Breastfeeding And The Medical Profession – One Mom’s Story

8FamilyBy Tiffany Holley

I appreciate my doctors. I appreciate the medical system that got me through a variety of health issues. They know a lot about what they were trained in…

…But they do not necessarily know anything about breastfeeding.

It makes me so sad to think of all the babies that lose out on this amazing food (and relationship!) because their mother took the inappropriate advice of an ignorant (on this subject) medical practitioner.

Let me tell you what I went through to learn this lesson…

Towards the end of my pregnancy with Mr. Big Baby, I was under close observation for borderline pre-eclampsia. Somehow, still, we missed the fact that I was harboring a bladder infection – did you know they are often asymptomatic during pregnancy?

Untreated, this developed into a kidney infection (pyelonephritis).

When the baby was about five weeks old, I ended up in bed with raging chills and fever from the worsening infection. The next morning I woke up with a bright red, inflamed and streaked breast. I now also had mastitis.

The ER doctor told me I would have to stop nursing so that I could get myself well. Overwhelmed, tearful, I acknowledged that I had been afraid of that, and agreed.

Since I am physiologically unable to pump any meaningful amount of milk, his advice was not helpful: pump and discard my milk, and feed the baby from my frozen stash (of course I had none) or formula. I had already found someone in my LLL group who was willing to wet-nurse Mr. Big Baby if it came to that…

But still, I would be putting myself in danger of worsening the mastitis issues by becoming engorged, and jeopardizing our entire nursing relationship by potentially losing my milk supply.

After sitting there for hours, I had plenty of time to think through the issues more logically. Eventually I began asking to see my children, who were anxiously waiting outside.

Children are not allowed in the ER, period, they said. They have a separate pediatric ER area to treat children, so they keep them out of harm’s (germs’) way in the adult area. And I was not permitted to leave the treatment area because I had an IV placed.

Undeterred, I suggested that they could take me to the pediatric area, and allow me to have a treatment room there, with my family present (as we had all been together when my daughter had an ER visit).

Again I was rebuffed. I was told that my baby would be able to “visit” me once I was admitted and moved up to a regular floor. That would mean, then, the next day during visiting hours – probably some 24 hours of separation.

The more they came up with these reasons, which sounded more and more hollow, the more adamant I became.

Finally, I told the shift nursing supervisor (who had been called in to deal with my “unreasonableness”, I’m sure) that I wanted to sign myself out AMA, so that I could go nurse my baby.

She was shocked – or pretended to be – and asked how I could possibly want to leave without treatment when I was so ill.

I told her that the hospital was making me worse instead of better, and that I would go seek *better* treatment somewhere else.

Whether she gave in because she saw the light, or because she saw a potential lawsuit, I’ll never know… But give in she did.

They wheeled me and my IV pole out to a (relatively) quiet corner of the ER, and my son eagerly nursed – and nursed, and nursed, and nursed. It had been hours by then, which is an eternity if you are 5 weeks old.

One of her grumbled “threats” as she allowed this was that she was going to go get the lactation consultant from the OB department and “have her talk to me.”
My husband and I sat there wondering if it was really possible that they had a lactation consultant who had so totally sold out to the hospital machine that she would support them on this.

Nope.

The lactation consultant was a sensitive, wise, outgoing woman who was as shocked and baffled by the situation as I was. She became something of a liaison for us for the remainder of this ordeal.

Because there was more. Lots more.

Let me try to condense the next few days for you:

The ER staff eventually moved all of us into a big room in the back of the department to await transfer upstairs. Then the next shift came on and tried to kick my family out again.

We got transferred upstairs. The deal was that the baby could be with me as long as there was another adult(ish) present. I accepted this as a reasonable compromise – after all, I actually was too ill to care for him alone very much!

Then there was a shift change, and they tried to kick my family out.

Then a new doctor saw me, and told me that I needed to stop nursing on the affected breast. (Contradicting all medical literature and wisdom on the subject of mastitis).

Then a new shift came on, and they tried to kick my family out…

Since it was across a weekend, we had the same nursing staff only twice in five days (15 shifts). And, I kid you not, at every single shift change we had to argue the situation all over again.

Some went easier than others. Several times I called on our new best friend the lactation consultant.

I had a protracted argument with the infectious diseases doctor who was considered my primary caregiver. He knew nothing about mastitis, and treated it as he would have treated strep on my breast.

He was horrible, and rude, and I was ready to check out AMA again if I could not be assured that I could receive care from someone else.

On two other occasions I had to threaten to check out AMA to keep them from separating me from the baby. I spoke to several different nursing supervisors.

All of us were stressed out and exhausted by the time I was discharged. It was not good medicine.

Thus ends Round One of my adventures in the medical system.

Why do doctors and nurses know so little about breastfeeding?

It’s frightening that so many people are willing to take their word as law, trusting that these medical professionals know what is best for them.

I beg you, as the only advocate your child has, not to mention for yourself, investigate anything that you are told with regards to your nursing relationship.

As in this case – A simple internet search quickly yields dozens of creditable sources explaining that one important step in dealing with mastitis is to nurse frequently, especially on the affected side.

And if you have the opportunity, do a future mother and baby a favor: print it out and show it to your practitioner!

