Did you experience breastfeeding roadblocks?

Question

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Share your experience good or bad with breastfeeding here.

Answer

Yep. I think I experienced them all lol. My milk didn’t come in until 8days pp. i found out I had raynauds syndrome that made it incredibly painful and had to get on a medication regimen until the pain got under control. I also had DMER and a sensitivity to oxytocin, so I’d become incredibly nauseous, depressed and itchy for the first 3-4 months of breastfeeding until my body figured it out and got used to it. If all the physical road blocks weren’t hard enough, my employer (ironically a huge healthcare system) tried to fire me for pumping at work so I had to get into a complicated legal battle. I ended up making major changes at my company and connecting with a lot of other working moms who experienced the same. We won the battle and my employer named a new lactation room for my daughter and I helped write the new lactation policy with HR. Managers are also now required to undergo “lactation training”. I also got to do a couple talks at our lactation classes for new moms about returning to work and pumping. There were road blocks, but definitely some major strides. I breastfed for 16 months and it’s probably my proudest accomplishment.

Answer

My roadblock was a lack of production 😔 
I thought everything was going great but my daughter wasn’t making weight at her appointments. My doctor kept pushing for me to supplement with formula. Finally I caved and did. It was heart breaking. My daughter immediately took to the formula and didn’t want to breastfeed anymore. So I then tried pumping thinking that maybe it was the bottle flow she preferred. I would pump 30min each side and get a grand total of 1oz 😭 
I tried adding specific foods the promote milk production into my diet. I tried lactation teas, lactation cookies. I tried hand expressed, I tried the haaka, I tried multiple different pumps and flange sizes with no success.  
I stopped cold turkey at 4 months postpartum since I was spending so much time pumping only to get an ounce or less. It didn’t even phase my breast. I never leaked. Never felt engourged. It was devastating and really made me upset for a while.

Answer

Absolutely! I tried breastfeeding with my youngest, but all of my road blocks contributed to my decision to formula feed her. She had the worst tounge tie the pediatric ENT had ever seen and still has a bad lip tie. She was only able to latch a few times and it was always so painful I would sob the whole time. Add in the my nipples don't elongate as much as most women's during breastfeeding and we weren't compatible. So I pumped. I had an oversupply and couldn't go more than 1.5 hours without relief which made it worse. In the 2 months I breast fed I had a month long case of mastitis and clogged ducts so bad I almost needed surgery. I lost and rebuilt my supply 3 times in that time period and had cracked nipples so bad I also needed stitches, but I refused to get them because I was terrified. I also had a bad reaction to let downs where I would cry because they hurt so bad, my body would feel like it was on fire, and I'd feel sick to my stomach. When I was expressing milk I would have an overwhelming feeling of despair, I would get anxiety attacks, feel like I had bugs crawling all over me, and want to scream and cry. My PPD was already so bad and the feelings expressing milk was giving me pushed me over into being suicidal. I cried for months after having to give up breastfeeding because I wanted to breastfeed so bad, but it was best for my physical and mental health to stop. I'll never get another chance to breastfeed and it kills me.

Answer

No, my baby wouldn’t take a bottle and refused anything but the boob, she latched with ease, my milk was more than enough actually over produced, Ouch! And I breastfed her until she was A little over 3.. never had any problems but with getting her off she was not having it!

Answer

Not really a roadblock, but my second would feed every 30 minutes or so and it was EXHAUSTING. I had a lactation consultant come and she helped me figure out how to lengthen her feeds, thereby increasing the time between feeds - she was a life saver.

Answer

Hi again..I just wanted to say a second time that the supple.wnt by Gaia Herbs was amazing for me for increasing milk supply. It isn't t meant for pregnant women though so if you should conceive again it s a stop ❤

Answer

Loved nursing ( still do ) w my 5th . My forst stayed on till she was 3 n a half( I wanted to wean earlier but I was preggers n had a hard time) . My Seco d chose the bottle when he had a cold at 5 n a half mos so I just didnt try again after a few days of it as I had to work alot. Third baby had me having to lean back to avoid him choki g bc the supply was so much. He weaned easily at 2 while I was pregnant again...they say the milk changes taste n so.e babies wean themselves- some don't. My experience w pumps is learn how to express by hand and also have a pump on each floor of your house if you can bc it s a pain to lug them around ( insurance paid for one n I got one as a gift) . Bring your pump to the hospital. My forst baby was a vacuum assist and she didnt latch till the next morning. I had to have the nurse help me finger feed her so I had to use their handheld pump bc I didn't have one yet. Take Gaia Herbs Lactation Support ( the best advice from a lactation consultant ever ) . Even if I forgot to ear enough or drink enough I had a lot of milk. I always kept some reg and soy formula on hand just incase of some emergency. What else...When babies get teeth they don't always use them on you...mostly if it s a hard teething day later on ( like my youngest was teething at 8 weeks but I didn't feel her teeth on me till around a yr of age. These days she s more chill than last month when she had her top teeth sunk in me sometimes. I started to wean her bc of it but then she got a tummy flu so was back on n now she s not biting at all.Always fed is best not breast is best. There are different circumstances for everyone. I love the closeness I feel while breastfeeding but there are times a bottle might be best ❤💕💕

Answer

I don’t know if I would say roadblocks but challenges for sure.
I’m prone to clogs and mastitis( I had a breast reduction in the past) I had mastitis at least 6 times in the 8 months I breastfed.
I eventually learned how to clear it really quickly but it sucked sooo bad. I just wanted to breastfeed normally like a lot of women! 
If I wore an underwire bra, slept wrong, if baby latched wrong at all boom another clog would form. It was so annoying😐
But I still loved nursing in general

Did you experience breastfeeding roadblocks?

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