"I was never offered any support with breastfeeding"

Firstly I would like to say that my entire antenatal and labour experience was incredible. My community midwives in the Cedar team were so amazing the whole way through my pregnancy, and after my baby was born they were always friendly and explained everything really well. I felt like me and my husband had built a nice relationship with them. My labour experience was extremely positive for me, despite some complications, due to the incredible midwives and student midwives involved in my care. I unfortunately don’t know their names but they were all amazing and kept me so calm and brought our amazing baby boy into the world.

Unfortunately our experience was tainted slightly in the days following our baby’s birth. A health care support worker came out to weigh my baby on day 4 and found that he had lost 11% of his birth weight. My baby was 9lbs 8 when he was born so was quite a big boy. He was also extremely swollen and looking back at photos he had clearly retained a lot of water during labour! The HCSW commented on how bright and healthy looking my baby was, however wanted us to go to the hospital the next day to have him weighed again and commented that if they want to admit him then you’ll already be there so it’ll be fine. As a brand new mum with a 4-day-old baby, I took this comment (which was probably just them thinking out loud) so seriously and couldn’t understand why my 4-day-old baby who seemed to be feeding well and looked healthy and settled would need to be admitted to hospital. This really hit me like a tonne of bricks.

Before this HCSW left I stated that my baby was due a feed and they didn’t offer to stay and have a look at his latch or to check if there was anything I was doing wrong, they just left. After speaking to my mum and my husband and getting really upset, we decided not to go to the hospital the day after as my baby was very unlikely to have gained any weight in that time and we had a pre-booked appointment the day after anyway.

When we went up to that appointment he was weighed again and had lost a further 20grams. Again the midwife commented how healthy and settled and alert my baby was, however they went and spoke to the paediatric consultant for advice due to the protocol stating intervention is required if a baby loses between 10-12.5% of their birth weight.

Luckily for us the paediatric consultant used their common sense and said we could go home and continue as we are and get him weighed again through the week. The midwife then suggested that we give our baby a bottle and that I try and express. I told the midwife I didn’t want to do this, as introducing a bottle that early can cause confusion and make the baby stop breast feeding.

We went home and again I was extremely upset and anxious thinking that my baby wasn’t getting enough milk. The midwife in the hospital did observe a feed and couldn’t see anything wrong with what we were doing but again suggested I express and give him a bottle. On day 8 the midwife came out and weighed my baby and he had gained weight, which they were happy with and so discharged us from midwifery.

At no point was I ever asked what I wanted to do or how I felt breastfeeding was going. I was never offered any support with breastfeeding. No one mentioned the breast feeding clinic at the hospital or the breast feeding support groups running in Forth Valley. The first person to weigh our baby didn’t even stay and observe a feed that day. I wasn’t given information about the various breast feeding support lines available. I was advised to express and try to give him a bottle but it wasn’t explained to me that this can have a negative effect on breastfeeding.

I can honestly say that if it hadn’t been for my Mum and my husband supporting me, I would have quit, which is so heartbreaking to me as now I am established with breastfeeding I love it so much and it is so much more convenient for me and my baby. I am a firm believer in fed is best and if there was any indication at all that there was something wrong with my baby I would have been up at the hospital and I would have done anything to make sure he was okay. However, he was clearly a healthy, thriving baby.

I completely understand that protocols exist for a reason, however going into a new Mum’s house at 4 days postpartum and mentioning hospital admission is highly likely to cause stress, anxiety and panic which is completely counter productive to any breast feeding journey. The baby blues hit me very hard after that first weight and it makes me so sad to think back to the anxiety this caused me and how much I didn’t enjoy the first two weeks of my baby’s life due to fixating on his weight.

I don’t want this to be seen as a complaint, as I mentioned the rest of my experience with the midwifery team was so so positive and I don’t want to take away from that, I just feel that a little bit of training on how to approach discussions about weight loss with new mums in the very early postpartum stage would be beneficial. I also think that giving information about the various support available to breast feeding Mums in Forth Valley would save a lot of stress and panic rather than resorting straight to offering a bottle. I can see why so many Mums give up on breastfeeding early on.