Really, I’d like to know. I mean there are penis doctors. Last I checked penises don’t lactate and with breast augmentation and breast cancer I’d imagine a breast doc could be as busy as she wanted to be. But instead of readily available, up to date, actual scientifically proven real medical information, breast feeding is a hidden art and to get the wisdom you need a secret password.
So many new mama’s are surprised that it’s not as easy as they imagined, nothing about breastfeeding feels natural and in the beginning, it’s a multiple person job. You need about sixteen separate pillows, each folded into a kind of pillow origami perfection under this elbow here and that shoulder there. Then one pair of hands holding the baby’s flailing but powerful little arms away from the action. Another pair of hands holding the boob and it’s even better if a third person can tease the baby’s mouth into a wide open baby bird O shape then smash their face fast into your perfectly compressed C hold nipple. Then you have to remember to uncurl your toes from the pain of let down and uterine contractions that Mother Nature so kindly connected to early breast feeding. Then remember to lower your shoulder and breath and relax but as soon as you are comfy you remember that you need water or the baby needs to burp or you have to switch sides start over again.
So what about when there are not three sets of hands to help and you are that mama who can’t remember which side she last fed on and you get engorged and now you are sleep deprived and in pain? Or maybe you have a plugged duct that before your eyes is sprouting red spots and streaks and all of a sudden you feel feverish and weak and just as fast as you can say snap you have mastitis. And who you gunna call? Pediatrician? OB? GP? Where is the boob specialist when you need one?
Now you have a new baby without the right doc and you feel like you have been run over by a loaded up semi and oops look at that, it’s backing up again to slowly crush your already broken body. Grownups should not get fevers of 104 and what do you mean there are no sick days anymore now that you are someone’s mother?
Stay tuned for part II…