Can i breastfeed now

[Tattybogle89]

Just given birth. Traumatic and very emotional. Wishing I had tried to breastfeed.
Have bottle fed a few days. Milks not in but coming.i don’t know if I can
I have fibrocystic breasts. So sore hard and lumpy before pregnancy anyway.

I’m on blood thinning jags to stop blood clots after delivery.
And tramadol
Ibuprofen
Paracetamol
Antibiotics
Laxatives

Probably not safe to try now with that in my system. I won’t ask midwives because I feel stupid but if anyone can advise
☹️

[OlennasWimple]

A debrief is basically a chat with a midwife (not necessarily one who was involved in your delivery) to go through your notes and discuss what happened. Most women are too shell-shocked to process that sort of stuff properly immediately after giving birth (even if the labour and delivery was pretty straight forward)

This thread here from 2013 might be useful, where pp share their experiences of a de brief

[1stTimeRounder]

You are not a nutcase and you are just processing a traumatic experience. It's normal to go through flashbacks when you've been through trauma and shock.

I strongly recommend the birth debrief, but wait for a while. I had one when baby was about 10wks old. I was in a better place to talk through my notes and it helped massively with dealing with my own traumatic delivery. But you need to be in the right frame of mind to do it.

Also if you are still having flashback and nightmares after a while then you should definitely seek counselling as this is a sign of post traumatic stress disorder (ptsd).

Finally on the breastfeeding thing; if you've had a lot of drugs in labour (were you induced or did you have oxytocin or pethidine?) and if you lost a lot of blood during the birth then it can be harder to establish breastfeeding. Don't be too hard on yourself, seek help from hv and local breast feeding groups.

But at the same time if your partner can feed formula then you can get some rest and start to recuperate and heal. This was crucial for me to physically and mentally get over my emergency c section.

[Tattybogle89]

HI thank you for reply keep checking if anyone wants to chat.
Think I’ve knocked breastfeeding idea on head. Just too much else in my head and it seems such hard work also baby tongue tied so they said it would be hard trying to start him suddenly on breast.

I’m not sure what counts as a flashback but silly things like pulling baby’s head through vest reminds me of delivery and makes me cry. Just get hit by a wave of emotion and start racing thoughts about it all.
Midwife said I can request notes and she can go through them with me. She told me I haemorrhaged which I didn’t know.
She wasn’t happy i have scab bruising on my bum that’s a mess and sore and happened in theatre and was blamed on pressure sore but she said I shouldn’t have got that and that makes me angry too. Sore to sleep on when I do get the chance.

No I didn’t have any pain relief so felt the whole 4th degree tear happen in slow motion ☹️

[1stTimeRounder]

@tattybogle89 it's really normal to feel that way. I was the same after I had my baby and relived various parts of it for a few weeks.

That's does sound like there were a few things that could have been handled better, especially the pressure sores. So when you do a birth debrief you can raise such concerns. We had concerns about the Anaestatist which we were able to raise to senior consultants, and hopefully will be addressed for future women.

Remember you're also sleep deprived, hormonal and dealing with a new addition so there's a lot going on now so just be gentle on yourself.