My daughter was born January 2nd, 2018. I had already decided that I was going to breastfeed her for many reasons. There are so many health benefits for both mom and baby plus the added bonus of FREE. You never know what kind of struggles you may come across until baby is here and it is time for her to latch.
My labor and delivery came pretty quick. I was extremely lucky! We left our house and got to the hospital around 10 pm and I was still only 1 cm dilated! I am SO SO SO very thankful for the nurse that was on staff at the hospital because she knew that Taelyn was coming that night even when the doctors said it was going to be a while. Taelyn made her debut into the world around 4 am the next morning at 6 lbs 11 ounces. :)
For those of you who have already delivered a baby, you know the importance of skin to skin right away. The nurses try to have the baby on you immediately and try to nurse shortly there after. This is my first baby. No experience nursing. And she WOULD. NOT. LATCH. My worst fear. The nurse gave me a Nipple Shield
In case you don’t know what I am talking about when I say nipple shield, this is what it looks like. I like this particular one because it has the cutout for baby’s nose. This way she/he can smell mommy while eating still.
So how did I get her off the shield?
My goal, was to feed Taelyn without using the shield. Honestly, it was such a hassle to use if I wasn’t at home. Especially for a first time mom. I already wasn’t very comfortable breastfeeding outside of my home in the first place and with the shield I just felt like there was no way to get any privacy!
So, everyday… every feeding, I would first try to have her latch without the shield. For a while, with NO LUCK. I am lucky that my pediatrician I chose has a lactation consultant at our disposal so I went to see her. And I swear lactation consultants are MAGIC. She got her to latch and eat a full meal. Of course, without her I still struggled but she gave me great advice. I kept trying to get her to latch without the shield first. But if she got frustrated I put it on and let her eat. I didn’t want her to have any negative association with being at the breast. Once she got a good suction and had eaten (about halfway through a normal feeding time) I would slip my finger and break her seal and steal the shield away. Then, have her attempt to latch since she had already been eating. Occasionally this worked but a lot of times it didn’t. But my persistence PAID OFF. I did this for about the first MONTH of Taelyn’s life. It was so frustrating. But then one day, MAGIC. She LATCHED. It was then only about a week that she was latching for EVERY. SINGLE. FEED. No more shield was needed. I still carried it with me out and about for a while just because I was so nervous she was going to regress and I wouldn’t be able to feed her. But this never happened. Once she was fully off of using the shield she was off for good.
My thoughts on the whole shield thing?
I am so thankful for it! While it made for a frustrating process trying to get her off of it, it allowed me to breastfeed her when she couldn’t latch. Without this shield, who knows if I could have been able to do this whole breastfeeding journey. If you are having issues with getting your baby to latch and haven’t tried a shield I highly suggest the attempt with it! If you are currently using it and are getting discouraged that you’ll never get your baby off of it, keep on being persistent momma! You got this! It make take time but you’ll get there!
from lactation « WordPress.com Tag Feed https://ift.tt/2OmJLve
article sponsered by Northern Michigan certified lactation consulting and Mother Hubbards Country Cupboard
No comments:
Post a Comment