Tiffany Holley has nursed three children (currently 18 mos. – 15 years old) for a total of 8 years – and counting. She and her family live, breastfeed, urban homestead, cloth diaper, homeschool, and write in Southern Florida (but hope to remedy their location situation soon). You can read about their adventures on their blog, As For My House.

14 comments to Breastfeeding And The Medical Profession – One Mom’s Story

  • […] You can read Chapter I today over at the Mommy News & Views blog. […]

  • […] You can read all about the lessons I learned the hard way, published today over at Mommy News & Views. […]

  • Judy –

    Thank you for allowing me this platform to share my story.

    If even one mother or baby can be spared having to learn these lessons the hard way…
    .-= Tiffany (As For My House)´s last blog ..M&M Stewardship =-.

  • I don’t know why docs and nurses don’t know more about breastfeeding. I guess they’re incapable of thinking of the needs of more than one patient at a time, and don’t understand that when there is a breastfeeding mother, there are 2 patients. Period.

    I’ve had a few run-ins with hospital staff, as well. I’m gonna blog about it. You’ve given me some great blog-fodder. Thanks!
    .-= Cindy´s last blog ..Muk Luks Giveaway =-.

  • Ugh!! experienced something like this early january also with my sister – who gave birth to a preemie and a doctor who gave the preemie glucose water and wanted to give cell life- some kind of supplement made of seaweed which i later found out was being given to dogs!!!

  • What an ordeal!

    I had NURSES on the MATERNITY floor adamantly trying to talk me into giving my several-hours-old son a bottle instead of nursing because we were having trouble getting the hang of the latch. One nurse told me he was crying “because I was starving him and he really needs a bottle.”

    Thanksfully I stood my ground against the bottle and just kept trying. A fantastic lac. consultant came in the next day and helped me. It took several days to get it right, but I am so glad I didn’t let that nurse bully me into a bottle of formula!
    .-= Krystal´s last blog ..To cleanse or not to cleanse? =-.

  • So true. Breastfeeding education in med school is actually an elective for doctors and nurses, which is why so many of them are dumber than a sack of hammers when it comes to this stuff. Pretty sad. I’m so sorry you had to go through all that.
    .-= Melodie´s last blog ..Winners Of Honeysuckle Breast Milk Storage Bags =-.

  • When I was only a few days pregnant with my first son, I had to go to the ER for cramps since I had no OB/GYN yet. (We’d just moved.) A nurse immediately told me, “well this is bad. You probably have an ectopic pregnancy.” Then a resident fumbled through catherizing me to to get a urine sample. The entire ordeal was terrifying. By the time I saw my OB/GYN they were like, “cramping is completely common…” I think ER docs are in general oddly unaware of breastfeeding and PG issues.
    .-= Maria´s last blog ..moose on the loose =-.

  • Isn’t it sad that I’m not really surprised by this? There’s a tremendous lack of general knowledge about breastfeeding in the medical world. I wonder if it’s because BFing can’t be measured, prescribed, or purchased. I think that may be a reason that doctors prefer formula feeders (and therefore push it every chance they can).

    Good for you for putting up your dukes on this one. I suspect many, many women wouldn’t.
    .-= Two Makes Four´s last blog ..Rock and Rock and Rock to Sleep =-.

  • […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Judy Masucci, Judy Masucci, Judy Masucci, Tara Rice, PotentialandExpectat and others. PotentialandExpectat said: RT @MommyNews: Why do doctors and nurses know so little about breastfeeding? Come read one mom's story: http://bit.ly/9ef0J2 #bfing […]

  • I just posted When The Nurse Won’t Let You Nurse on my blog. It is amazing how many women get this kind of treatment.

    http://getalonghome.com/2010/02/when-the-nurse-wont-let-you-nurse/
    .-= Cindy´s last blog ..Muk Luks Giveaway =-.

  • […] me start by briefly reiterating what I explained in my previous post of medical escapades: I appreciate my doctors. I appreciate the medical system that got me through a variety of health […]

  • I had a really bad experience in the hospital when my son was first born. He was borderline “breathing too fast” because he’d gotten a face full of amniotic fluid when he was born. So they put a tube of oxygen on his face and wouldn’t let me nurse him for 12 hours. However, they put an oxygen monitor on his foot and put him in my room with me. I had been in labor for 36 hours and anytime the monitor went below 94% it would beep horribly and I was supposed to wake him up so he would breath better. After about an hour I made them come take him to the nursery so they could keep him awake and I could get some sleep.
    Then, when they finally let him nurse he was developing jaundice so had to be under the lights. I was discharged a day later, but had to be back at the hospital every 3 hours to nurse him. Thankfully we lived close enough I could go home, take a shower, and sleep for an hour… However, when we got back we discovered someone had fed him the milk I had pumped (my milk had come in already) just before we got there so he wouldn’t eat. Lovely.
    All in all, it was a week long experience in the hospital that was horrid. And one particular nurse in the nursery was so adamant that I couldn’t nurse him, and I had gone to high school with her older sister. Just a bad situation all around.
    See my fabulous second birth story I just posted about on my blog!
    .-= Krista´s last blog ..A Birthing Story =-.

  • Thanks for sharing your story Krista. What a horrible experience. I’m so glad your 2nd time around you had a better one. — Judy

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