breastfeeding advice required - no milk supply!

littlelibrarylass

try fenugreek capsules.available health food shops.

mini

Hi

I'll send you a pm with the gory details but briefly I had a very similar experience, I got different reasons as to why I had no milk, the trauma of the birth, the medication used to prevent eclampsia, prematurity, anaemia hb count 6.2,I agree some people can make you feel very guilty for not breastfeeding.

mini

elona

I agree with Mimi - stress and worry can stop you producing milk. When I had twins I tried desperately for 6 weeks to breastfeed and had to top up with a bottle as well. Felt exhausted , a failure and a bad mother - got myself really upset. It was only when hubby pointed out that I had tried for 6 weeks and a relative who had one child and was over 10 years younger than me did not even give it two days - that I cheered up a little.

Next pregnancy did not think about it but just cuddled baby when she was born tried her with breast and it just worked!

Last pregnancy was ceasarian as baby was breech - so lot of worry but as I was awake throughout when baby put in my arms she breastfed straightaway.

Staff had never seen anyone come from theatre with baby "plugged in".


Do not despair and if you have tried the real experts as suggested above then you know you have done your best however it turns out.

Enjoy your baby:)

Jay-Jay_4

elona wrote:

I agree with Mimi - stress and worry can stop you producing milk. When I had twins I tried desperately for 6 weeks to breastfeed and had to top up with a bottle as well. Felt exhausted , a failure and a bad mother - got myself really upset.

Well done for trying for 6 weeks with TWINS!!! Unfortunately, the vicious cycle begins when you top up with a bottle. When baby sucks less you produce less milk so you top up with a bottle and therefore baby feeds less from you, you produce less milk...and so on.

I've said it before but the health professionals out there really let mums down by not supporting us and providing us with good information to help us to feed succesfully. In the end, some mums give up and feel like they've failed when they 'could' have succeeded with the right support.

Elona, it's hard enough to feed one baby and the fact that you persevered for 6 weeks is a fantastic achievement. You obviously tried very hard and it sounds like all your babies got the best start in life.

---

My best advice to anyone wanting to breastfeed is;

Be honest with yourself. IF you are committed to breastfeeding, get the support yourself, don't wait for the midwives to come and help you as some do help and some definately don't. Phone the numbers that the other have given you and get some advice. Get someone out to visit you and pester them morning, noon and night.

Get books from the library (medical type ones) on the physiology of breastfeeding and read about milk production, composition and digestion. Understanding the composition of fore and hind milk will help you decide when your baby is full of 'drink' or full of 'food'. Learning about oxytocin can help you to understand the let-down reflex and its inhibitors. (I have an analogy for this but I's a bit rude to post on here )

Prepare yourself for what may be a tough few weeks while baby establishes himself and your milk supply builds up through sometimes 'constant' feeding. Nipple shields, pain killers, Lansinoh ointment can all help ease the first few weeks.

Some people find it an absolute doddle, some don't, some love it and some hate it. All in all... don't go it alone... we're not all born with the knowledge of how to feed and it can take practice, even with susbequent babies.


gosh,... just realised how long this reply is

tiff

Jay-Jay wrote:

I've said it before but the health professionals out there really let mums down by not supporting us and providing us with good information to help us to feed succesfully. In the end, some mums give up and feel like they've failed when they 'could' have succeeded with the right support.

Although thats true, we should think ourselves lucky. In the area I lived in the States there was no aftercare whatsoever apart from the paediatrician. This is where the La Leche League became a lifeline to some women and became more of a support group than just somewhere to go for advice. We at least have health visitors, mine was excellent as my baby had many operations and I had to express for 3 weeks (baby was in hospital and had to be starved for 15 days) She was so understanding I wanted to hug her as it felt like no-one else knew what I was going through.

System

The more i drunk, the more i made. I didnt have much anyway, but someone told me about dehydration, and i made a concious effort to drink more, and it appeared from nowhere.

jellyhead

thanks for all the replies, this is a great forum :-)

oxytocin, isn't that the stuff they pump you full of during labour, and to deliver the placenta?

they did tell me i'd had a lot of drugs for the pre-eclampsia, for my kidneys (the catheter thing was in for 4 days, that was unpleasant), to stop the vomiting, to stop fits and to induce labour. i'd been told my lack of milk was probably caused by the drugs and the physical stress of getting ill, but that doesn't explain why i didn't have any leaks before the birth. i was 39 weeks and still not a drop. i kept expecting it to come right, i kept trying although i did have to bottle feed, couldn't starve the poor sausage. luckily nobody cared that i wasn't breastfeeding, i didn't have any stress, i didn't know anyone who had breastfed. it wasn't stress or guilt that made me keep trying, i'd read about the health benefits and the baby had terrible colic, i thought if i could get some milk of my own his colic wouldn't be so bad, plus i didn't want the baby to have asthma, i have it and so does his father. he didn't get it anyway :-)

this time around i'm thinking of the cost of bottle feeding, lol! plus all of my breastfeeding friends have told me the nappies don't smell as bad as they do when you bottle feed :-)

