Before Jenna was even born, I knew that I wanted to breastfeed. I won’t go into all my reasons here - that’s another post all together - but when we learned about the extent of all of her intestinal issues and her problems with feeding, I immediately assumed that my hopes for breastfeeding were dashed. I’m so thankful I asked and that we had fantastic doctors and nurses who were encouraging and accommodating. I learned that I could express (i.e., pump) breast milk that would be used through her feeding pump so that she could still get all the nutritional advantages I wanted to offer her through breastfeeding even though she wouldn’t get it directly from me. I began pumping immediately so that she could get the benefits of colostrum, and it wasn’t long before my milk production was far exceeding her rate of feeding. I carefully labeled and froze everything I expressed, and the nursing staff worked with me to use the “older” milk first, so that nothing was being wasted.
Click here to continue reading...
Psychmamma is the contributing editor for Special Medical Needs. She writes at Psychmamma where she covers life with Jenna, her "spunky little two year-old who was born with a triple intestinal atresia." Her blog is also the home of Special Needs Sundays.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment