breastfeeding

I was always going to breastfeed – Jo-Anne’s story

The following is an excerpt. Please click the title above to read the entire story.

So we had a go at breastfeeding. Trying to attach a very small baby (he was 2.4kg) was tricky and time consuming. He had no idea and didn’t think a nice wide mouth at all necessary. It also turned out he was just too small to suck hard enough to draw out my inverted nipples. Luckily for me there was a lactation consultant on. She came and assessed the non attaching feed and suggested using nipple shields. Once I started using nipple shields it all fell in to place. Oliver was able to attach and suck well. It was certainly not comfortable feeding, in fact down right excruciating would be a good term. Sucking basically rips all the tissue attachments that keep the nipple in. I screwed up my toes and breathed deeply. Feeds hurt the most at the start and then settled to a dull pain which I could cope with.

Expressing for twins – Linda’s story

The following is an excerpt. Please click the title above to read the entire story.

It would have been easier to just give up but I knew that breastmilk was so important for their brain and immune development, and I hoped that by keeping up the expressing I would slowly build up my very tiny supply. I also knew that I needed to have milk if I was ever going to get them to take the breast, which we were still trying continuously. I was very proud of the 30 or 40 millilitres I could give each of them each feed, topped up straight afterward with formula, a small percentage compared with what most healthy women can express, and it took me fifteen minutes at the pump to get even that.

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