We have received and email from a mum that has a baby sick in hospital. We we’re so humbled when she shared these photos and captions with us. She is happy for us to use it, so that maybe it can try and help other mothers in the same situation. Please include this mama and her baby in your thoughts.
The NZ-Mum writes:
“I have expressed exclusively for my baby. At present I am trying to reintroduce breastfeeds but due to his condition he still gets 400ml of Expressed Breast Milk, 50 mls at a time through his nasal-gastric tube.
I have experience with dealing with hospitals, lactations consultants, well meaning but totally rude strangers etc.
I feel there just isn’t the support for people in my situation and hospitals are very fast to push you into giving up breastfeeding as you have “a justified reason” but aren’t as fast to support you when you decide to give your baby as much Expressed Breast Milk as you can.
I have struggled to find breast pumps on wards, days where he is Nil-by-mouth for operations but no one provides me with meals, pumps or access to either so my supply dropped.
In the photo above, baby is about a week old. It was his first time out of the incubator for skin to skin contact…it was better than any drugs to increase milk supply and even though he was so weak and had not yet had any of my milk he had the instinct to open his mouth and try to suck.
The controversial dummy but at least he kept up his sucking even though you can see the TPN line going in the top of his brain that was actually the way he was fed for the first few months.
Big brother getting in the practice so he can help when baby came home…it was actually 11pm and mum was sleeping when he had raided the first aid kit and “fed” his baby!!!! Amazing how much kids take in when they visit the hospital!!!!
Mother, Baby, and Symphony Breast Pump in the background. Mum says “you soon develop a love/hate relationship with your breastpump when having to wake in the night even when you are home without your baby just to use it 24/7!”
Finally an Expressed Breast Milk (EBM) feed through the NG…was amazing to see the happy face when he was “full” (only a few mls but a great start).
View of the Haberman feeder Started using this so could squeeze to help him get lots of milk for little effort but sadly once his lung collapsed even this has been too much hard work so back to NG feeds.
Baby is 5 months old next week and has not yet been exclusively breastfed without the need to be topped up with EBM via other means but he also loves the practise.”
We send our love to this family x x x
