The ABC’s of Breastfeeding
I once assigned my eighth graders the ABC Book Project. It required students to choose 1 or more vocabulary words for each letter of the alphabet, based on their book. The word could be selected from the story itself, or simply be related vocabulary. I thought it would be interesting to pick out some words for breastfeeding and my personal experience. Below is a work in progress.
A- Anxiety
I felt anxiety in the early weeks, when I didn’t know what I was doing, when Ryder didn’t know what he was doing, when the breastfeeding relationship was new and on rocky footing. Ryder couldn’t latch properly at first and it was painful. He seemed to be hungry all the time because he was nursing every few hours. He began cluster feeding. Family members would ask if I knew how much milk I was giving him and I had no definite answer. Husband just wanted to give baby a bottle.
Recently a doctor visit shook me. Ryder had lost 2 ounces in body weight since his last appointment, and the doctor questioned my milk supply. I became wracked with anxiety about his health. When you are responsible for your child’s nutrition, it can be easy to become worried or anxious.
B- Bad latch
In those initial weeks of building up my milk supply, Ryder was unable to latch successfully. When he attempted to latch my left nipple, the pain was excruciating. It felt as though he was biting down on my nipple and then sucking it to the back of his mouth. I tried tilting his head back, opening his mouth wide, trying to replicate illustrations and YouTube videos I’d seen online and nothing was working. I often bore the pain so that he’d at least be getting milk. I knew deep down that breastfeeding may be uncomfortable at first, but never painful. So one day, tears streaming down my cheeks while I held him in a cross cradle position and rocked him in the nursery, I prayed aloud to God to allow us to fix his weak latch and allow him to get as much milk possible. I spent all day focused on fixing the latch to eliminate my pain and get my son his milk. It was one of the hardest days in those early weeks, but he finally got it. Did he revert to his bad latch again? Yes, every now and then, but I’d re-latch him every time.
C- Cluster feeding; Chup, Chuping
Cluster feeding. Because I was faced with questions about how much milk my son was getting, I began researching during all the time I spent nursing Ryder late at night. I kept a memo on my cell documenting every time Ryder had a wet or dirty diaper, every time he nursed, every time he napped. I realize now there are apps for this. (Before the cell memo I used a small dry erase board!) Tracking everything helped me see that I was nourishing my baby but I began to question the hours of continuous nursing. Yes, hours. My memo shows that for nearly a week and a half, my son would nurse me from 7 at night to 1 in the morning. I continued to read up during these lengthy, exhausting nursing sessions, and discovered that what Ryder was doing was cluster feeding to build up my milk supply. I was not going dry at one month postpartum!
Chup, Chuping. In Spanish, the word chupar means “to suck.” My husband always comments about how all Ryder wants to do is chup.
D- Diet (mother’s)
E- Expectations
F- Full feed, Foremilk
G- Galactagogue
H- H2O
I- Introducing solids, Interruption
J-
K-
L- Letdown, Lanolin, Low milk supply
M- Midnight muffin
N- Nipple shield: blessing or curse?
O- Oversupply
P- Performance anxiety, Prolactin, Pumping, Power pumping
Q-
R- Right way vs. Wrong way to breastfeed
S- Supplement (with expressed milk or formula)
T- Tears
U- Unexpected friendship
V- Visitors
W- Weaning
X-
Y-
Z-