I exclusively pumped?and there’s not enough support for moms like me
By the time my son was two weeks old, I felt like I had been milked by everyone in town. During our three days in hospital I?d been assessed by three different nurses, one lactation consultant, a paediatrician, and our midwife. On day two, my baby was dehydrated and limp, unable to properly breastfeed, and I started using an electric pump 12 times each day to extract my breast milk.
On day five, I felt triumphant that I was officially feeding my baby with my own breast milk. But as he was still unable to latch properly at the breast, I saw three more lactation consultants, dragging myself through the haze of the first days out of hospital, all while recovering from a C-section.
Finally, because none of these consultations were working (and because of a separate health scare), I decided to work exclusively with the breast pump. And though I had accessed all of these different services from four different organizations, nobody I saw told me that what I ended up doing?pumping and bottle feeding?was normal and could even be healthy for me and my baby. Instead, I was made to feel like I was a failure, and that pumping was far inferior to feeding at the breast. No one told me that the proper term was ?exclusive pumping,? or being an ?EPer.? No one told me that pumping comes with its own set of guidelines and tactics, and that traditional breastfeeding advice wasn?t going to work for me. No one told me about all the resources out there to help me. Instead, I was presented with an ...
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