Adventure: Seeing a Lactation Consultant

My wife and I are all for breastfeeding. However, its been much more difficult than we both expected. From the pain and discomfort my wife felt, to hours of breast feeding, its been a difficult 12 days. Some nights our baby girl would be at the breast for hours and still want more. It got to the point that we broke down and gave her a bottle of formula. Now we know formula feeding is not the end of the world, but we really wanted to exclusively breast feed. At this point, we realized there might be a problem. So yesterday, we decided to visit the lactation specialists at our local woman's center, and BOY was it worth it! I was honestly super impressed with the level of service and expertise we got. Our consultant was so knowledgeable. She knew my wife was having discomfort even before we said anything. As soon as she seen our baby latch she could tell exactly what was wrong and how to fix it. The fix was super simple but something we would have never known without her help. I really wish we did it sooner. Even though we saw two lactation consultants while in the hospital, our little one's latch was just a bit off. A minor change in her mouth/lip position made a HUGE difference. Before we came in, baby was either, sleeping, nursing, or crying because she wanted to nurse. She'd pretty much only fall asleep at the breast and would never let us put her down. After nursing in the office with our new and improved latch, we had a whole new baby! For the first time she unlatched on her own and was content to just look around. Our consultant explained to us that with her poor latch, baby was just not getting enough. She wasn't able to suck out enough and was working extra hard. Thats why she would tire out at the breast and wake up still wanting to nurse. Armed with this knowledge, we felt like we were on top of the world! We also got tips on how to better to position baby, information about pumping and more. Our consultant did a very good job at educating us without making us feel incompetent. We really enjoyed working with her and will be going back in a couple of weeks to go more in depth about pumping. Now, so far baby hasn't gained much weight back and her doctor will most likely tell us to supplement with some formula. Its not our ideal situation but we understand that its likely needed for a little bit to help her catch up. Our doctors appointment is tomorrow so we will have to just wait and see. After our experience, I would highly recommend that every new family see a lactation consultant, get educated, and get your baby's latch checked. Tips & Lessons Learned: - Go see a lactation consultant as soon as possible. Don't hesitate. its worth it.

#breastfeeding #lactationconsultant #GreenspanwomensCenter