The father in breastfeeding

Following the post of a first-time father, I share Bruno’s “journey” in breastfeeding:

According to World Health Organization (OMS) recommendations, the baby should be placed on the breast up to one hour after delivery.

That was what happened! Still on the block, our baby was placed on the breast. She took it easily and everything seemed to be on the right track. However, the next day the challenges with breastfeeding began.

The first one, still in the hospital, was when the baby cried a lot and only stopped when it was placed on the breast. She seemed to be always hungry and that was when the doubts began, but what seemed to be always hunger were cramps that only gave her some relief when she was sucking.

On the second day, still in the hospital, another challenge began: The rise of milk; a very painful process for the mother, in which the breast increases in volume, gets lumps and hurts.

The help of a guiding health professional was crucial at this stage, and with hot baths and massages we overcame this other obstacle.

When everything seemed settled and into place, my wife complains that her nipples are cracked. I quickly went to the pharmacy and bought everything I could (hydrogel disks, lanolin cream, silicone nipples, and cups to ventilate the nipples). After a few days, another challenge had been overcome and now the breastfeeding was going without worries (so we thought…).

The day of the baby’s weighing has arrived. There we went, excited and full of pride of our offspring, but our happiness quickly faded when we were told that the baby was not getting as fat as expected, and that if it continued like this it would be necessary to give her a supplement. My wife came out crying, it was not what we had imagined, but the baby’s health came first, and if we had to, we would choose to give her a supplement.

After two days, we returned for the weighing, and it was confirmed that the baby was not gaining weight as was supposed to, and we left with a prescription of artificial milk.

Still not very satisfied with the situation, we decided to ask for the help of a Breastfeeding Counselor (BC). She had a few questions; she wanted to know how many diapers of urine and poop the baby did per day (hydration signal), if there were prostration signs, number of feedings per day, etc. She found that the baby was taking to the breast correctly, and that lack of milk was not a problem. She also taught several positions to facilitate breastfeeding. He also reinforced the idea of ​​breastfeeding on demand – forgetting clocks and schedules.

She checked the baby’s weighing, and concluded that her weight was not so bad after all, and she made us see that, although there are guidelines that should be taken into account, each baby has his or her own growth rate. We are committed to stop using the silicone nipples. We followed all the BC guidelines and after a week we returned for the weighing. To everyone’s surprise (ours and the health professionals), the baby had gained more weight than expected. We were on a great path!

Today, after five months, we have a healthy, chubby and exclusively breastfed baby.

Thanks Bruno for sharing!