Hi everyone and welcome to my blog of what is unsettling the breast. My name is Katrina and I am a mother to 4 beautiful children and I am also a qualified midwife. Today I decided I need to make a difference in the world of breastfeeding after reading Mia Freemen's blog 'lets chill out about breasts' It was a very average read and I felt Mia did not do herself justice writing such article but what I did get out of it was Tara Moss's staggering statistic that in Australia 14% of women exclusively breastfeed till 6 months of age. Now that absolutely sent shivers down my spine not because I am a breast pushing midwife but because I can not believe we send about 95% of women home from hospital breastfeeding. So the biggest question I ask is what are we as midwives doing wrong????
The answer to my own question is that midwives are failing women, yes I said it midwives I feel are the main cause to breastfeeding problems in Australia. Midwives do not give up to date, consistent, accurate and across the board information. It is bloody hard being a first time mother, you have a new baby to care for, a cocktail of hormones, sleep deprevaition, soreness, extended family and friends to contend with and 6 or so midwives throughout your stay giving you conflicting breastfeeding advise. What chance do our mothers have???? This is the question I ask and this is the question I am bloody determined to change. I have the power because I am a midwife, I have the power because I am a mother and I have the power because I care so much that women should get the best chance to feed their baby via the breast. I understand 100% that some women decide that breastfeeding is not for them and their baby and I fully support any women's decision. I can not accept that 81% of women give up because they choose not too, something and someone is getting in their way.
Please if you have any breastfeeding stories you would like to share on this blog please send them to katrinaw44@rocketmail.com or comment below.
My overall dream is to retrain all midwives around Australia so they can teach and educate breastfeeding women consistently and accurately
I hope you follow me on this journey
Bye for now
Hi Katrina
ReplyDeleteGood luck on your journey, I look forward to reading along.
When I think of what can "unsettle" the breast I think back to the advice I was given as a first-time mother in 1999. The advice centred on wrapping my baby tightly, feeding on demand, burping techniques, putting her to sleep on her back in a cot and patting her settle. I still am advised by my mother that feeding more often than every four hours is excessive!
None of this advice worked for my baby that fought sleep for up to 8hrs if she could!
What worked was unwrapping my baby, carrying her everywhere, a walk in the pram to settle during the day and bed-sharing/frequent night feeding. I'm sure off the top of your head you can think of many public health programs and initiates that are counter to this style of parenting.
As for midwifery practice having an impact, a few things come to mind:
- the hurdles some women/babies face with growth spurts at 4-6 weeks, coinciding with the period when midwifery care ends for women.
- the impact of medical intervention on maternal hormones and mother-baby imprinting/bonding.
- in particular, the impact of second and third stage interventions:
perineal trauma from episiotomy or 3rd-4th degree laceration, possibly caused by suboptimal positioning;
early cord clamping on the neonatal sequalae - borderline or clinical hypovolemia, hypothermia, anaemia, hypoglycaemia...essentially, cold babies with low blood sugar exhibiting mild respiratory distress...these babies are either separated from their mother for "treatment" or stuggle to stay conscious long enough to latch on
- the unknown impact of synthetic oxytocin, whether large doses throughout labour or administered during third stage.
- conflicting advice or rigid advice that doesn't reflect women's real-life needs.
- advice that doesn't reflect how the breast is much more than a milk supply (highly regular use in exlusive breastfeeding and as pacifier, for distraction, the role in immune system development, disease prevention, maternal physiological adaptions after birth, maternal bone density and protection from cancer etc etc)
Sorry if this message is a bit disjointed or hard to read, I'm cramming in between study and breastfeeding ;-)
Warm regards,
Kate