Breast refusal… A mother’s story
Breast refusal… and all the multifaceted contributors to the experience is one of our (many) ‘favorite challenges’ to have the honor of supporting here at Full Circle.
One of our beautiful mothers shares her story. May this story shed some gentle light on another’s dark day. These are her words…
When my baby was 7 weeks old I noticed it was getting harder and harder to feed her, she was always hard to feed on the left side but now she had become hard to feed on the right side as well. Every feed there would be tears (from both of us) and I would have to pull out all the tricks to get my baby girl to latch. My tricks included walking, bouncing, swaddling, rocking etc as she was fighting against the breast, yet screaming in hunger.
As this was my first baby, I wasn’t sure if this was ‘normal’ and if it was meant to be this hard. I kept thinking babies are meant to cry but deep down I knew something wasn’t right. I was referred to Bekki @fullcirclemls and quickly sent her a panic email to explain our situation. Bekki phoned me back straight away and was able to fit me in that week, she knew the situation was not sustainable.
My husband and I saw Bekki in her home-clinic and felt relief as soon as we walked in. Bekki watched as I attempted to feed and listened as we explained our story which included a poor latch, oral aversion, nipple thrush (from previous antibiotics) and that we were only able to feed using a nipple shield. During the attempt Bekki was able to witness how intense things were with my baby girl crying hysterically; and yet stayed so calm and confident reassuring us that this wasn't normal and that she would be able to help. Together, a plan forward was made, giving me hope that this could in fact be resolved…and I cried with relief.
As the plan played out, I spoke with Bekki once to twice a week, as she held my hand through what I would describe as one of the hardest days of my life. The oral aversion meant I was unable to give up breastfeeding and bottle feed so I knew I had to put my trust in Bekki to help us through this stage. It was so nice having her there to support me answering all my questions and concerns each week and reminding me that it was a slow journey, 2 steps forward and 1 step back as we had to ‘reset’ the experience of breastfeeding.
Week by week we built upon the positive feeds and reduced the amount of refusal, with guidance we started to see the changes and knew it was working! Fast forward to now, 16 weeks, we are feeding on both sides, we’ve been able to introduce a bottle and we are free of the nipple shield! I never thought all 3 would be possible!!!
So in summary, I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to Bekki for holding our hands and getting us through. Your guidance and knowledge was worth its weight in gold and I am so thankful I was recommended to you! Straight away you could pin point the areas of concern and was able to provide a plan to get us out of the trenches. So thank you so so so so much! You made our breastfeeding journey possible.
Our stories are powerful. Our stories change the narrative.
Thank you for sharing yours @sar_robbo.
Beautiful words and photos shared with consent.