A friend of mine recently said she would be willing to share her story on our website,
She says:
“Due to complications, I had my first baby at 37 weeks by way of “elective” (and I say that very loosely as it was not my choice!!) c-section under General Anaesthetic followed by a Total Thyroidectomy operation – and so I woke up about 3 hours after my daughter Emily was born. I was determined to breastfeed and stressed for days prior to the operations/birth about how I was going to achieve this when I needed an operation immediately following the c-section.
However I did manage to breastfeed exclusively despite this (with the help of my fabulous midwife) by way of expressing colostrum prior to the double operation (which was fed to Emily via syringe) and then with the midwives help who put Emily on and off my breast for the first day or two while I dozed in and out of consciousness due to the anaesthetic and morphine!
Breastfeeding following a c-section is hard, when it hurts to move and most positions ended up with her feet on the stitches. Not being able to move easily is a hindrance and I recommend lying down with baby propped by pillows and the football hold in the early days.
I am proud of the fact I was able to exclusively breastfeed despite the rough start we had.”
-end-
Read more Real Unedited stories that we have received about Breastfeeding
