Hi! This is VERY long, but I would love your input
I am pregnant with my third child, and I have a question. When my son was born almost 5 years ago, I knew very little about breastfeeding except that I wanted to do it. From the first day we had problems - he was a bigger baby and I was terribly awkward at holding and positioning him. I think he was latching fine when I got him on correctly, and I had fantastic milk supply, but it was extremely painful for me. Within the first 2 days my nipples were raw and bleeding. I saw 3 different lactation consultants in the first week- from the hospital, pediatrician, and WIC, and nobody could give me a reason for my pain. His latch and anatomy seemed fine, and my anatomy was fine. They gave me some nipple shields but it was still excruciating to put him to my breast. I dreaded it and it was a horrible first week. At that point I decided to start pumping - I figured that I could give him breast milk in a bottle until we got things figured out. But pumping was painful, too, and I was bleeding into the milk. After a couple of days of this, I think I because dehydrated or something because I was not able to pump enough, and especially since he was bottle feeding he wanted more. I didn't know anything about increasing my milk supply - at this point I was so hurt and exhausted and angry at not being able to easily feed my baby that I gave up and put him on formula. I regret it to this day, but I was so lost and I didn't have the resources I have now.
When my son was 2 I got pregnant again, and met a fantastic group of women who are involved in home birth and LLL. I planned a home birth, and learned so much about breastfeeding that I because determined to breastfeed this baby. Since nobody had been able to give me an explanation for the pain I encountered the first time, I tried to think positively that it wouldn't happen again. I planned to successfully breastfeed this baby. The birth went as planned at home, and she was happy and healthy. I once again had fantastic supply within a couple days, and her latch was fine. But I again had immediate excruciating pain, and became raw and bleeding in the first 2 days. My LLL leader visited me constantly trying to improve the latch, but there wasn't much to be done. I saw the WIC consultant again, and she couldn't help. I took her to a dentist, praying it was tongue tie and would be an easy fix, but he said she was perfectly fine anatomically. Determined to get through it, I began pumping after a couple of days and we fed her through a SNS for the first week. I did not lose my milk like I did the first time, in fact I leaked through my clothes within a couple hours and laid in a soaking wet bed all night. The pumping was painful, though, and nursing was horrible. So At 8 days, I felt defeated and again angry at losing the first precious week of her life to dreading her feedings, so I gave up. For the next week she was only on formula. I felt saddened but relieved. But after a week, I still had tons of milk, so I decided to put her back on and see how badly it hurt, since I had mostly healed at this point. It was uncomfortable, but manageable. After a few feedings we were back to the same intense pain and bleeding. I decided to nurse her a couple times a day and just breathe through the pain, pump regularly to give her a bottle of breast milk when I was able, and give her formula when I didn't have milk pumped or couldn't stand the pain. I just sort of danced around it, doing whatever I felt like at each feeding for the next 6 weeks. All that time of irregularity I did not lose my supply. At 8 weeks I decided to put her on my breast full time. There was a bit of pain, but it quickly faded. After a month or so of discomfort but no bleeding, we were nursing with NO PAIN! I nursed her happily until 18 months. I would have kept nursing her much longer, but I became pregnant again and was severely sick and hospitalized with hyperemesis gravidarum. During the 8 weeks that I was in bed, nursing her had to stop. That brings me to my next topic... If you're still with me thanks so much for reading
I have had HG with each pregnancy. I needed medication and frequent IV treatments with the previous 2, but this time was the worst and I was hospitalized for 5 days. I'm 17 weeks now, and starting to get back to normal. I visited a chiropractor last week and shared with her my history of HG and breastfeeding complications. She mentioned something that I hadn't thought of before - could they be connected? There is a theory that hyperemesis may be caused by the hormonal changes in pregnancy, maybe the estrogen increase. My chiropractor said that it was interesting that I was able to nurse my daughter with less pain once she was 8 weeks old, since 8 weeks is generally when our body's hormones get back to normal after pregnancy. She thought that I could possibly produce too much estrogen in pregnancy, or my body doesn't know how to handle it properly, and it causes my sickness and extreme nipple pain. I'm so excited to think there might be a tangible cause to both of the problems! I want to research it more, especially because I'm pregnant again and dreading the first 8 weeks of nursing another baby. Knowing the pain to expect is hard to walk into again, you know? But I cannot find any research connecting the two topics. Does anybody think this makes sense? Or does anybody have any other theories to my breastfeeding pain? Anything is greatly appreciated!
