Twin newborns sleeping, wearing pearls.

What Should Be The Norm For All: I Was Supported in Supplementing My Twins With Formula

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by Kimberly Cartwright

My story is unremarkable but important to tell, because we are often led to believe that it should be remarkably rare.

In 2013 I had my first child, a son.  I researched and knew I wanted to breastfeed him, as breast milk is the recommended food for babies.  There are so many benefits to baby and mother if you nurse, so of course I wanted to try it out.   I have to admit that was a big push to learn all about it and make it work; and we did make breastfeeding work for fourteen months.  Then in 2016 I had my second and third children, my twin daughters.  I knew I wanted to breastfeed again.  The cost benefit for me personally was huge, especially for two babies.  But nursing two babies at once–that’s a lot!  There are a lot of reasons breastfeeding doesn’t work, and you double those when there are two babies.  I was determined to do my best though.

My girls were born at 36 and a half weeks.  Early by the forty week schedule, but basically on time for twins.  (Full term for twins is considered 37 weeks.)  They were right on target for identicals.  I was worried they wouldn’t be able to latch or just wouldn’t nurse well.  Imagine my relief when shortly after both girls were born, they both latched right on and were nursing away.  They knew what to do and we didn’t have any problems.  The only issue was with their blood sugar.  They were still a bit early and of course small.  As per the protocol of the hospital I was at, the girls had to have their blood sugar checked with every feed.  They did pretty well, but their numbers weren’t as high as the doctors and nurses would have liked.  The nurses offered me a simple solution–after I nursed we were to give the girls supplemental formula.  It can take a few days for a mother’s milk to come in.  Yes, my girls were getting colostrum, but we were concerned that I wasn’t able to provide enough in terms of volume for two babies. For the two days we were in the hospital we offered enough formula after each nursing session to keep their blood sugar levels normal and safe.  Once we got the girls home my milk came in. Fast forward thirteen months later and we are still nursing. Continue reading →

Baby safety: normal vs. abnormal.

Keeping Your Baby Safe by Knowing Normal vs. Abnormal

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by Christie del Castillo-Hegyi, M.D., Co-founder of the Fed is Best Foundation

In order to provide mothers and health professional a quick guide to preventing newborn brain injury in the first days of life, the following is a short slideshow on the scientific literature regarding the thresholds that predict newborn brain injury and developmental delay and disability in the first days of life related to insufficient feeding.

All complications of underfeeding, including jaundice, weight loss, hypernatremia, dehydration and hypoglycemia can be prevented with feeding sufficient milk before the complications occur. The scientific literature shows that by the time a child develops abnormal jaundice, hypernatremia or hypoglycemia, the brain injury that follows is irreversible and can result in long-term negative consequences to brain development, even when corrected.

We advise parents and health professionals to be knowledgable about what constitutes safe and unsafe lab values and weight loss so that all newborns can be protected.

 

Mother comforting sick infant in hospital.

Breastfeeding Before Babies: The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative’s Unwillingness to Change or Accept Responsibility

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BY CHRISTIE DEL CASTILLO-HEGYI, M.D., Co-Founder of the FEd is Best Foundation

Every patient-healthcare provider relationship is governed by four central principles of medical ethics, which are the following:

  1. Beneficence – Health care providers have the duty to provide care in a way that benefits a patient, increases their safety, their immediate and long-term health, and their comfort.
  2. Non-maleficence – First, do no harm. This principle requires that health professionals do not intentionally harm or injure a patient either through acts of commission or omission. If an intervention causes more harm to a patient than doing nothing, you do not intervene.
  3. Respect for Patient Autonomy – With any health care decision, the patient has the right to full disclosure of the risks and benefits of any intervention, regardless of how rare, so that they may act in their own or their children’s best interests to get the best outcomes with the least risk involved. Patient autonomy can only be fully realized if they are given honest and complete information on any and all the risks and benefits, whether common or rare, so that they may voluntarily choose, free of coaxing or coercion, in order to optimize their own or their children’s health outcomes.
  4. Respect for Human Rights – In 1948, the United Nations published the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which subsequently charged governments, doctors and health workers to protect the human rights and human dignity of all people. It provides special protection of the physical integrity of those who are unable to consent, which includes children. These human rights include the right to food and water to prevent starvation and the associated injury to the brain and vital organs.

The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative has violated all four of these core principles of medical ethics through its policies and has reiterated its commitment to defending its dangerous policies over their commitment to patient safety in their recent dismissive response to Landon Johnson’s accidental starvation death caused by the Baby-Friendly policies. Continue reading →

Newborn baby sleeping soundly in hospital.

Just One Bottle Would Have Kept My Baby Off Life Support: The Failure Of Baby-Friendly (BFHI) Care In Canada

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My husband and I were the happiest people on earth to have just welcomed our healthy baby boy Ian into the world [born in an Ottawa Baby-Friendly hospital].   We were anxious first time parents. We had taken all the prenatal classes. I read the book “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” and we felt well-informed to approach this new chapter in our lives.  We made the decision that I would be breastfeeding as that was the “right” thing to do for our baby.  My baby latched on automatically and the nurses were impressed with how he was eating because he fed about every hour and would feed for at least 45 minutes.  I was nervous that I was not doing something right, and I continuously asked each and every nurse that came in to check on us if I was doing it right. I even asked them to just watch us while he fed and see if it was going okay. They all consistently replied, “You are doing great.”

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Ian at 12 hours old.

The next morning came and I participated in a breastfeeding class held in the hospital by a lactation consultant (LC).  The class had about 20 new moms with their babies there and the LC asked us to have our babies latch on  and feed while she teaches and does her presentation.  Again, Ian automatically latched to me and the LC was impressed and commented that I was like a pro already and that he latched perfectly and was doing well.  I brought forward my concern to her as well, saying that he latches on about every hour or so for 45 min or more and she said, “That is great, he is a good eater!”  About 30 min into the 1 hour class,  all the other moms were sitting with their babies resting in their laps as they had all finished their feeding, but Ian was still latched onto me until the end of the class. The LC never brought anything up about the fact that if a baby is feeding for more than 30 minutes that means that they are probably not satisfied.   Furthermore, I asked the LC if I could start pumping and she told me “no,” that I had to wait 6 weeks before pumping and giving him a bottle because otherwise he wouldn’t want to breastfeed anymore and it would disrupt our breastfeeding.  So I kept my pump away as I was told, but this meant I had no idea how much milk I was producing (which later I found out was almost nothing). Continue reading →

Diaper with orange-red staining.

To Baby-Friendly Hospital Caregivers, “It is Better to Be Safe Than Sorry,” Mom Urges After 3-Day-Old’s Dehydration

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About two days after initial discharge from her Indiana birth hospital, my three-day-old baby was admitted to the Children’s Hospital with dehydration and high sodium levels (hypernatremia).  My purpose in sharing the following exceptionally personal detail is that these words might prevent similar suffering for others.

Several separate oversights in care culminated in my  baby’s health crisis.  If only she had been supplemented earlier, she might not have faced hypernatremia and dehydration. 

Continue reading →