Premature baby sleeping peacefully in hospital.

My Baby Suffered And Almost Died–Why Are The Risks Of Exclusive Breastfeeding Not Taught To Mothers?

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As a first-time mom, I braced myself for the worst but when my water broke that morning, I was super calm.  At the hospital, I had some IV pain medications, but labor went really smoothly and quick. A little after my baby was born I decided to try and feed him, not really knowing what I was doing or supposed to do. The LC came and tried to help him to latch. He didn’t really want to latch, so she had me hand express some colostrum and spoon feed it to him. She warned me not to use a pump (Why I don’t know) and that the small drops I was expressing were enough for him. So, he had drops of colostrum all day.

The second night he was crying all night long. I kept telling the nurses that I didn’t think he was getting anything from me, because he wanted to nurse non-stop and would cry as soon as he was off my breast. But, I was told his crying was normal. Looking at my feeding log I got maybe 2 hours of sleep.  I was exhausted and very concerned.

 

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Newborn baby resting peacefully in hospital.

My Three Day Old Baby Went Limp And Turned Blue; She Was Starving And I Almost Lost Her

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First of all, I had always seen your Facebook page and thought to myself “this could never happen to me” or “I wouldn’t be that naive.” But now, can I share my story?

I was induced at 39 weeks due to preeclampsia. Since my cervix was stubborn, however, I ended up with a c-section. My baby was born 7 lbs 11 oz on January 10, 2018.

 I was hooked up to magnesium to help with my blood pressure and was bedridden for 24 hours after the c-section. My hospital was a BFHI-certified hospital, and they bragged about their excellent lactation consultants (IBCLCs). That made me happy because I had always dreamed of breastfeeding. I never imagined how hard it would be.

I was recovering from major surgery and felt weak, overwhelmed and quickly became frustrated trying to take care of my baby and breastfeed her. I cried multiple times during my short stay. Why was this so hard? I constantly had to ask for breastfeeding help from the nurses and lactation consultants. By the end of the second day, though, I was proud I got my baby to breastfeed without help. She was constantly feeding, every hour on the dot. No one was concerned about her excessive breastfeeding at all. The nurses seemed pleased with her diapers counts.

#3 Making Sure Your Newborn fed DiaperCounts.png

We were discharged from the hospital not even 48 hours after my c-section. The first night with my baby was unbearably tough. If she wasn’t breastfeeding, she was crying. This was not fussing. She cried and screamed and the only way she stopped crying was if she was on my breast.  My mom stayed by my side most of the night trying to help soothe her, but my baby only wanted to be on my breast. Continue reading →

Smiling baby on pink blanket.

My Daughter’s Life Lay At Stake And I Took Every Formula Sample Offered

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I’m the oldest of five kids. My husband has only one sister. Together, we knew that we wanted a large family. Yet, somehow, motherhood still came as a complete shock to me. I stumbled to breastfeed my first child and fed her some formula “on the sly” while I still figured out the damn process. I struggled to breastfeed my second exclusively. Somehow, I did, but I was diagnosed with post-partum depression when she was two months old. We had a space of time after she was born, and I learned whatever I could to breastfeed. I was determined to breastfeed any future children because what good mom would not want to give her the benefits of never getting sick, Einsteinian IQ, smoking hot body, and perfect social standing?

My third was born, and I tried to breastfeed her too. And at her four-month check, her ribs were showing, and our family doctor was worried. Tests that he ordered were not alarming, but did indicate developing problems. He referred me to a pediatric specialist. Dr. K was a godsend. He quickly went through a check, then just said, “ She’s just hungry, Paula.”

He took a little preparatory breath. “I hesitate to say this directly, but can you give her formula?” Honestly, I did feel a small punch to the gut—my mother had breastfed all of us, why couldn’t I?—and the thought of denying my child the supposed benefits seemed so…selfish.

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Newborn baby on hospital table.

Starvation Jaundice and Bilirubin-Induced Brain Injury in Breastfed Newborns

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Lecture Delivered by Dr. Lawrence Gartner, Director of Baby-Friendly USA

We have uncovered a lecture provided to lactation consultants at a prominent breastfeeding conference given by Baby-Friendly USA Director, Dr. Lawrence Gartner, who discussed the risk of brain injury from starvation-related jaundice, called kernicterus, 90% of which occurs to breastfed babies who lose excessive weight, according to his lecture. Yet despite this training, no information on the risk of preventable brain injury from starvation-related jaundice in breastfed newborns exists in patient-directed breastfeeding literature published by breastfeeding advocacy groups other than our own.

 

 

 

 

Newborn receiving phototherapy treatment.

Exclusively Breastfed Newborns Have Double the Risk of Being Rehospitalized

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By Christie del Castillo-Hegyi, M.D.

This week, the journal Academic Pediatrics, published a study conducted by the Newborn Weight Loss research group led by Drs. Valerie Flaherman and Ian Paul, which consisted of 143,889 healthy, term and near-term newborns born at the Baby-Friendly Northern California Kaiser Permanente hospital system from 2009-2013.[1] They included newborns who were discharged from their birth hospitalization without requirement of intensive care, which includes newborns who developed jaundice before discharge. They looked at the effects of mode of feeding, namely exclusive breastfeeding and exclusive formula feeding during the birth hospitalization on the rates of rehospitalization and number of outpatient follow-up visits. In addition, they looked at the effects of percent weight loss on the same outcomes.

Overall, 6.2% (1 in 16) of the healthy term newborns studied were readmitted; 4% were vaginally delivered and 2.2% were Cesarean delivered. This represents 8921 newborns over the five year period, almost 5 babies per day. They showed that exclusively breastfed newborns had slightly more than double the risk of being rehospitalized, even when adjusted for gestational age, birth weight and maternal race/ethnicity. Exclusively breastfed newborns also had significantly more (32% more) outpatient visits in the first 30 days after birth compared to exclusively formula-fed newborns. The leading cause of readmission was for hyperbilirubinemia or jaundice and need for inpatient phototherapy. The purpose of phototherapy is to reduce blood bilirubin levels in order to prevent or limit brain injury, a complication of insufficient feeding and dehydration commonly found in exclusively breastfed newborns before the onset of copious milk production (lactogenesis II).

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