Hello Dear Boobjuicers and Friends!
My little nursling is sleeping (for now) on my lap, and I am typing with my arms awkwardly aloft over her, laptop on my knees. We'll see how long that lasts. I still want to write up a comparison of the care surrounding a hospital birth and a birth center birth. But first I wanted to share some steps I have taken after Jackie's birth to make sure things go as well as they can.
Robert and I had latch challenges, yeast, and post partum anxiety (well me not him on that one) and this time I am determined to nip all that crap in the bud. After Jackie was born it looked to me like her jaw was pulled back a bit, which I suspected was contributing to our latch problems. So I got her some cranial sacral therapy - on her second day of life, in the birth center, from a fabulous woman who came the same day one of the post partum doulas called her. This made an immediate, visible difference in several ways, but we still had latch problems. So I had a lactation consultant come see us on day three, again, still in the birth center. Interestingly, she teaches latching totally differently from the woman I saw in Southern California. Could be a change in standard practice, or regional, who knows. But her way is easier, and is working pretty well now. She also suspected yeast and got one of the midwives to confirm this diagnosis. So I'm on crazy amounts of probiotics, and grapefruit seed extract, and Jackie's on probiotics too. The LC came to my home a few days later for a follow up. This has been tremendously helpful, and we are doing much better.
Then about a week, maybe nine days in, I noticed I'm scared of the balcony again. Smells like post partum anxiety. I am not having this crap this time thankyouverymuch. I immediately called my acupuncturist's office and got a next day appointment. It's helping too, and interestingly, the hypnobirthing techniques really help me to push the crazy thoughts away more effectively than I could before. I also discussed my placenta medicine with him and got dosing instructions. Yes, you read that right. Placenta. As in, I had that thing cooked, dehydrated, powdered, and encapsulated, and I'm swallowing it. "Eeeeew!" right? Well, not to me. Most mammals eat the placenta as sushi right after birth. This is much more innocuous - it actually looks a lot like the grapefruit seed extract capsules. And traditional medicine practices have used it for millennia for post partum anxiety and depression, to boost milk supply, and even to treat menopause. Frankly at this point if someone came up with some studies to show that PPA could be warded off by wearing banana peels in your hair, I'd be happy to give it a shot.
"Geez, Suzi, what did you spend on all this?" Well that's a good point. A non-trivial amount, although the cranial sacral was complementary with the massage that was part of the stay at the birth center (which is SHEER GENIUS). It's more than worth it to me. But then I am in a position to say that. A lot of women in this country don't have the option of just picking up the phone and calling some specialist at the first hint of trouble. And that doesn't feel right to me, particularly in the case of the lactation consultant. Some insurance companies will pay for LCs, and a lot of hospitals offer support in the form of one hopelessly overscheduled RN who is an IBCLC as well. I think we can do better. Every mama deserves a doula, an LC, whatever the heck it takes to ward off PPA and PPD, and a massage. And ice cream. This is one of the many, many ways we can, without guilt-tripping anyone, improve breastfeeding rates in this country, not to mention women's health generally.
Spread the word.
Much love,
Suzi
Sounds so much like me! With my son i didn't want to call in anyone, felt like too much $, too much hassle. But when my daughter wasn't latching at 24 hours I called an lc to my house. When i was tear-y and noticed the placenta smoothie my doula made helped i encapsulated the rest and took itshe when she still wasn't nursing well at 2 weeks we got her frenulum clipped, called in an acupuncturist to our house for me, and craniosachral for her. Then switched lactation consultants to get better help. The whole time going to the chiro twice a week.
ReplyDeleteThis postpartum time, despite it actually being harder since the baby wouldn't nurse till 6 weeks and there was a toddler running around, was much easier. I'm glad I was able to throw so much money at my problems. But yeah, it infuriates me that it just isn't available unless you can come up with the dough....