Lactation Nazis

I finally received the nursing bras that I ordered last week and it reminded me of a somewhat comical experience from my hospital stay. Since I'm sure these memories will fade over time, I thought this one was deserving of a blog post. The story of the Lactation Nazi.

Due to the fact that Jackson was in NICU, my blood pressure was out of control and I was taking some hard core meds, I was not able to nurse him in the first few hours - or even the first day. So Drew & I were faced with our first decision as parents. Do we want them to insert a feeding tube in his stomach and wait until I could nurse, or should we bottle feed him formula for the time being? We agreed to give him formula, knowing we would do everything we could to get him to nurse asap.

I proceeded to pump every 3 hours and gave Jackson every single drop that I had. I was literally taking him syringes in the NICU with as little as 1 cc of colostrum. When we finally had him in the room with us, we would try to get him to nurse (often tricky for preemies who don't have a strong suck reflex yet) and then follow up with formula. I was doing the absolute best I could.

OPRMC has a fabulous staff of lactation consultants and they are available to you 24/7. My consultant was Mary and our first encounter was a bad one. It was probably just bad timing. After all, she showed up shortly after they had taken Jackson out of our room due to the jaundice. I was already a tad emotional. After giving me a dirty look when noticing the bottle of formula beside my bed, she asked me what our feeding plan was. I explained the entire scenario and our hope that he would breast feed, but that I was prepared to pump exclusively if he didn't take to the breast. She asked how often I was pumping. I replied every 3 hours with the exception of overnight and that my milk still hadn't come in. She then said to me, "Well you really should be pumping overnight. You realize that when you leave here those overnight feedings will be up to you." Now I was livid. I so badly wanted to act shocked and reply, "What! You're kidding me? I don't get to take all of these nurses home with me?" Seriously. What a stupid thing to say to me. Not only that, but I was under strict orders from my doctor and all of the nurses to sleep as much as possible and let the nurses care for Jackson during the overnight hours. This "milk woman" had no idea what my body had just been through and I was horrified that she was trying to lay the guilt on me. I don't even recall exactly what I said to her, but I must not have hid my feelings very well. She left promptly and as soon as she was out of the room, Drew commented that "Mama Bear's claws sure did come out". I was Mama Bear. From that moment on we called Mary the Lactation Nazi.

Fortunately, as the days went on Mary and I became friends. She layed off a bit and by the end of our stay had been a great help. While Jackson wasn't entirely breastfeeding, he had latched on a couple of times with her guidance.

In the meantime, I discussed with our pediatrician the whole theory of "nipple confusion". She is not a believer. In her opinion, babies are way too smart to turn down a source of food. They will adapt. She also assured me that supplementing with formula here and there is not a bad thing.

Fast forward 2 1/2 weeks and Jackson is 95% breast fed. He took to it shortly after we arrived home and is doing great. While I am still fine with an occasional formula bottle (let's face it...sometimes it's just easier) I am thrilled that he's getting his nourishment from me.

The story comes full circle when we visited the ped for his 2 week apt. She asked about his feeding and I told her the good news. She was pleased and reminded me that she had said he would come around to the breast. She then said, "I wish I could tape record your experience and share it with all of those Lactation Nazis out there".

Drew and I looked at each other and laughed silently. Even our pediatrician calls them Lactation Nazis!