I am pregnant with my third child, and I have a question. When my son was born almost 5 years ago, I knew very little about breastfeeding except that I wanted to do it. From the first day we had problems - he was a bigger baby and I was terribly awkward at holding and positioning him. I think he was latching fine when I got him on correctly, and I had fantastic milk supply, but it was extremely painful for me. Within the first 2 days my nipples were raw and bleeding. I saw 3 different lactation consultants in the first week- from the hospital, pediatrician, and WIC, and nobody could give me a reason for my pain. His latch and anatomy seemed fine, and my anatomy was fine. They gave me some nipple shields but it was still excruciating to put him to my breast. I dreaded it and it was a horrible first week. At that point I decided to start pumping - I figured that I could give him breast milk in a bottle until we got things figured out. But pumping was painful, too, and I was bleeding into the milk. After a couple of days of this, I think I because dehydrated or something because I was not able to pump enough, and especially since he was bottle feeding he wanted more. I didn't know anything about increasing my milk supply - at this point I was so hurt and exhausted and angry at not being able to easily feed my baby that I gave up and put him on formula. I regret it to this day, but I was so lost and I didn't have the resources I have now.
When my son was 2 I got pregnant again, and met a fantastic group of women who are involved in home birth and LLL. I planned a home birth, and learned so much about breastfeeding that I because determined to breastfeed this baby. Since nobody had been able to give me an explanation for the pain I encountered the first time, I tried to think positively that it wouldn't happen again. I planned to successfully breastfeed this baby. The birth went as planned at home, and she was happy and healthy. I once again had fantastic supply within a couple days, and her latch was fine. But I again had immediate excruciating pain, and became raw and bleeding in the first 2 days. My LLL leader visited me constantly trying to improve the latch, but there wasn't much to be done. I saw the WIC consultant again, and she couldn't help. I took her to a dentist, praying it was tongue tie and would be an easy fix, but he said she was perfectly fine anatomically. Determined to get through it, I began pumping after a couple of days and we fed her through a SNS for the first week. I did not lose my milk like I did the first time, in fact I leaked through my clothes within a couple hours and laid in a soaking wet bed all night. The pumping was painful, though, and nursing was horrible. So At 8 days, I felt defeated and again angry at losing the first precious week of her life to dreading her feedings, so I gave up. For the next week she was only on formula. I felt saddened but relieved. But after a week, I still had tons of milk, so I decided to put her back on and see how badly it hurt, since I had mostly healed at this point. It was uncomfortable, but manageable. After a few feedings we were back to the same intense pain and bleeding. I decided to nurse her a couple times a day and just breathe through the pain, pump regularly to give her a bottle of breast milk when I was able, and give her formula when I didn't have milk pumped or couldn't stand the pain. I just sort of danced around it, doing whatever I felt like at each feeding for the next 6 weeks. All that time of irregularity I did not lose my supply. At 8 weeks I decided to put her on my breast full time. There was a bit of pain, but it quickly faded. After a month or so of discomfort but no bleeding, we were nursing with NO PAIN! I nursed her happily until 18 months. I would have kept nursing her much longer, but I became pregnant again and was severely sick and hospitalized with hyperemesis gravidarum. During the 8 weeks that I was in bed, nursing her had to stop. That brings me to my next topic... If you're still with me thanks so much for reading
I have had HG with each pregnancy. I needed medication and frequent IV treatments with the previous 2, but this time was the worst and I was hospitalized for 5 days. I'm 17 weeks now, and starting to get back to normal. I visited a chiropractor last week and shared with her my history of HG and breastfeeding complications. She mentioned something that I hadn't thought of before - could they be connected? There is a theory that hyperemesis may be caused by the hormonal changes in pregnancy, maybe the estrogen increase. My chiropractor said that it was interesting that I was able to nurse my daughter with less pain once she was 8 weeks old, since 8 weeks is generally when our body's hormones get back to normal after pregnancy. She thought that I could possibly produce too much estrogen in pregnancy, or my body doesn't know how to handle it properly, and it causes my sickness and extreme nipple pain. I'm so excited to think there might be a tangible cause to both of the problems! I want to research it more, especially because I'm pregnant again and dreading the first 8 weeks of nursing another baby. Knowing the pain to expect is hard to walk into again, you know? But I cannot find any research connecting the two topics. Does anybody think this makes sense? Or does anybody have any other theories to my breastfeeding pain? Anything is greatly appreciated!
