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Clefty Mummy – Expressing all the way! – Toni’s story

Posted on March 28, 2009
Filed under: Cleft lip/palate, Exclusive expressing, Expressing, Low supply

My son was born with a cleft palate. He had no suction so couldn’t attach to the breast at all. We tried with a mouth plate and nipple shield, but nothing worked. So I expressed from day one. Firstly hand expressing with lovely midwives helping me to learn, then with a pump once the milk started coming in. I’ll never forget how proud I was to have hand expressed my first 5 mls of colostrum!

Liam was fed with a nasal tube for the first 3 days of his life – mostly with formula. I gave him everything I could – seemed like I was expressing every hour – and by the time I was ready to go home with him (after 5 days) we were giving him mostly ebm.

Once we got home I realised that no-one in my town could hire me a breast pump and went into full panic mode. My local hospital let me go & use their pump for the first day, but then I rang my ‘local’ breastfeeding association contact (40 minutes away) who hired me a pump that afternoon. I was then pumping every 2 hours.

I was very lucky that both me and my husband was home full-time to care for our son. He fed him my expressed milk while I pumped out the next lot. It seemed a never-ending circle with lots of clean-up and mess. I knew it was worth it though as he would need an operation around 10 months of age and I knew the EBM would help him recover.

Mum and bub with expressing bottle I went on 2 courses of medication to help my milk flow (as well as every natural remedy I could think of!) but after reading how in can increase your risk of breast cancer, I stopped the medications. I’m already in a high risk category as my Mother and Aunty both died of the disease and my grandmother had it too (both sides of the family). Of all the remedies – the Aktavite milkshake was the best! Yum!

After 2 1/2 months, I knew I couldn’t keep going much longer. I was only just getting enough for him and we were beginning to need to top up with formula. I felt really defeated and miserable, but I knew I had done what I could. I began to wind the expressing down (didn’t want an infection setting in). After 3 months I stopped altogether. I was very sad to do so, but relieved too as it was wearing me out and I felt like I was missing out on my son because I would have to ‘opt-out’ of caring for him up to 10 times a day to express. I felt very helpless.

I am very lucky to have such a great husband who helped me every step of the way.

Filed under: Cleft lip/palate, Exclusive expressing, Expressing, Low supply

Comments

5 Responses to “Clefty Mummy – Expressing all the way! – Toni’s story”

Sarah on May 5th, 2009 6:05 pm

What a wonderful beginning to give your baby.
Luanne on May 28th, 2009 10:43 am

You gave your baby a great start, good job mommy!
Toni Scarlett on May 29th, 2009 9:32 pm

Thank you.
Ginny on May 30th, 2009 6:16 am

I was in the same situation. My son was born 10/18/05 with pierre robin sequence (short chin, misplaced tongue-cleft palate). It was an adventure to say the least. He would have been the best breastfeeder!! He would latch on with the help of nipple shield and go for an hour or so…of course I would turn around and pump and get 8 ounces!! So we dropped the nursing and I pumped for about 10 weeks or so. It is very difficult, my supply dropped about 6 weeks in and never did get back to full speed, which ultimately made me stop pumping. The little booger got “fixed” at 10 1/2 months and has been non stop since! I cried on his first birthday just thinking about the whole year and how at the time it seemed so difficult and sooo long but in retrospect, I kind of miss those days. Food shooting out of noses, all the messes!! Those were the days!
Toni Scarlett on July 20th, 2009 10:34 pm

Ginny – Liam also has PRS. He had his surgery in March at 10.5 months also. I know what you mean by the messes!

Thank you for sharing your story! Toni