Following IVF I had a slightly complicated pregnancy which involved two hospital admissions. When littl'un tried to put in an early appearance at 29 weeks it was discovered that I had polyhydramnios - basically just too much amniotic fluid. As they couldn't find what was causing it - it's sometimes associated with gestational diabetes - the hospital sent me off home.
Luckily littl'un stayed put, but I just got bigger and bigger and bigger. I am 5'2 and pre-pregnancy was a size 8. I wasn't putting on much fat but my belly was truly enormous. The latest guidance for midwives is not to track a mother's weight as this doesn't provide an indication of the size of the baby. My midwife, who was incredibly lovely and caring, sensed that something was not right but had no grounds to refer me back to our incredibly over stretched hospital. It took a medical check-up for my new life insurance to discover that by 35 weeks I was carrying an exhausting extra 25kg!
My midwife finally referred me back to the hospital at 37 weeks with the claim that I had slightly raised blood pressure - I didn't - but she needed to tick the right boxes to refer me back. Luckily, I saw a consultant very quickly, who decided something was definitely wrong and that I needed to be induced. With the maternity ward bursting at the seams they had to schedule the induction for 4 days later and in the meantime I had to stay in hospital.
After 4 nights with no sleep - women were having to labour on the ante-natal ward because of lack of space - I was induced. As anyone whose been through it will know it's not great - one moment I was sitting on my birthing ball mumbling hypno-birthing mumbo jumbo, the next I felt like I'd been hit by a truck! At which point the birthing plan flew straight out of the window and it was bring on the pethadine. Almost 48 hours after the first induction my waters finally burst - think of the midwives wading through Noah's flood and you'll get a sense of how much fluid there was! - but as littl'un's heart rate started to fall it was decided I needed an emergency C-section. So yet more drugs!
My daughter was finally born fit and well and almost 81bs and luckily someone got her straight on my boobs in theatre and she seemed to take milk. All seemed well. But then she slept and slept and slept. She didn't wake or cry out for food, just did a little fish impression in her sleep, opening and closing her mouth. And if I did get her anywhere near my boob when she occasionally opened her eyes she went straight back to sleep.
I then had what I think was one of the worst nights of my life. Like all maternity wards in the UK - I think - 10pm is kicking out time and then you're left on your own following a c-section, still sporting a cathether and barely mobile to try and care for your baby on your own because the midwives are too busy. Is this meant to be progress?
Littl'un had now gone almost all day without feeding and was, I can only say, shrivelling in front of my eyes. I was beside myself trying to feed a baby who just wouldn't wake. There are many, many amazing midwives working in the NHS but unfortunately the two I encountered that night were anything but. Their only suggestion was to show me how to hold littl'un to get her to latch - as she was fast asleep this was less than useless. Finally, in tears - they asked me why I was crying! - I begged them to check littl'uns blood sugar which utterly unsurprisingly was so low that they said she had to be immediately given formula with a pipette and tiny medicine cup.
So right away we were in the vicious circle whereby littl'un was not demanding milk so I was not producing it and then if by any chance she got anywhere near my breast when she was awake, there was not enough milk. We struggled through the first 3 weeks on a combination of half-hearted sleepy boob feeds topped up with bottles - the whole family would stand around singing as loudly as we could to try and keep her awake long enough to feed! - that resulted in very little weight gain.
And despite seeing a whole host of health visitors and going to the baby clinic no one explained the very simple facts that would have helped me understand what was going on. Early births, inductions, pethadine and epidurals all increase the risk of having a sleepy baby - if baby's faced all four it is incredibly likely that they will be too sleepy to feed. In which case in the first hours and days you need as much skin to skin - boob to face - contact as you possibly can and you need to start pumping. And as baby is going to sleep a lot you should get as much rest as you possibly can because this with the close skin contact and pumping is going to help your milk supply more than anything!
That first night in hospital watching my baby struggle in her sleep and the following few weeks when she failed to thrive were frightening but finally after 3 months we got to the point where she fed well and I had enough milk. And from then littl'un happily guzzled away until she was 15 months old by which time I have to confess I wanted my boobs back!
This is a long post, (I needed to get it out of my system), but hopefully it - and the list of top tips on increasing milk supply - will be of help for anyone going through a similar experience. The list includes a whole range of ideas from skin to to skin contact, lots of rest and pumping plus:
- Drinking plenty of water
- Getting a balanced diet with plenty of protein and wholegrain
- Relaxation exercises
- Massaging breasts
- Warm compresses & hot showers before feeding
- All over massage - particularly of spine
- Switching from side to side
- Fenugreek seeds
- Blessed thistle
- Alfalfa
- and more
If you liked this post, you might also like these posts on mastitis, reflux, colic and new mum's health plus for when you're ready one on weaning off the breast.
If you're looking for more birth stories from other mummy bloggers, check out the links below and please do link up your own experiences ... and check out these breast feeding experiences from over 50 other mums.
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