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Riding out the pain – Jessica’s story

Posted on March 1, 2010
Filed under: Latch problems, Nipple pain, Thrush, Tounge tie

I knew when I was pregnant that I wanted to breastfeed, but was not worried about having to use formula if things didn’t work out.

Once my son was born, the midwife tried to latch him on the breast for his first feed and he did not co-operate. Being a first time mother, I just went with what she was doing and tried to help where possible. She ended up hand expressing some colostrum and syringed it up and fed my son that way. Afterward I showered and could hear him crying his new little lungs out so when I was finished I came out and attempted a feed all on my own. Well he latched on instantly and fed for about 10 minutes and was soon satisfied and sleepy.

The next few days I had some trouble getting a good latch, mostly on my right breast. At times he would seem to be on well, but then I would feel pain and my nipple would not be the optimal shape. Midwife after midwife would hand express and syringe, causing agony and cracked nipples (coupled with the bad latching) and every feed became a toe curling, breath holding, painful experience. I tried numerous styles of holds and would have to latch on and take off, latch on and take off over and over to try and get a good latch. Once I was home I had a home visit from a midwife who looked him over. Almost instantly she recognised he had tongue tie. I was so surprised that nobody had picked it up yet! He had the typical signs, heart shaped tongue whilst crying and bad latching even though he had a strong suck. We booked in for the following week to have it cut (after careful consideration… tongue tie may affect not only breastfeeding, but speech development later.) We were able to get in when he was 2 weeks old which meant it was a matter of putting a numbing gel on the frenulum and snipping it back with scissors. It was very hard to see it happen and know he was in pain but it was over quickly, hardly any blood and he only cried for a couple of minutes.

We had some improvement after that but the pain and cracked nipples continued. He would have blood in his spew from my nipples and I reached a point where the pain was getting all too much. Now I had begun our breastfeeding journey, however, I could not bring myself to give him a bottle. I considered nipple shields but worried that would start breast refusal because it was so much easier. I visited my local health nurse and she watched us feed and gave us some pointers. He was now getting a perfect latch but I was not holding him tight enough and because his tongue was short it was easy to slip off the nipple. That combined with a very strong suck meant he was often slipping back and only getting the nipple in his mouth but would continue to suck like mad so it was causing a lot of damage. I started to put a big pillow under him and held his neck the entire feed and things slowly improved. My nipples healed and feeds got much easier and more enjoyable.

We went through a few patches of oral and nipple thrush which again was quite painful but after what we persevered through in the beginning, nothing was going to slow us down! At 10 months I discovered I was expecting our second baby but decided to continue to breastfeed as long as he would take it. I did however start offering some formula during the day time to help with morning sickness and tiredness. At about 11 ½ months, the morning sickness was getting all too much and I had 2 separate bleeds in the space of 2 weeks. I decided it was time to stop breastfeeding. So when he hit 12 months I stopped the morning feed and replaced his night feed with cows milk. He didn’t complain and didn’t even ask for the boob so I was confident that the decision was a good one. Not having to worry about the morning feed anymore meant that I could get up and be sick without worrying about him crying for the boob lol.

In hindsight I wish our journey could have been longer, but I am also very happy to have reached 12 months. I am now 8 months into my breastfeeding journey with my daughter and have no plans of stopping or slowing (or any babies for a while) so hopefully this time we will be continuing until my daughter decides she has had enough. We have not had any issues this time around other than thrush thankfully. I can see why so many women give up on breastfeeding in the early days, it would have been an easy and (physically) painless solution but I am so glad I stuck it out, it took many tears but it was worth it.

Filed under: Latch problems, Nipple pain, Thrush, Tounge tie