Plant-based Mum's Breastfeeding Story
Here comes a more personal blog post. I don’t find it easy sharing personal information about myself (except for what I eat everyday!), so this is a bit different for me. As most of you know I’m a mum of a toddler and have breastfed him since birth (he still hasn’t weaned!). When I think back to the start of our breastfeeding journey it AMAZES me that we are still going. It is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life (so much harder than giving birth) but I’m so pleased we stuck with it. It was very touch and go there for a few weeks but I made it past the hump and we never looked back. Feel free to scroll on past if this isn’t your cup of tea (or green smoothie), but I’m hoping in sharing our story it may help some other mums out there in the future. It’s also a bit of a novel so maybe get a cup of tea (or green smoothie) and settle in.
Jensen’s Birth
Jensen was born in May 2015 after an uneventful pregnancy and very painful labour! He arrived two weeks early via a natural birth and weighed 7 pound 2 ounces. Leading up to his birth I had done a lot of research about breast feeding, especially as a plant-based mum, and found some great resources online. I was determined to do the very best I could in a hope we could avoid formula for ethical, and health reasons. As a side note fed is definitely best, if we had needed formula I would have used it. I had also seen a lot of my friends struggle with breastfeeding so I realised it probably wasn’t going to be easy. Looking back I think I might of put too much pressure on myself to keep the breastfeeding up. Hindsight is a wonderful thing huh! And considering we are still breastfeeding more than three years later, the starting troubles we had seem like a lifetime ago.
Frenotomy & Nipple Shield
We birthed at a birthing unit in Auckland and stayed there for three days, which was so fantastic. They catered plant-based meals, which were delicious, and I had 24 hour support from the nurses there. I didn’t want to leave! We received a lot of different advice about breastfeeding when we were there. This was great but I also found I had to sift through it and see what worked best for us. My midwife thought Jensen might be tongue tied but we couldn’t get him assessed until the second day. The specialist nurse confirmed he was, and he had a frenotomy (where they snip the bit of skin under the tongue) on the day we were leaving the birthing unit. By the time we got to this point my nipples had been badly damaged because of the tongue tie, Jensen’s size (being on the smaller side since he was two weeks early) and my inexperience. We could have looked into alternatives to the frenotomy, but I was in so much pain by this stage we just did it.
For the first two days at the birthing unit I was expressing off one breast and feeding off the other in an attempt to minimise the pain and give my nipples a break. On the last night there at about 4am I had one of those moments where Jensen wouldn’t stop crying and I had no clue what I was doing and a wonderful nurse came in and rescued me. She changed his nappy which was full of poop and apparently not the norm for three day old babies. It showed my milk had come in already. She also showed me how to express properly using props and supplied me with a nipple shield. In the new born haze I can’t even remember the nurse’s name but she was so great, I never even had a chance to thank her for her help.
The nipple shield was both good and bad. It definitely made feeding less painful and gave my nipples a chance to heal. It also made it much more difficult for Jensen to feed. It would take him 45 minutes to an hour at each feed, and he was feeding three hourly. This didn’t leave much time for anything else in between. I didn’t realise it at the time (it only occurred to me to look it up while writing this) but nipple shields can cause issues with plugged ducts and mastitis if the baby isn’t feeding efficiently.
Broken Sleep & Recurring Mastitis
All these smaller problems added up to ongoing issues with feeding and mastitis. I was also SO tired. Having a baby in the house totally dependent and wanting milk every three hours around the clock was a bit of a shock for me! I LOVE my sleep and found the sleep deprivation the first couple of weeks almost unbearable. All I can say is thank goodness I have a very supportive husband (who doesn’t need as much sleep as me!), that helped out as much as he could. I also pumped as much as I could and every few nights from about two weeks old Jase would feed Jensen at night so I could get a decent chunk of sleep. This really was a life saver! It also got Jensen used to taking a bottle and we never had an issue with him feeding from it. This allowed a lot more flexibility which helped when everything went pear shaped.
I also took the advice from someone (new born haze again, I don’t even remember who from) of feeding from one breast only each feed. I’m sure this works for some people but since I had such a good milk supply, and a baby that wasn’t feeding very efficiently, I don’t think it was great for me. It meant that sometimes milk was sitting around for six hours or longer and this may have also contributed to the ongoing mastitis issues. All up I had mastitis four times, twice in each breast, and an abscess that lead to an admission to hospital.
Geez writing this up now and looking back, it was a bad coincidence of events that happened to an inexperienced mum! I managed to clear up the mastitis three of the four times by myself by feeding from that breast first, massage, hot compresses, and rest, rest, and more rest. The forth time the symptoms cleared but unbeknown to me an abscess was festering. I wanted to avoid antibiotics at all costs but in the end was pumped full of them. The irony was not lost on me and hindsight, again, is a magical thing!
