Defeating the Odds

A story of overcoming engorgement, sore nipples, dwindling milk supply and more By Kimberly M. Camp

I am the mother of a 3-month-old baby girl. I am also a pediatric registered nurse who knows the benefits of breastfeeding. After 15 hours of labor and two hours of pushing, my doctor finally decided that a cesarean section was needed.

Knowing that the best time to nurse is right after delivery, I was concerned that having the section would interrupt this opportunity. While in recovery lying flat on my back, the recovery room nurse did not ask me if I wanted to nurse my baby, in fact she didn't even ask me if I wanted to hold my baby. Finally I asked her if I could hold her.

After I held her for about 5 minutes, it was time for me to go to my room and Abby to go to the nursery for her newborn assessment, etc. When Abby was finally brought back to me she was already out of her alert stage and into her sleepy stage. As soon as she was brought back to me, I had the lactation consultant come to help us. Well, Abby was much more interested in sleeping at that point!

We attempted several more times that day and finally saw some success. However, Abby would pull her tongue back when she latched on and would end up gumming me with her bottom gums. Ouch!

After several nursing sessions, my right nipple had an open sore and my left nipple had several bruises. We still nursed even though I thought I would die every time she latched on.

My milk came in very fast. I was three days postpartum, and I could have fed the entire nursery! If Abby didn't have a particularly successful nursing session, I would pump and have the nurses store my milk in the freezer. When I left the hospital, I brought with me 15 bottles of expressed milk! The nurses had some sort of nickname for me but wouldn't tell me what it was. Something along the lines of a dairy cow, I'm assuming!

The day we came home from the hospital, I became extremely engorged! I attempted to latch the baby on but she couldn't because I was so full. She began crying furiously and my husband got very nervous. He began warming up expressed breastmilk to give her. Looking back, I should have given the baby to my husband while I pumped so that I could soften the breast for her; however, my husband could not stand to hear her cry (it broke his heart) so she was given a bottle of breastmilk.

Any attempt after that to nurse her ended in her receiving a bottle because she refused to nurse. We had agreed that she would still receive breastmilk even if she could not breastfeed. So every day I attempted to nurse her but would end up having to give her a bottle. At this point I had called breastfeeding consultants, friends who had breastfed, co-workers, and doctors trying to get some advice.

Probably the only advice I will ever remember was that of a friend who could never get her baby to latch on until she was 6 weeks old! She pumped and gave her baby breastmilk for 6 weeks until she finally latched on one day. So I put that piece of information into the back of my mind for future reference. I continued to pump every time Abby ate. It became exhausting. When she woke up at night, I would be up for at least two hours feeding her and pumping and washing out my pumping bottles.

Finally when she was about 4 weeks old, my pumping habits started to decline. Sometimes I would only pump every six hours. Needless to say, my milk supply began to dwindle. The dairy cow that was discharged form the hospital with 15 bottles of breastmilk was only a distant memory.

I again called the lactation consultant and she said to pump twice as many times as Abby would eat in 24 hours. So I pumped every 1-1/2 hours for 24 hours. Boy did my nipples get sore! It worked though. I also started taking fenugreek. Well, this pumping and feeding continued and Abby still wouldn't nurse. Then one day after my 6 weeks check up with my OB I came home and decide to try Abby again. Well, finally at 6 weeks old Abby decided to nurse!

She didn't get another bottle until I went back to work when she was ten weeks old. Of course I was nervous that she wouldn't nurse after having bottles all day while I was at work but so far it has worked out. She just complains sometimes about the rate of flow.

However, about the second week into work, my supply began decreasing again. As a pediatric nurse in the middle of winter you don't get many breaks. In a 12-hour shift I would only get to pump twice if I were lucky. I remember the day I only got to pump one time. Inevitably my supply was low and Abby was not happy after a nursing session. On one of my days off, I tried to pump or feed her at least every two hours. That wasn't particularly successful. Finally I called my OB and asked him to prescribe Reglan for me. It is a medication that is typically given to combat reflux, but it is also a prolactin stimulant.

As I type this, I am on my last day of the medication. It has helped and I hope that I can continue to keep my supply up now. I'm sure we will encounter more problems along the way but breastfeeding Abby has made life easier and I love doing it!

I have been through sore nipples 3 times, having to pump and feed for 6 weeks, low milk supply twice and God only knows what else is in store, but I intend to continue for as long as we can. My only advice to those who are struggling is to stick with it; it is only a phase. Persistence prevails!

Thank you for the opportunity to tell my story!