Our Bundle of Joy

Liss
Just wanted to drop you a line to tell you that I relactated 8 months after stopping. It can be done and this is my story … *very briefly, of course*

When my son was born nearly five years ago, I was determined to breastfeed. Always wanted to… and always knew that was the way in which all my children would be feed. After I gave birth (3 days later), I tore all the muscles up the back of my spine and through my left arm.. (unrelated to the birth, just a freak thing that happened). This accident left me with a frozen left arm, hense leading to great difficulty in latching my son on the opposite breast, my right one. This in turn, lead to me getting a massive crack in the right nipple. As I could not correct the latch (due to the frozen arm and mass amounts of pain) the crack never healed and contined to bleed and expel green puss at every feed. Four weeks later, mastitis set in. The doctor’s believed that infection had found it’s way into my nipple through the crack, and burrowed deep into my breast tissue. For 7 days I took oral antibiotics to no avail, then the doctor sent me to hospital for IV antibiotics and heat ultrasound techniques on the affected breast. Another 5 days passed before they sent me to have an ultrasound, as my mastitis wouldn’t clear. Turns out I had an abscess the size of a tennis ball under the areola and was prepped for immediate surgery. I was later informed that the abscess was so infected and severe, that I would be dead if it wasn’t for the anibiotics and removal. Afterwards, I had a massive hole in my breast, that could not be stitched up, as it would cause my breast to collapse. So instead, I was packed with 2 and a half metres of gauze, that was removed and re-packed everyday.. (without pain medication I must add! )

Needless to say, the doctor cut half my milk ducts to reach the abscess and due to the packing and re-packing of gauze, I couldn’t put my son to feed on that side and my milk dried up. I kept feeding from the other breast and topping up with formula… Of course, I looked very lopsided as my left breat grew to twice the size of the right one! After four months, my son flat out refused to nurse anymore and my breatfeeding days were over…

At first I was okay with this, as everything was such a mission anyway, but as the months passed, I grew bitter and resentful. I blamed the medical profession for allowing this to happen and was angry that no one would support me when all this was happening. I even remember a lactation consultant telling me in hospital… “Wow, you have been through a lot. Maybe it would be best if you just cut your losses and quit” I was blown away by this! She should have been the one rooting for me! Anyway, as time passed I became quite depressed everytime I made a bottle of formula and decided I wanted to breastfeed again. I read some books, checked out the net and decided to give it a go! I hired a hospital grade breast pump (from my local chemist for 6 weeks), pumped every 3 hours during the day and twice at night, and this is what happened over the six weeks…

Week 1 – After pumping for this week, I noticed My breasts felt ‘sweaty’ and alittle damp. No milk though.

Week 2 – Seen a drop appear during each pumping session. The drop never fell or dripped down, but it did form. The drop was fairly clear too .. similiar to colostrum.

Week 3 – Several drops are forming, and breasts are starting to feel more full and heavier.

Week 4 – Drops are starting to fall during pumping and even noticed wet patch on bra.

Week 5 – Drops are now flowing slowly, milk is now white in colour (no longer clear), breasts are very heavy and are definitly slightly ‘leaking’ between pumping sessions.

Week 6 – Sprays appeared during pumping and let-downs became apparent. After this, I purchased an Ameda Yours Purely Double Breast Pump and continued pumping on the same schedule.

Obviously my son didn’t physically ‘breastfeed’ as he was nearly 12 months old and wasn’t interested anymore, so I just pumped my milk and bottlefed him. This whole story might seem silly and time consuming to some people, but since I was becoming so depressed and obsessed with the whole situation, I knew that this was the only solution to my feeling okay with what happened to me. Turns out I was right. I kept pumping and bottlefeeding for the next 12 months and weaned my son off the ‘breast’ (AKA – the pump) just after his second birthday… You can do it Liss and I wish you all the best. Shelle

Cuba bayangkan..punyalah lame si penulis ni stop BF, tapi berjaya menghasilkan susu badan semula(walaupun bukan direct BF)..kagum kagum…aku baru sebulan berhenti…nak give it a try lah…kalau tak dpt directBF(sah tak dpt, masa e-ein demam lepas injection ari tu, mengeleng2 dia tak nak masa aku try bagi..), masuk susu dlm botol bg E-ein…doakan aku berjaya....