My name is Hannah and I’m a first time mum to a beautiful almost 10 month old boy named Atticus, and this is our breastfeeding journey.
I knew from early on in my pregnancy that I wanted to breastfeed, and would do whatever I could to prepare myself and make it work. I did the workshops, read all the info I could find, and felt really confident in myself and how easy it would be. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
When my beautiful boy was born, we struggled with getting a latch. I asked for help in the hospital and was told that he’d figure it out over the next few days. By day 4, both of my nipples were completely cracked and bleeding, and I could hardly feed him without crying because I was in so much pain. “Don’t worry, it’s normal for the first few weeks while you figure it out, just push through, your body was made for this” etc was spewed at me by the midwives and other seasoned mums. But I felt deep down in my gut that something was wrong. I spoke to the midwife who came to check on me about oral ties, and she said that the chance of that being the issue was small and to just keep pushing through.
By the end of week two, I was still really struggling with breastfeeding. My full term baby was still in 00000, and I just knew something was going on. I took him back in to see our wonderful GP who took one look at his tongue and immediately agreed that something was wrong. She referred us on to an amazing IBCLC who specialised in oral ties in babies.
Unfortunately the weekend before we could get in to see the IBCLC, I woke up with the dreaded lump, headache and fever and knew I had mastitis. I ended up on broad spectrum antibiotics for a week, and thought that was the end of that.
Our appointment with the IBCLC was a blessing. She took one look at his tongue and was amazed that we’d made it to 4 weeks and I was still trying to breastfeed because his tongue tie was so severe. She was able to reverse the tongue tie and for the first time ever, my baby latched and it didn’t hurt. I cried I was so relieved.
By the end of the next week however, I was sick again. I went back to my GP who sent me to get an ultrasound on my breast and gave me stronger antibiotics. The ultrasound showed a significant abscess had developed in my breast tissue that would need to be drained. So off we went to the local emergency department where they were able to drain a little bit of the infection, and then referred me on to a specialist to see the following week to drain the rest. The specialist was shocked by how much fluid they removed, and was even more amazing that I was pushing through and still breastfeeding. Thankfully, after I had completed a third round of antibiotics, the infection was finally cleared and I was staring to feel human again.
The challenges didn’t stop there though, and at 16 weeks my beautiful boy was diagnosed with severe reflux, which we believe is actually gastro oesophageal reflux disease (still waiting for the specialist appointment to confirm that though). Our paediatrician gave us a script and said we would either need to use rice cereal or thickener to help keep the milk in his stomach, or switch to a reflux formula. I really didn’t want to give up on breastfeeding because we had already overcome so much, so we tried thickener and rice cereal but both left my son so constipated and uncomfortable that I stopped using them. He now manages fine with the medication.
Even now at almost 10 months old, I have people telling me that it’s nearly time to wean him and get him off breastfeeding. After everything we’ve been through, I’m not ready for the journey to end though, and I plan on letting him continue to breastfeed for as long as possible. I’m proud of myself for how far I have come, and despite all of the challenges, I’d do it all over again for him in a heart beat.