[blparent] Breast-Feeding

[Tara Wiseman]

Hi! Your experiences sound very similar to mine. My daughter was born by C-section after a very long labor. Nursing was very difficult at first. Here's what I tried it was helpful. First of all, I used a nipple shield. You want to use this as little as you can because it will decrease your milk supply. However, in this first few weeks it's served as the third hand I really wanted to have. I was able to use it to direct my nipple towards my baby's mouth and she was able to get milk that way. However, when the doctor said she wasn't getting enough milk and we would probably need to put her on formula I stopped using it cold turkey and she quickly gained weight. For me, the best nursing position was to lie down with my arm extended out. I then would lie my baby next to me tell me to tell me with her head on my arm. I felt like this freed up my other hand to aim my breast into my babies mouth. I had heard in a book somewhere that the best thing to do is to try and aim the nipple up towards the roof of the babies mouth. I tried it and it seemed to improve things for us. For the first six weeks I was discouraged and wanted to give up! However, after that things started to get better. My baby is now 18 months old and I still Mercer a couple times a day. I know the time is coming when she's not going to want to do it anymore. I'm really glad I persevered. Once my baby and I figured out what we were doing, nursing became an absolutely wonderful bonding experience! However, those first six weeks were very hard and very discouraging. Good luck to you! I think that a lot of really smart people are brought up on formula. However, nursing can be a really great thing if it works for you and your baby. If I can be of any further help, don't hesitate to contact me off list. My email address is: thflute at gmail.com
I hope some of this information helps. Everybody's journey is very different and different solutions work better for different people.  Congratulations on your new baby! 
Taraand congratulations on your new baby!

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 22, 2016, at 8:37 PM, Allison via BlParent <blparent at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi Everyone,
> 
> 
> 
> I feel a little ridiculous writing this post because what about
> breast-feeding could possibly be visual? Except that I'm having a ton of
> breast-feeding issues right now and I want to cover all of my bases in
> trying to figure out what more I can do.
> 
> 
> 
> My daughter, Allyssa, was born on Jan 9. She is beautiful and wonderful! I
> had her via C-section after a long attempt at standard delivery. She was 7lb
> 9oz and is healthy. We are having a terrible time getting her going with
> breast-feeding however. I've tried nearly everything I can think of, and she
> will not latch, or if she does, she will do so for only a few seconds at a
> time. I've met with several lactation consultants both at the hospital and
> since coming home. I feel like a lot of the latching techniques they try to
> give require some sight to make work. If I explain to these folks why their
> techniques may not work for us, the consultants seem puzzled and/or unsure
> what to have me try next. Some of them are more open to alternatives than
> others, but in the end, they simply don't know what to suggest because I'm
> probably their first blind client.  And while I know a ton about blindness
> and about alternative techniques, I know less about breast-feeding a
> difficult latcher. This is my first child and this is Allyssa's first few
> weeks in the world, so we're learning together. 
> 
> 
> 
> I've tried the cradle hold most often, but also the football hold and a few
> I just made up myself. Most of the breast-feeding consultants I talk with
> expect me to hold the back of Allyssa's head with one hand and then grasp my
> breast with the other. Then I'm supposed to use the latter hand to aim my
> nipple towards her mouth. What I've found though is that if both my hands
> are occupied on her head and on my breast, I can't easily aim anything. In
> order to aim my breast, I feel like I need to locate Allyssa's mouth and
> chin with the other hand. But since I don't have 3 hands, I can't then hold
> my breast and baby's head at the same time. So I've tried abandoning the
> breast-holding, but since my nipples are kind of flat, I'm not getting them
> in the correct position to help Allyssa latch. Moreover, I've found that if
> I use my one hand to place my nipple into Allyssa's mouth, I can get her to
> latch, but a few of my fingers get in the way and accidentally cause Allyssa
> to unlatch soon after. I've tried quickly moving my fingers away after
> getting the nipple in her mouth, but that too is causing the latch to be
> broken more times than not. I've tried having my husband help hold baby's
> head so I have a hand freed up, but still my fingers that I use for aiming
> seem to be interfering with Allyssa's ability to stay on my nipple. 
> 
> 
> 
> I've also tried the laid back breast-feeding position numerous times, but
> Allyssa has not figured out how to make that position work. It still seems
> to require me to help her locate the nipple, and/or hold my breast at the
> correct angle for her to get to it. 
> 
> 
> 
> And given all of that, I'm running out of ideas. I realize that
> breast-feeding may not be difficult for most blind women, but for me it has
> been challenging. With my lack of experience, it's hard for me to know which
> issues may be blindness specific, and which may not be at all. My guess is
> that my issues may be caused by a combination of factors, with blindness
> being one of them. That said, I've spent nearly two weeks assuming that
> sight wasn't the issue, but perhaps there are some positioning tips I could
> learn that might help us out.  I'm doing my research, putting in the needed
> practice, and talking to various experts, and I'm still not quite getting
> the hang of it. So I thought I'd write to this list and see what others
> recommend.
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Allison, Darrell, and 12-day-old Allyssa
> 
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