Jay-Jay_4

jellyhead wrote:

oxytocin, isn't that the stuff they pump you full of during labour, and to deliver the placenta?

yeah, it's oxytocin that gets your labour going and keeps it going but you have to be RELAXED for it to work it's magic. So you go into hospital, your adrenaline levels rise and BAM, it fights with your oxytocin and your contractions ease off or stop. So they give you sytnometrine (synthetic oxytocin) to keep you going (!) Then they give you another huge dose to get your placenta out whether you want/need it or not :mad:

Same with feeding. The oxytocin signals the let down process, releasing your milk. If your all tense and worrying, the adrenaline counteracts the oxytocin and your milk doesn't flow as well.

Here's my analogy...it's a bit rude but it's true... those under 18 pls avert your eyes...... It's like having an org**m.... you couldn't do it if you were round at the in-laws for dinner while everyone was watching .... but you can do it when your all relaxed and somewhere where you feel happy.... same thing with establishing feeding!!!!!!!!

stardoman

jellyhead wrote:

i'd been told my lack of milk was probably caused by the drugs and the physical stress of getting ill, but that doesn't explain why i didn't have any leaks before the birth. i was 39 weeks and still not a drop.

Hi,

Not everyone leaks - whether you leak or not has no indication of whether your body produces milk or not. I've breastfed 2 babies and did not leak in pregnancy either time, or after birth for that matter. With DS2 I even tried expressing a bit on the morning I had him and could not get any out. I did not get the solid milk coming in feeling on day 3 either and even though I had bought loads of breastpads I did not need to use a single one - EVER (and I fed both of them past 1 year). I've always assumed that my body made the right amount of milk with none spare for leaking or expressing.

I also found it very hard to express. The first 3 days or so your body makes something called Colostrum and this is made in minute quantities. Mums who have to express in the early days, perhaps because the baby is tube fed, find it hard to get anything out. So its not surprising you found it hard, especially with all the trauma you had. The NCT have an experiences register and may be able to put you in touch with another mum who has had a similar experience. Contact the NCT if you think you would find this helpful.

The main thing to get your supply going is to let your baby suckle at the breast as often as possible. I saw a lovely video recently of newborn babies who were delivered onto their mummies tummy. They managed to crawl up towards the breast and within an hour of birth latched themselves on. Apparantly, these babies were more likely to be breastfed for longer and the mums were less likely to have problems breastfeeding. Bathing with your baby can also help relax both you and the baby and get the milk flowing. These mums did not have much medication during labour and childbirth, the effects. Read up on skin-to-skin contact before birth as this can really help get breastfeeding going.

Some women find it hard to express even once breastfeeding is established. I was one of these women - could never get a drop out. Yet I must've been making milk otherwise my babies would have starved. DS1 is now a strapping very nearly 7 year old and DS2 is 4 - so they definitely didn't starve.

The NCT have a breastfeeding line (0870 444 8708).

HTH, Mandy.

jellyhead

aww, that video sounds so sweet! and i like the analogy :-)

i'll be keeping all this advice for july and am definitely feeling more positive about the whole thing now :-) i didn't have skin to skin contact with my baby. when they delivered him they put him on my tummy for me to see but i couldn't move my arms and didn't even touch him. i had a bad time after the birth and he was probably 3 days old before i even held him, i didn't wake up until then. i'm sure that will have had an effect. this time around it will be different i know, even if i get pre-eclampsia my husband will be here (i was living alone last time and went to bed with a suspected migraine, the pre-eclampsia had got quite bad by the time i was found) so even if i get it this time it will be caught early and i'm sure i'll be fine. i'm planning on holding the baby straight away and trying to feed :-)

also, the oxytocin drip was constant. i wasn't ready to deliver and the whole thing was forced. waters broken, oxytocin drip and loads more drugs, lots of doctors and midwives, far too much attention (like a goldfish bowl, all the students wanted to see), so many machines, so much noise, blood pressure machine pumping up my arm every few minutes to take my blood pressure automatically, lots of shouting and panic about my kidneys, pulse and temp, they even brought in a priest. i heard them tell my boyfriend i might die. it wasn't a calm incense and candles water birth lol! they told me the oxytocin makes contractions much more painful too, this time around i'm hoping for a more natural birth with fewer spectators lol!

gosh i'm a right worrier today, i'm normally really laid back. hormones, tsk!