Breastfeeding Problems – Not Having Enough Milk
Posted by admin on February 24th, 2009
Breastfeeding Problems
I searched the web for anybody who has had a similar dilemma as myself and could not find a single article etc. I had my little boy a year back, throughout my pregnancy (first pregnancy) I realised that my breasts where not swollen, but didn’t fret a great deal about it. What does a first time mommy know? All I knew was that I couldn’t wait to experience holding him and breastfeeding him for the first time.
The doctor and nurses reassured me a day after he was born, that my milk would start coming in after the third day…so I waited…nothing! And the worst part was everybody was still expecting me to breastfeed my child…saying that there was no such thing as a woman who cannot breastfeed or who doesn’t have milk. I can remember lying on the hospital bed crying through the night with my baby, he was so hungry and every time I called a nurse to help they would bring me 40ml of formula milk. I tried breastfeeding for two whole months…Tyler stayed hungry so I had to start feeding him formula with trying to breastfeed him.
I asked the doctor for help and she put me on tablets, tablets that would help me produce milk. Later I started using the pump to see how much milk was in fact coming out, the most milk I could get out in a day was about 100ml. After about three months of trying I stopped entirely. I was depressed about this but my husband made me feel better by saying that it was best if I rather stop worrying about it and just begin feeding Tyler formula.
I was ridiculed by my own family, told how unhealthy it was to stop breastfeeding, even though they knew how I had struggled. Even our paediatrician when he asked if Tyler was still being breastfed said that most mothers give up too fast! I felt terrible…I felt like there was something wrong with me.
I really feel that there should be more info out there for moms, especially first time moms who feel insecure and who don’t know what to do, how to do things properly etc. I want to have another child but I can’t bare going through the same thing again. For me breastfeeding is very important and I think that it really does help allot for bonding with your child because I felt very distant towards my baby in the beginning.
I wish I had had internet access during all of this, realising now that there are quite a few good resources for woman going through what I went through. One I specially like is ‘Breastfeeding Simply’ – How to make breastfeeding easy, enjoyable and successful by Pinky McKay… ‘Breastfeedingsimply’
I can’t imagine being able to breastfeed and then deciding not to. It’s such a precious gift that most people just take for granted.