I always knew when the time came for me to have children, I would breastfeed. My mother breastfed me until I was 15 months old, and always preached the wonderful health benefits of doing so. When I got pregnant with my first child in April 2010, I planned on breastfeeding and thought it would be the easiest, most natural thing in the world.
My son, Noah, was born December 18, 2010 and was delivered vaginally via vacuum extraction. Because of his traumatic delivery, his blood sugars dropped and he had to go to the NICU within 2 hours of being born. I had to watch my brand new baby have an IV stuck in his little hand, and be hooked up to monitors. Immediately my plan of breastfeeding was turned upside down. I had 4th degree tearing from delivery and was in excruciating pain. It hurt to walk and sit, and all I wanted to do was rest. During the day, I spent the majority of my time in the NICU with him on the breast as much as possible. At night I slept in my room and went upstairs when the NICU nurses paged me to come feed him. It was not the ideal situation – It was not my plan.
Three days after giving birth, it was discovered that my tear repair had failed and I had to go into surgery that afternoon. I nursed Noah before surgery, but was told he would probably need to be fed while I was in surgery and would either have to be fed formula or expressed breast milk from a bottle. Luckily one of the NICU nurses introduced me to the pump the previous day, and I had 2 oz of breast milk in the fridge. That afternoon I went for surgery and left my son, who was released from the NICU that day, with my fiancé.
When I came back from surgery, I nursed my son successfully on my breast for the last time. To this day I still am not sure exactly what happened, but I have my theories. I was on a lot of pain medication and some probably passed into my breast milk and made my son drowsy. He was very tired and was lazy with his latching after my surgery. There was also the fact that he had a bottle while I was in surgery as well. I tried, had nurses try to help me, and he just would not latch. I was offered formula and refused. I wanted to breastfeed my son. I decided I would pump because I knew he was hungry and felt it was my only option. Unfortunately, the service of a lactation consultant at the hospital was not available as it was recently cut from the budget.
My son and I were released from the hospital on December 23. I immediately went and rented a hospital grade pump from the pharmacy. I did try to get my son to latch many, many times to no avail. It was the Christmas season and the public health centre was closed so I could not even go there to see a lactation consultant. I eventually decided I would exclusively pump.
At first I thought I must be insane. This would be hard work. I set my goals low, and said I would try to make it 3 months. After 3 months, I pushed my goal to 6 months. And after 6 months I never even thought about it; I knew I would continue until my son was a year old. My son turned 1 on December 18, 2011 and I finished pumping a little over a week later. In all honesty, it was not really hard work at all. It was about getting into a routine and sticking to it. I drank lots, ate lots, took domperidone and fenugreek and read as much as I could about increasing supply. My son grew into a happy, healthy one year old and I was proud my breast milk was responsible for that. While not ideal, and not as planned – Exclusive pumping worked for my son and I. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Dora Mullett is from Corner Brook, NL and currently resides in Grande Prairie, AB. She graduated from Memorial University in 2003 with a BA in Physical Anthropology, and graduated from CONA in 2007 from the LPN program. She currently works as an LPN at a long term care home in Grande Prairie. She lives there with her fiancé, Ryan and her son, Noah.
Great Story Dora! i wish I would have had your drive. Noah had latch problems as well, even with help from nurses visiting. I tried pumping and getting him to latch but i literally did not sleep. By the time he tried breast, then i pumped and cleaned up he was right back up. After two weeks i gave up because I felt myself slipping to a dark dark place. When I tried just pumping I was not getting a good supply and had to continue supplementing. Noah decided he liked the bottle and formula better. It was hard to feel like I failed because I wasnt even going to breastfeed. I was afraid. As soon as I saw him I knew I had to give him the best shot. I am glad I tried though and feel like it created and even more amazing bond, even if it was just two weeks!
-Prepare your pumping sets (bottles aahecttd to the oiled breastshields) the night before so when you are ready to pump just put them on. Skip washing in the office by having enough clean sets for the day (eg pumping twice per day requires a total of 4 sets of 4 bottles and 4 breastshields).-I don’t schlep the pump back and forth, just leave it in the office and move the pumping sets and the full bottles (which are kept in a cooler bag that comes with the pump) back and forth.-Have enough pumping sets for two days (eg if you pump twice a day, have a total of 8 bottles and breastshields) in case one night you fall behind on a washing. Also keep an extra set and membranes in the office.-For my second kid, I am buying a hospital grade pump like Medela Symphony and reselling it later. Out of pocket will be the same as a personal double electric pump but the comfort level will be uncomparable.-I always carry a hand pump in my purse in case I am caught up in a meeting around town.-Having a place at work to pump was probably the main thing that helped me last as long as I did (baby’s 18m, pumping at work since month 4 and still going strong). I had to be creative despite the non-cooperative management I installed curtains on my office.