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Caroline Koen talks about her breastfeeding experience and how the pressure and guilt to breastfeed contributed to postpartum depression. She talks about how a more relaxed attitude about breastfeeding ultimately led to a more positive breastfeeding experience.
For World Breastfeeding/Safe Infant Feeding Month, we are celebrating by interviewing real mothers and talking to them about their breastfeeding/infant feeding experiences. It is my great honor to share with you my interview with Steph Montgomery, writer, public health advocate and mother, who talked about her breastfeeding experiences. She talks abut how safe, respectful and transparent breastfeeding support and education on breastfeeding and supplementation made a difference in her breastfeeding experiences. She goes on to talk about how mothers are treated in health care settings and how the current paradigm that respects only exclusive breastfeeding as ideal harms moms and babies.
I founded (M)Other Milk because I felt I was ill-prepared for the struggles of breastfeeding. Ill-prepared, to say the least. I felt my mom had prepared me well for labor, telling me that it is called labor because that’s precisely what it is — hard work. Breastfeeding, however, was never really discussed.
I was old enough to watch my mom lovingly breastfeed my younger brother, since there was a 12 year difference between us, and it never seemed like there was much to it. Just bring baby close, and off you go.
I think this was part of what contributed greatly to my ultimate shock when I cried out in pain the first (and every time) my baby latched on. I was completely and utterly unprepared for pain, cracked nipples, low milk supply and overwhelming emotions when I realized this was an unpleasant experience (to say the least) and that my baby simply wasn’t getting what he needed.
In hindsight, I think I nearly felt betrayed. How was it women, my mother included, were not sharing any of the challenges surrounding breastfeeding?
As I began to source stories from fellow mothers, I realized there were so many stories, each unique and entirely different. Similar to birth, no two stories were the same.
For World Breastfeeding Month, Fed is Best and (M)Other Milk are collaborating to share mothers feeding stories and showcase the diversity of experiences, to both inform, empower, and support moms across the globe to do what is right for them and their babies. We hope you enjoy this very first podcast.
Washington, DC — On July 11, 2019, Dr. Christie del Castillo-Hegyi, Co-Founder of the Fed is Best Foundation and Jillian Johnson, Fed is Best Advocate and mother to Landon Johnson, who died from hypernatremic dehydration while exclusively breastfeeding, traveled to Washington, DC to provide testimonies to the 2020 USDA Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. This is the first year that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) have included pregnancy and birth to 24 months.
Twenty-five years ago, Chaz, the son of Pam Floyd, was born and developed hypernatremic dehydration from insufficient breast milk intake while exclusively breastfeeding. Chaz developed brain injury from dehydration and now lives disabled with cerebral palsy. Their story was published on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. She was subsequently interviewed on 20/20, which prompted a similar feature on ABC’s Prime Time Live. Pam contacted the Fed is Best Foundation to share her story again to warn mothers of the dangers of insufficient feeding.
Chaz develop hypernatremic dehydration from insufficient feeding while exclusively breastfeeding
“25 Year Anniversaries Should Be Celebrated Not Served As A Warning”
Twenty-five years ago my son almost died. He was only six days old. I had chosen to breastfeed, as everyone around me kept reminding me that ‘breast is best.’ So I followed their advice, and I exclusively breastfed. Even though I felt like something wasn’t quite right those first few days, everyone assured me everything was fine. The nurses in the maternity ward suggested that since I was a new mother, I wasn’t able to appreciate how much he was getting. The home health nurse that visited me, courtesy of my health insurance, the day after I left the hospital, reassured me that as long as he was getting six to seven wet diapers a day, then he was getting enough. And the nurses in my pediatrician’s office told me not to worry, that he was a big baby that he would eat when he got hungry. And my personal favorite, “the great thing about breast milk is that you never have to worry about how much or how little he’s getting. Because he’ll always get what he needs.” Well, that works great, if your milk comes in. My colostrum wasn’t enough for my son, Chaz. And my body never produced enough milk to keep a 10 lb. 4 oz. baby boy healthy.
Then when my son’s eyes started rapidly zig-zagging back and forth on that sixth day of life and I called the pediatrician’s office to tell them he was having a seizure, they told me that I didn’t know what I was talking about and that sometimes newborn’s eyes do that as they often wander. Well, the pediatrician finally agreed to see us. We were immediately sent to the emergency room. Then we were transferred to the children’s hospital. There, my son was put into a drug-induced coma until his seizures were under control. His diagnosis was a stroke due to hypernatremic dehydration. Children’s Hospital had me use their hospital grade breast pumps those first few days. The most I ever pumped was 3 cc’s. About a teaspoon. Usually, I just came back with mist. Or what looked like spit. There was never milk. I never got engorged. I never leaked. There was never any milk.
I got mad about this. Especially when I found out that it can and does happen regularly. It didn’t show up in any of my baby books or videos. So I called our local newspaper, The Virginian Pilot, and asked them to write an article about it, they did, it was called, “Mother Knows Best.” That was later revived by a journalist from The Wall Street Journal in an article entitled, “Dying for Milk: Some Mothers, Trying In Vain to Breast-Feed, Starve Their Infants — `Yuppie Syndrome’ Among Well-Meaning Parents Stems From Bad Advice — A Generation of Perfectionists.” We made the front page with that one. Of course, that set off a media frenzy.
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