you are ready, try to initiate breast-feeding.

Prolactin and oxytocin are released in response to stimulation by the baby's sucking at the breast. Prolactin is responsible for milk production, and oxytocin for milk letdown. However, these hormones are beneficial in other ways. Prolactin is sometimes called “the love hormone.” In animals, it is responsible for mothering behaviors. Oxytocin is responsible for the relaxed, sometimes sleepy, calm feelings that accompany milk letdown. Together, these two hormones keep mothers relaxed, calm, and ready to care for their babies (Uvnas-Moberg, 2003).1

And PLEASE keep baby with you!  If I had to guess why so many moms are having trouble bonding with baby I would say it is because so many hospitals are taking baby away from mom for several hours during the critical bonding period.  Baby is alert the first hour or two after the birth, then he/she turns into sleepy baby.  It is very hard to initiate breast-feeding when you have a sleepy baby and no breastfeeding means no rush of prolactin and oxytocin.  There is a hospital in DC that is notorious for keeping baby in the nursery for hours on end and for no reason other then the fact that it is perhaps easier to keep an eye on babies when they are lined up in neat little rows.  Moms, please don't let them take your baby in the first few hours after birth.  If the hospital insists they must take baby away and you are too exhausted to protest (a very real scenario) send your partner to the nursery with baby.  This way your partner can ensure that the time baby spends away from mom is kept to a minimum.

1 Judith A. Lothian, "The Birth of a Breastfeeding Baby and Mother," Journal of Perinatal Education 14(1): 42–45 (2005), http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1595228.

Bold Breastfeeding

It has been awhile since I checked out Sazz's blog but I picked a good day to do it.  I am a big fan of breast-feeding whenever, wherever, and must admit I somewhat thoroughly enjoy making the other sex uneasy while I am nourishing a little one.  The other day as I prepared to settle down for an impromptu meeting the male across the table was clearly praying I would put off the meeting until I finished nursing my 20 month-old son.  Heck no!  I had a busy morning and I am very capable of nursing and talking (smile).
In any case, thanks to Sazz for sharing this blog on a celebrity who has been breastfeeding in public (the horror!).

Try Soy Lecithin

I can't remember when or where but I met a veteran lactation consultant and somehow we ended up talking about clogged ducts. I mentioned that I get mastitis at the drop of a hat and she suggested I try soy lecithin. I stored that information away, forgot about it, had at least one other case of mastitis, and then pulled it back out on my vacation. On the road, I nurse Fen maybe once a day, a good way for me to get clogged ducts and for me, it takes about half of a day for clogged ducts to turn into mastitis. This time I took soy lecithin as suggested and am pleased to report, no clogged ducts. The women who told me about it swore by it and what can I say, seems to be working for me. WISH I had known about soy lecithin a few years ago.... Re dosage, I just followed what it said on the back of the bottle.

I'm SO tired sometimes

Yesterday I felt like a human pacifier again.  Nursing is wonderful, I LOVE it, I've never regretted my decision to nurse on demand for the first 18 months, but it can be TOUGH.  At 18 months I was ready for Fenimore to sleep through the night but he isn't ready.  Khady (I night-weaned her at 18 months) was easy to night-wean.  A few nights of daddy going in and doing the whole we sleep at night we nurse during the day thing and she was night-weaned.  I weaned her completely at age three and a half, and that was easy too.  Fen is a whole different story.  If you are nursing, make sure you have good support from friends who nurse.   Don't expect your baby to sleep through the night until they are close to two (if they do earlier, count your lucky stars) and expect that your baby might need a whole lot of help from you and your partner if they are reluctant to night-wean.  If night-weaning is rough, back off and try again in a week or two, or a month. 

It can be super-tough to nurse exclusively in our culture.  There is no extended family around to take care of baby while you nap and catch up on sleep lost during the night-wakings and nursing is considered a choice rather then the best way to nourish your child.  That means that when you are exhausted from the night-wakings people tend to respond with "well you made the decision to nurse him" comments.  Comments that don't feel so supportive.  If you are pregnant and planning to nurse, know this, it is tough, sometimes very tough, but you will do a great job, no matter what others might say, and it is all worth it.  And if things start-off rough, please check out the La Leche League website and find help.

So I am feeling much better today, a new woman.  Fen cut a canine and didn't marathon nurse all night last night.  Remember, when things get rough, easier times are just around the corner.  Same goes for labor (smile).