Here?s a question: has anyone who has had trouble breastfeeding in the past 12 months had a health professional who thought the best way to help was to grab the baby?s head and your boob and ram the two together as if trying to unblock a sink?
I?m 32 weeks pregnant and starting (as you do) to worry about the postnatal period and particularly getting feeding sorted. DS1 and I had hellish trouble with getting BF established, which resulted in his readmission to NICU for severe jaundice and weightloss after a week. At the time I put it down to one of those things ? some babies just won?t breastfeed ? but I?m mulling it over again now and the more I think about it, the more I?m convinced this is a situation that was largely created by bad handling. I was on my postnatal ward for 2.5 days, during which 3 midwifes tried to help us feed by grabbing DS?s head and holding it against the breast forcibly, while he wriggled and wailed. I even did it myself when I got home . End result was one seriously unhappy little boy with no interest in feeding whatsoever and a rapid decline. Even when we were readmitted to NICU and spent three days being ?re-educated? on breastfeeding, some of the midwifes there were doing the same thing: it was only the introduction of nipple shields that finally broke the impasse and gave DS a clue what to do.
I?m determined to BF no 2 (another little boy) and will turn psychomummy if anyone tries to do the same thing again. But before I go off the deep end, is there any justification for this ?sink-plunger? approach? Any studies on the subject? Has anyone seen it work? Do people still do it ? DS1 was born 4 years ago and it may be that the health profession have spotted that this is not such a great idea