"My breastfeeding was not easy": seven testimonies of mothers who make visible the problems that may arise with breastfeeding

World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated between August 1 and 7, and from Babies and More we will dedicate a daily space to inform, defend and protect breastfeeding. And, although we all know the multiple benefits it has for mother and baby, there is still much work to do and many myths to tear down.

Among these myths there are two very widespread and completely opposite: on the one hand, who consider that as a natural act, breastfeeding is something simple and that flows without complications. On the other hand, those who believe that getting a successful breastfeeding is unique to a few lucky ones.

But nothing is further from reality, as in any other aspect of life, breastfeeding can have lights and shadows. Today we are going to focus on the importance of making problems visible so that mothers who are having difficulties with breastfeeding do not feel alone or misunderstood, and can find a solution.

"Everyone was telling me I had no milk, and I came to believe it"

Paloma's first breastfeeding only lasted a month because everything his surroundings made him believe he had no milk. "I ended up abandoning because of family pressure, which insisted that my baby was hungry and should give him a bottle", he tells us.

"My mother always told me that she could not breastfeed, and neither did my sister. During pregnancy, my family insisted that I be getting the idea that it was a hereditary problem and that I would not achieve it either. And I ended up assuming it like this ".

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But the truth is that her baby gained weight at a normal rate and had long since regained the birth weight. However, he cried and squirmed during the shots, and as this mother explains "I was constantly asking for a tit".

Everyone around them interpreted that the baby's behavior was due to poor production of breast milk, or even "poor quality" milk. "No mother wants her baby to go hungry, so I decided to give up ", admits Paloma.

Two years later, his second daughter was born and Paloma decided to try again. "But this time it was different; I read a lot in all that time, I went to lactation talks and contacted consultants who helped and empowered me. Today my daughter is three years old and we continue breastfeeding.".

"I had to wean my baby for a knee operation"

Three months after the birth of her first child, Isabel had to undergo knee surgery, and the doctor recommended weaning your baby for incompatibility of the procedure with breastfeeding.

"He told me that the imaging tests that had to be done before the operation were incompatible with breastfeeding. He also told me that anesthesia and the medications I should take after the intervention were incompatible. In addition, He insisted that I would be sore to breastfeed, and that the most sensible thing was to give bottles ", remember this mother.

Overwhelmed by the events, Isabel decided to wean, although she later learned that neither the imaging tests, nor the anesthesia, nor the medications she was taking for a few days were incompatible with continuing to breastfeed her baby.

"What happened to me cannot be considered a breastfeeding problem as such, because the truth is that my breastfeeding marched on wheels until that moment. But I had a very bad time psychologically. I didn't want to wean my baby but I didn't find support; the emotional pain I felt for weeks was greater than the physical pain of the operation I had undergone "

"This happened nine years ago and I want to believe that healthcare professionals are more aware of breastfeeding than before. It was a shame what happened to me, and even today I remember it with much sadness and helplessness ", he laments.

"My breastfeeding was an ordeal of cracks and mastitis"

My daughter's breastfeeding experience was a very hard path during her first months.

My girl was born with a frenulum that made the grip very difficult but was diagnosed with four months, after a long time of pain and suffering. The cracks and the pearls of milk accompanied me from the first shots, but what really got worse were the countless subacute mastitis I suffered.

I went to the emergency room several times broken by pain, but there was no fever, no hardening of the breast, no redness, so I was discharged without any diagnosis or solution.

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Little is known or talked about this type of mastitis, but the pain is terrible and the helplessness of not knowing what to do or who to turn to made it even harder. It was then that I went to a breastfeeding group and the advice of the advisors and the experiences of other mothers helped me to move forward with a breastfeeding that, until that moment, I dreamed of abandoning.

My tenacity and the unconditional support of many people were key to moving forward with strength and positivism. And step by step, month after month, we reach 13 months of breastfeeding.

"When I finally overcame the problems with breastfeeding, I had to join work and it was all over"

Unfortunately, there are certainly many mothers who identify with the story of Carmen, who had to give up breastfeeding after joining her work and find endless obstacles that made it difficult for him to continue breastfeeding to your daughter.

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"My first months of breastfeeding were horrible. I had many problems with grip and cracks, the girl did not gain enough weight and I was about to give up on more than one occasion. But the midwife of our health center was a fundamental support, and thanks I managed to overcome the difficulties "

But when he was finally beginning to enjoy his breastfeeding, Carmen had to join the job and came face to face with a reality he did not expect:

"I worked in a small family business and leaving my post to get milk It ended up becoming a real odyssey. The more obstacles arose, the more I was overwhelmed and less milk managed to get me out ". Carmen's breastfeeding after her reinstatement only lasted three more weeks.

"Cow's milk protein allergy ended our breastfeeding"

Ana's baby was diagnosed with cow's milk protein allergy (APLV) at five months of age. "My husband and I had gone to the wedding of some friends and my son had stayed in the care of my mother. Although her main diet was breastfeeding, at some sporadic moment we had given him bottles of formula and had never had a reaction ", this mother explains.

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But that night was different, and when his grandmother gave him the bottle, the little one began to fill with hives that quickly spread throughout his body: "My mother phoned us in distress, and we left everything to go quickly to the hospital", remember Ana.

There they were told that their baby suffered from APLV and that should be fed with hydrolyzed milk. Ana and her husband were so scared of what had happened that they did not consider anything else, and from one day to another this mother ended her breastfeeding. A few weeks later, Ana learned that she could have continued breastfeeding her baby following a dairy-free diet, and although she tried to re-relate, she failed.

"I did not know many of the problems that may occur during breastfeeding"

The breastfeeding story of our partner Lucy was also a cluster of obstacles that she herself decided to tell in her blog.

To the initial problems derived from the mother-baby separation and the caesarean section pain, the difficulties of mixed breastfeeding, the incorporation to work, and the multiple potholes that were emerging and that due to the misinformation, Lucy failed to achieve overcome.

"Now, looking at things in retrospect, I regret so many things that I didn't do to improve my situation", this mother laments. But experience is a degree, and now Lucy feels prepared and informed to face a new lactation When it's time to have another child.

"I never got my baby hooked to the chest without pain"

The four months that Rosa's breastfeeding lasted were a "path of thorns," as she defines it. He never got his baby to cling to the chest without pain, so he ended up assuming (wrongly) that breastfeeding had to hurt.

"It's a shame, because I never got to enjoy my daughter's breastfeeding. Every time she clung to my chest I felt as if a thousand pins were nailed to me, and for more postures we tried, I couldn't find one with which I felt relaxed.".

Rosa tried to use teat cups, but not only did the pains not improve, but she ended up producing a mastitis in one of her breasts. "I cried helplessly every time my daughter wanted to breastfeed, and the last days of breastfeeding I gave her only one breast because she couldn't stand the pain anymore".

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18 months have passed since that sad and painful experience, and today Rosa believes that having found a qualified help at those times, could have continued breastfeeding her baby overcoming difficulties.

Breastfeeding can be wonderful, and in fact many stories that begin with a bad footing end up being channeled and being lived with maximum fullness. That is why it is so important to make the problems visible, so that mothers with difficulties do not feel alone and can find a solution.

Photos | iStock

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