From mothers
milk, fever, breast milk, panic, pain, tiredness, mastitis, shivering
MASTITIS
Early initiation of breastfeeding was the most difficult for mothers, particularly among those who had a cesarean delivery. Someone else (grandparents, fathers, health care workers) took care of their newborn while mothers often found the milk did not “come in” in the first days.
“I had a cesarean section. There was no skin-to-skin contact. The doctors took the baby out of the operating room and bring to her grandmother. After the operation, I was alone in a postnatal room for the whole day. On the second day, I was in pain and could not move, I did not have any drops of milk, and I could not sit up. So, grandmothers took care of her and gave her only bottles”. (0304Text2).When milk had “come in”, mothers had a lack of knowledge and experience in dealing with difficulties during breastfeeding and often turned to an easier option of formula feeding with support from family members.“On day 10th, I had a fever, I didn’t know it was mastitis at that time. I could not express milk much. It was so painful. I clicked my tongue: “let’s feed her with formula, I don’t have much milk, she is hungry and crying. Pumping causes soreness in nipples, tiredness, shivering, and fever but not much milk is extracted”. So, I did not eat much, and ran out of milk after 20 days. I fed my baby with formula completely since then”. (0904Text4).Some examples of difficulties during breastfeeding were their infant not focusing on breastfeeding, both playing and sucking at the same time, prolonged time taken for breastfeeding compared with bottle feeding; a child sleeping while breastfeeding, which did not happen with bottle feeds; a child ‘demanding’ feeds too often and the mother didn’t get enough sleep at night and breastfeed refusal. Mothers were also stressed and blamed themselves as “bad mom” when breastmilk was not yet ejected or not enough, newborns gained no weight, etc. Good preparation and planning for breastfeeding during pregnancy would help to adapt to breastfeeding.“On the third day, there was still no milk as full as I thought. I began to panic and was afraid of not having enough breast milk. I remember when I attended an antenatal class, the counselor repeated again and again that “if you think you don’t have enough milk for the baby, you won’t have enough milk for real! You must be relaxed and comfortable!”. I called my sister for support and reassurance. I tried to reassure myself and not to feed with formula. In the evening of the third day after giving birth, the milk came in a lot”. (0904Text3).