My husband and I decided we were going to solely breastfeed our first child, Tessa, for a year. First and foremost because of the heath benefits to both the baby and mother; but also because of the cost savings over formula. I had always thought that breastfeeding would just come naturally to both myself and my baby, well that just wasn’t the case.
Tessa was born tongue tied. I remember someone briefly mentioning it in the hospital but there was no further discussion or recommendations given. So we headed home with our little girl and the breastfeeding nightmare began. I started to dread every feeding, using the type of curse words I don’t normally use. All while receiving the most “well intended, confusing as all mighty, lay just a little bit more guilt on” advice from everyone. I wanted to say, “You put her on your nipple and THEN tell me that “my nipples just have to toughen up”!
Finally after my daughter started spitting up blood we called the Pediatrician and my husband said “let’s pay the money to go to the Lactation Consultant at the hospital.” The Pediatrician on call told us to stop feeding and either pump or give formula. I had felt so much pressure to just keep pushing through. It was so nice to finally have the medical permission to stop. So we pumped until we could get in to the Lactation Consultant to decide what to do next.
At the first Lactation Consultant appointment, she took one look at my nipples and said that because of Tessa’s tight frenulum, she was damaging me; I was literally separating. She recommended that we consider having an ENT clip her frenulum. But do you know what the was the best part of that appointment… She got my husband and I on the same page and once we were there, we had each other to back the other when all of the “have you really thought this through” started about having her tongue clipped. So we had it done, and several weeks and many appointments later with my favorite Lactation Consultant, Michelle, we are finally able to breastfeed with much less cussing!
For more stories from mamas who overcame obstacles in their breastfeeding journey, check out the complete list of posts.
