Dear All,
I have a four year old son and when i was pregnant with him I was pretty sure that I didn't even want to try breastfeeding. Since I live in Cyprus this tends to be the case anyway; they are not as pro breastfeeding as is the case in other countries.
But, although the nurses at the hospital tried to talk me out of it (they were already giving him formula anyway) and my paediatrician advised angainst as my son was small I did have a go. I didn't have a clue though and after those around me (in-laws who also never breast fed) made me feel like I was starving my son I quickly gave up.
Now, I am 5 weeks from giving birth once again. Things have changed a bit here; there are now organisations with lactaction consultants that will offer one-to-one help with breastfeeding. The thing is, and I don't know if anyone can understand me if that I kind of fall into two camps.
I have lived here for 10 years and I guess although I am definately British I have taken on board some of the cultural ideas that I guess I may have found odd had i stayed back home. Now here, when you have a baby at a hospital firstly practically everyone pays to go private (or has private healthcare) so you have your own gynae and you stay in a private room etc. It doesn't mean that you are treated especially nicely though-some of the nursers were complete cows when i had my son. As it is the norm to pay you don't get the red carpet treatment if you know what I mean. Now, when you have the baby it is taken to the nursery to give mum a chance to rest. You can request for the baby to be brought to your room but if the nurses see that you have many visitors (which will definately be the case since there are no set visiting hours and it is common to have 30-50 visitors ofer a 5 night stay) they will take baby back to the nursery. I do not have a problem with this. I adore my son and I hope to adore this baby too but I have no problem at all with him being taken care of by trained maternity nurses along the hallway. There is video link on the tv should you wish to watch your baby.
The reason for this ramble is that I attended a breast feeding lecture and those that gave the talk were wonderful and encouraging and an expert will even visit me in the hosptial to help get me started. However, they insist that I have to ask for baby to be in my room at all times (I can request this). This frankly scares me a bit. I am almost sure to be having another c-section, how can I cope. I just feel that of course everyone cares about the baby, but I am all alone here (no family). C-section is major surgery. The reason they give for having my baby with me 100% is partly becuase they think it abhorrant for baby to be in a Nursery (this support group is run by either non-Cypriots or those raised in other cultures and have returned) and also becuase they say that baby has to be put onto me every hour in the first 2 days.
They also said that if I have a c-section with general anesthstic (my preferred choice) I will find it very, very hard to breast feed sucessfully. They say that baby should be put onto me immediately after birth and so they recommend a c-section with an epidural. I had a great experience of epidural with my son but tbh I am petrified of needles and the only reason i found the strength to have one then was that I was having contrations and was therefore in pain!! I really don't think I can go to the hospital and have an epidural cold, without feeling any pain. I wish I could, but I am so frigtned of needles. So what should I do?
If I go with the rooming in I am worried that having to call the nurses each and everytime to not only take me to the toilet etc but also to call them hourly in the begining to give my baby to me to breast feed (especially during the night)is going to make me unpopular in the clinic. Since I am not from here anyway I tend to have a need to make people like me anyway; I don't want them to dislike me and be horrible. The bf experts were reminding me of the money that I am paying to stay in the clinic but I know how the nurses are. They are not pro breastfeeding.
Sorry that this was such a long post but basically I would love to know if any of you think I could 100% breast feed by the time I leave the clinic even with a c-section and general and if I can avoid bf every hour in the first two days.
Many thanks.
Nanski