Breastfeeding Presentation - A little encouragement for me and other birth professionals

Hello all! I have been in a terrible hiatus lately as I over-prepared for my presentation. (Background: I'm now a pre-nursing major - officially nursing in the fall - and had a breastfeeding presentation for my nutrition class).

But right now I'm pumped at how the presentation went! I wanted to just share my thoughts, and I hope you'll find them as encouraging as I did.

Before the presentation, I was nervous about a number of things. I had a lot to talk about and not a lot of time. I knew this was probably one of very very few changes these pre-nursing and nursing majors would have to learn about breastfeeding, and I was determined to do it right. Besides the issues of a couple group members (yes, group project love), I had the issues of talking about breastfeeding without anyone shutting down because they felt guilty or didn't agree. I had a textbook that stated formula feeds once daily at three weeks were no big deal and didn't even discuss the supply and demand principle. 

I had already come up against nervous nursing types before the presentation. We had asked at the beginning of the semester if we could have someone come in and demo breastfeeding for the class - we were shot down. While the professor was supportive, the dean was concerned about repercussions and denied the request. When the class learned of this, I got some fun comments - "Someone would do THAT?!" "I would be so embarrassed." etc. The typical. 

My response: I knitted a breast hat for the baby doll and a breast model for our display. I also was lucky enough to be able to order to very cool breast model from Childbirth Graphics. 

Our group had divided up the work, and I had taken the overview portion of the presentation. About a month before the presentation, one group member had a family emergency and dropped, so I took her part as well. In the end, my topic list was the following:

• breast anatomy/physiology
• latch
• positioning
• oxytocin
• prolactin
• supply/demand priniciple
• maternal nutrition (calories and nutrients, tandem nursing, loosing weight, increasing supply, placentophagy).

And yes, you read the last one correctly. I was going to talk placentophagy (eating the placenta) to a bunch of nurses.

Needless to say I skipped breakfast that morning.

But....despite all this, I was very encouraged afterwards!

I started with the current recommendations (WHO and AAP) and compared the Healthy People 2020 Goals to the US and WV 2010 rates. I got some shocked looks that it was that bad - yes, it is that bad. (for reference, WV has a breastfeeding initiation rate of 52%, national average around 75%, goal of 82%.)

We talked about the breast, and I explained how latch works, how latch has to be effective to initiate supply and demand, how to tell a bad latch, how prolactin works, how oxytocin works, how you can use that information to understand how to increase suspected low supply, how demand at the breast is essential for supply, etc etc etc. A lot of nods, some lightbulbs going off about - maybe why it didn't work for them/someone they knew. I talked about maternal nutrition, about how much weight loss was average, how much typically began to effect supply, some considerations with what might be lacking in diet and what supplements were probably not necessary for the infant/mother, what things a mother might take to increase supply, and why some eat the placenta. 

Yes, placentophagy got some gasps, but I told them that I wanted to address the topic so they could gasp now rather than with the mother who asked for her placenta. Also addressed that some mothers may want the placenta for other reasons besides encapsulation (culture respect) and they needed to be ready to deal with such a request. 

I didn't get stoned afterwards.

In fact, I got a lot of questions and comments afterwards. "What about breast reduction - how does it effect?" "See, I had that problem too, that makes sense now." And on.

I'm so pumped about the feedback with this presentation; I can't even convey. I'm not naive enough (quite) to think that it's a huge impact - one class out of many, and many won't even make the nursing program in the end. However, there are a least a few nurses out there who know a little more about breastfeeding and who might be a little more supportive. Yes, unfortunately there are a lot of nurses out there who seem to know nothing about natural birth and breastfeeding. But there are those who do care...

And it's got to start somewhere right?

Some thoughts on my scar - Cesarean Awareness Month

I've been thinking about my scar more often in the past few weeks - I guess it's part of the healing process. So, this weekend when I came across this post on Facebook from ICAN - "Today's CAM task: For those of you who have had a cesarean, find a quiet spot today, and touch your scar. Spend a few minutes with it. If your scar could speak, what would it say? Be gentle with yourself" - I decided it was time to put those thoughts into words here. Pictures do follow at the end, so be aware that they are not graphic, but raw and personal. 

My scar is hideous. There are days I hate it. It's disfiguring and I will never be rid of it.

I was totally unprepared for the pain and numbness - both emotional and physical. No one ever told me I would lose feeling from my belly button to my pubic hair line. I didn't know that through the pervading numbness, my scar would sometimes be painful, even tingle. 

I didn't know that some days I would hate my cesarean so much I could cry, while other days I'd acknowledge that under those circumstances, I'd probably do it all over again.

I can't handle the way my skin hangs in relation to the scar. My scar itself is tight, but all the numb skin and tissue is loose. It's embarrassing that my stomach hangs lower on the right side than on the left. I'm disheartened when I think that diet and exercise seem to do little good when the numbness seems to affect the ability to tone and tighten.

The scar itself seems to testify the disregard the surgeon must have had in repair. The right side of the scar is fading like a stretch mark; it's thin and light. The left side is raised and angry, and it extends out farther to my hipbone than the right side does. Sometimes my underwear seems to catch on my scar; sometimes I nick it shaving. 

And yet...

I know the fire and passion I had for birthing and women's health rights before my surgery - it's shameful in comparison now.

Surgical birth, recovery, emotional healing - they have given me the experience and empathy I never could have hoped to have had before. I'm ashamed that this is what it took, but grateful to be here in these convictions.

Please go to: http://sites.google.com/site/healthymamachildbirth and click on the ICAN chapter link for more information about a support group coming soon.