Seeing a Lactation Specialist
Since I was having so many issues my midwife suggested I see a lactation specialist at the birthing unit where I had Jensen. I had just cleared up the fourth bout of mastitis and didn’t realise an abscess had formed when I saw her. Each time I had mastitis it didn’t make it painful to feed Jensen. It exhibited with flu like symptoms and red lines on the infected breast. The specialist was another life saver! The main advice I remember her giving was to lose the pillows and have Jensen in the biological/laid back nursing position so he was lying on me almost vertical (stomach to stomach). This was very awkward at first as we’d made up our own position (that actually was awkward and hard for him to feed!) but I stuck with it and after a few days made a HUGE difference.
She also told me it was largely overstated that babies receive too much fore milk and not enough hind milk if they swap from breast to breast each feed. The internet is full of this information about hind milk being more nourishing and fatty. This may be true but feeding from both breasts at each feed was much better for someone like me who had ongoing issues. From this point on it meant that milk was flowing through both breasts at each feed and once the abscess was cleared up we never had any more problems.
The Abscess
As the abscess formed I noticed the lump in my breast and went to the doctor. I explained how I had had issues with mastitis but the last bout had cleared up itself and I currently didn’t feel any symptoms. I also mentioned that I was having pain in my armpits and wrists but mostly at night. The doctor treated these problems separately. She prescribed some Voltaren for the pain, and after examining the lump in my breast gave me a referral for a mammogram. I later learnt this was the worst thing to do as the pressure on the abscess would of caused it to leak even more, and this is was what was causing the pain in my armpits and wrists. That night the pain was excruciating and had moved to my groin as well. It was so bad I couldn’t dress myself so we called the Plunket helpline, who referred us to Healthline. They said we should go to an emergency doctor or hospital as I couldn’t care for myself. So we packed up nine week old Jensen at about 9pm on a Friday night and headed to the hospital.
The doctor took one look at me and said something like ‘you have an abscess that is draining into your lymph nodes which is causing the pain. You need to be transferred to a different hospital tonight and possibly have surgery’. This was not what we were expecting! They put me on morphine straight away as the pain was so bad I couldn’t stop shaking and could barely walk. And they also started IV antibiotics (oh the irony). I was then transferred, had a lovely ride in an ambulance to the next hospital, and Jase went home to care for Jensen and use the freezer full of stocked milk. We had brought my pump with us and I kept pumping the whole time to help clear the infection. I also needed to pump as I was still producing so much milk! Thankfully I didn’t need surgery, and was discharged after one night with a course of antibiotics. They said the infection should clear up and to come back later in the week to get the abscess drained via a local and ultrasound.
When I got home I had a 48 hour break from life, hid in the spare room, slept and pumped. Jase was amazing and took care of everyone, including the night feeds with Jensen. There had just been enough milk in the freezer to tide them over and then they used what I was pumping. Jensen was a star through all of this and coped really well. Getting on top of the infection and some sleep meant I was starting to feel better and also got back on top of things. I went back to the hospital on Thursday by myself (I didn’t want Jensen anywhere near the hospital if it could be avoided, so many germs!) and had the abscess drained. It was a quick procedure with a BIG needle! It was a bit painful for a day or two but healed very quickly.
Continuing Breastfeeding
After all the drama it would have been very easy to stop breastfeeding. I was terrified of getting mastitis again, and weaning could have caused it to reoccur. So it was easier to keep going than stop at this stage. It was a huge wake up call and I made the decision to take it week by week and see how it was going. If it wasn’t going well then it was OK to stop. Things seemed to click once I was out of hospital. Jensen and I got much better at feeding, we had weaned off nipple shields, he had gotten bigger and better at latching, and we got feed times down to 5-10 minutes. This was our turning point and things got a lot better from this point. We had passed through the worst and three years later he’s still going, which I’m very grateful for.
I’m definitely not an expert at this (my story shows that!), but I’ve put some tips together that might help anyone thinking of breastfeeding in the future. I hope my struggles help someone out there. Sticking with breastfeeding may have been the hardest thing I’ve had to do in my life but it’s also one I’m proud of. If you can hang in there it does get easier.
Tips for mums who want to breastfeed
Be prepared and committed from the start. It WILL be hard and demanding but it WILL get easier. I wish we’d had more meals stored in the freezer.
Don’t expect to be able to do too much, at least in the first month. I remember a mid-wife saying at one of my last appointments ‘your only job in the first month is to feed your baby’. I don’t think I took that comment as seriously as I should of. I could of made things a lot easier on my self by not rushing to get back to ‘normal’ life.
If it’s available see a lactation specialist as soon as possible, even if you are not having problems. I didn’t end up going until Jensen was around eight weeks old, and wish I’d gone sooner. I’m pretty sure it’s free in NZ, and SO worth it. The advice I got from the specialist was invaluable.
Don’t be too hard on yourself and take things day by day. Hang in there and it will get better!
And remember fed is best. You know what is right for you and your baby. Listen to that and let the judgements, expectations, and guilt go.
Enjoy the time with your wonderful, snuggly, newborn baby. They’ll be be a rowdy three year old before you know it!
Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or health professional. I have completed a certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from eCornell and have done in-depth research about plant-based living. The information I trust is mostly sourced from medical professionals that are leading the way in this plant-based revolution. Check out my recommended page for more info.
