A (extraordinary) Day In My Life
I am inspired to write about an extraordinary day I experienced yesterday in a California labor and delivery unit. A little background first: for the past four years I have been working diligently on a lactation support product I call “Primo-Lacto: A Closed System For Colostrum Collection.” This product is funded by Maternal Life, LLC (my company) and The NEPDC who awarded me two grants to develop this product. Primo-Lacto is currently being tested at three hospitals in the United States (Sharp Mary Birch, John Muir and Indiana Memorial of South Bend) under IRBs with mothers who have preterm infants in the NICU, or who are unable to breastfeed after birth due to latching issues, maternal health issues, or attitude issues. 120 mothers will be tested by the end of this summer, and so far, the interim data is very positive. NursingSymposiumPoster Special thanks to NeoMed for supplying all of the syringes for this study.
Yesterday I was invited by a head OB/GYN at a hospital in northern California to test the hand expression funnel with a mother who was having problems breastfeeding. When I entered this mother’s postpartum room, it was clear that she was distressed. The doctor and a lactation expert proceeded to demonstrate how to hold her breasts in order to perform hand expression and breastfeed her baby, which is not as obvious as it may seem. There is a technique that is often overlooked. We must remember that breastfeeding, hand expression and pumping are all learned behaviors, and not something that a woman and her baby should “naturally” know how to do. Half the battle is to keep trying even after it seems like nothing will work. Often, with persistence, a woman can succeed in expressing her colostrum for her baby even if he/she is preterm. One of the things I noticed was that this young mother was not particularly comfortable having these clinician’s hands on her body. I saw a grimace spread across her face as they tried to explain in Spanish and slow English how to proceed with the hand-expression technique. The language barrier became intolerable when the Spanish speaking doctor had to leave a few minutes later for a VBAC delivery. I pulled out my phone and opened a Google translation app. This seemed to bridge the frustrating gap that was starting to divide the mother and the lactation expert. Then, the lactation expert had to leave, and I was the only person left in the room. There I was… it was me, my “user” and a very serious Grandma. I don’t speak Spanish very well, but with the help of Google’s app and my own breastfeeding story, I sat next to her and shared what I had gone through, and how I succeeded with breastfeeding when I had my baby 6 years ago. Instead of touching her, I took my shirt off and showed her how to do it on my own body. She watched and emulated the technique. Of course, no colostrum came out of my breast, but she started to see more colostrum drip out of hers. We both started to laugh at the scene in her room. My lack of modesty, our Google translation app, the overwhelming all-encompassing fear of being responsible for a tiny new human. Grandma looked on and finally cracked a smile. The seriousness broke, she approached her daughter’s bed, placing a supportive hand on her back. By using the funnel, hearing a peer’s story and learning the techniques, this young woman started to feel confident that she could catch those tiny drops of colostrum and keep them for her sleeping baby. I demonstrated how to pull the syringe’s plunger down and cap it for refrigeration. I realized at that moment how important peer-to-peer support can be for new moms. Although I am not a young mother anymore, it seems like yesterday I was struggling with the same issues. If it wasn’t for the private lactation consultant I was fortunate enough to hire at home, I would have never succeeded with breastfeeding. Yesterday was the first time I was alone with a mom who was using Primo-Lacto. I was on the front line, present with her in her frustration and pain. These moments with her took me back to my own challenges. Breastfeeding seemed like God’s joke on women after my 12- hour labor and a level-4 episiotomy. But this young mother had just endured a C-section and lost one of her babies (they were twins). She was in a lot of pain, both mentally and physically. I sat with her, and tried to absorb some of it while we practiced hand expression technique together. Breathing. Laughing at the absurdity. We got this girlfriend.