I wanted to add
something to the great blog about the benefits of
breastfeeding. It has to do with my
experience having breastfed four babies that are now all teenagers. I had many
difficulties with breastfeeding. My mom was encouraging, having breastfed all
four of hers, too, but I had one problem after another. I could write a book on
my stories, but I’ll simplify to make my point. I struggled through with determination,
having to bite down on leather at some points because of the pain. I came down
with multiple cases of mastitis with each child. There were times I thought my
immune system had abandoned me! I even turned to pumping with my 4th, thinking
that would help. It did ease some of my pain, but I still got mastitis once. It
was through the advice of a great pediatrician that I ended up asking my OB for
Diflucan (one pill) for a thrush (candida) infection for which my son also
needed to be treated. Taking this medication completely changed my
breastfeeding experience. I discovered that the pains I thought were from
breastfeeding were actually from a candida infection. And that when I would
feel the first pins and needles pains, that was the beginning. Obviously you
need your doctor’s help with these diagnoses, but I was surprised at how little
they knew about this. (FYI, I needed to be treated several times over a
six-month time span, so don’t be surprised if this helps for a time but then
comes back.) I have given this advice to many women over the years, and never
once has it failed to help them. So although I personally will not need this
medicine for breastfeeding, we are preparing for our own daughters’ future
needs by having it on hand. It has a generic form now: fluconazole. A pleasant
side effect for us from taking the meds was that my babies had gotten a nasty
diaper rash. Somehow, this was all connected, because when I treated my
candida, their diaper rash subsided. I don’t understand it all, but I do know
this was a real life saver for us.
Also, on the idea of
pumping instead of breastfeeding. I’m sure there are more professional opinions
than mine, but I found it to be a great choice even though I was a home
schooling mom and didn’t need to be away from my babies. The two things I liked
about it were you get to see how much milk your babies are getting, and others
can feed the baby too. One of the complaints of new moms is that they think
their babies aren’t getting enough milk. This is rarely true, but without a
meter to measure, it’s a concern. Pumping removes this unknown. It also allows
dads and other family members/friends to be able to feed the baby. Now, it
means you’re doing double duty, pumping and feeding, but I was also able to
freeze the extra milk and use it for months after I had to stop feeding. So
keeping a breast pump (double sided is best) on hand for future needs is also
an important prep, and, as I mentioned earlier, it helped cut back on the
number of instances of mastitis for me, reducing the amount of times I had to
use antibiotics. If you’ve ever had mastitis, you’ll know just how miserable
that can be!
I hope this information
can help those of you who “try” breastfeeding and feel like quitting. It is the
single most important choice you can make for your children when they’re first
born and growing. Additionally, you can’t go back years later when they’re
faced with health concerns that might have been prevented by breastfeeding them
and redo it. So many things in our society are, well, “if you don’t like it,
just quit”, or “if it gets too hard, just give up”. In the future, you might
not have that option when it comes to feeding your baby, and you might be able
to use this information to help you through it. – P.M.
No comments:
Post a Comment