I think there's a lot of pressure and by that I mean in, in the hospital itself every poster that's up is all about breastfeeding, you know, everything is, you know, breastfeeding's best, do this, that and the next thing with breastfeeding, they do have, you know, bottles with formula and everything at the hospital that you can use, but, you know, they will [sighs], I'm trying to think, not, I say it's not pressurising you or anything but, you know, they will, I think they just assume that everybody will be breastfeeding rather than the bottle.
But it doesn't sound like you got the support you needed in those first four hours to feel confident about getting it established?
No, no I didn't as, you know, as I said before, that night I delivered my daughter, they were very busy which obviously I can understand and, you know, that the staff were coming and going into the room but, you know, nobody offered any help as I say had, I sort of asked and said, you know, “I want to try and get my baby to latch on, you know, I'm not sure what I'm doing”, and as I say the woman did help me for a short period of time but then dashed off somewhere again so yeah, so the initial sort of few hours didn't get, get the help, and I [sighs] trying to remember back when we did get up to the ward [sighs], I'm trying to remember how long after [sighs], we had, we had forms where they, they, you were meant to fill in when you changed your baby's nappy, when you were feeding, times in there, and I'd been told to feed every four hours, you know, the midwife sort of said to feed every four hour. So you're thinking, 'Oh okay right, you know, this is all new to me I'll just do, you know, these are experienced people I'll follow what they say'. Luckily enough now, obviously I've only been in one hospital having a baby so I don't know what other hospitals are like, the city I'm in has a breastfeeding clinic and a centre within the hospital, and later that day one of the ladies from that centre came, was coming through the ward to speak to somebody else and, I'd been, I was buzzing to get the attention of a midwife because due to my blood pressure I wasn't allowed out of bed so I couldn't pick up my baby, and obviously I'm getting anxious because nobody's coming so this woman could see that and actually came over and she was so nice, she was really, really helpful, helped me to, to latch on my daughter, you know, give me a few pointers of what to try and then said, you know, “Come through to the clinic the next day to, you know, and we'll see how everything's going” because, you know, I was upset at the time, you know, it's, I'm trying to get somebody's attention, I can't get out, my baby's crying, I've been told to, to feed ever four hours which the woman from the breastfeeding clinic sort of looked and went, “No you just feed on demand when, you know, if your baby wants fed, you know, feed before four hours, after four hours, it doesn't matter”. So, I mean, obviously she was probably more specialised in what she was doing so, you know, I felt a bit more confident with her obviously she couldn't be at my bedside all the time [laughs] so midwives were coming and going and my experience and since speaking to some of my other friends the midwives the staff in the hospital everyone will show you a different way to breastfeed, there's no, you know, set thing, there's older staff who, you know, some will just grab your breast and say, “You know, shove it into your baby's mouth it'll work”, you know, others say “no do it, you know, do it a different way” and things so, there was no continuity.
How did you deal with that?
It got to the point where I was, you know, I was quite, you know, still quite anxious about this, my mum and my older sister came in to visit obviously and I was feeding at the time and upset and saying, “I don't think this is going to work” and, and they're sort of looking and saying, “No it's, you know, your baby's feeding, it looks like it's going fine” [laughs] “you know, go and speak to the clinic the next day and see how it's going”, and they sort of said, “you know, people will, will give you different ways just take what you can from each person if something, if somebody shows you one way and it doesn't work forget about it, don't worry, you know, the next person might show you something different and it, you know, and that's it's, you know, that's, that's the way to look upon it. And from then on I'd, you know, I did start to feel a little bit better, it wasn't till the next day when I went to the breastfeeding clinic, when I arrived the lady was busy with somebody else so she said, “Look, you know, go behind the curtain, latch on your daughter and I'll be over in a minute”. So we did that, and, she, you know, my daughter was feeding, she came over and she said to me she said, “You're doing it perfectly there's absolutely no problem whatsoever, you've latched on properly, your daughter's feeding fine” the only thing was I was sitting in quite an awkward position and I had an arm up or whatever, but much as she tried to change it, it was comfortable for me and although she thought it looked awkward, she just said, “If you're comfortable and it's working just carry on” and from that moment on, you know, you know, I did feel completely different, all the.
Because that was your confidence boost?
That was my confidence boost, that's what you, that's what I needed, somebody who I thought knew what they were talking about, now of course midwives probably do know what they're talking about but because there wasn't the continuity just that one person to say, “Actually no, you're doing it right, do you feel okay? Fine but if you do have any other problems, you know, you can come back” and by that they mean you can come back when, even when you've left the hospital, that clinic is open, you know, to you to go back, I haven't needed to go back luckily enough but I know other people who have gone back and they have found that, you know, going back once or twice, you know, has helped them to, as you say, to get the confidence, to realise that, you know, your baby is actually feeding [laughs] from you and, you know, there's no, no major problems with it so. |
