"Birth and feeding journey"

I write this to highlight my recent experience at Broome hospital where I recently had my third child.

Firstly, I would like to highlight the great work of the midwives in the Midwifery Group Program (MGP), particularly Tegan, Alyce and Kate and also a special mention to head paediatrician, Mel, for her time and support.

Following a near-perfect pregnancy and positive birth experience, the only glitch was at day 6 post-birth, my bub and I started to experience feeding difficulties, and it was mentioned by two midwives that bub did look to have a tongue tie. Having experienced this with my first child, I was familiar with the issue and having also exclusively breastfed my second bub with no issues I knew I was more than capable of breastfeeding.

Following days of no weight gain in bub, marathon feeding sessions and damaged nipples, my midwife felt it timely to speak with a senior physician in obstetrics and the senior midwife to make a plan, both of which,I gather, dismissed the idea of a tongue tie without seeing bub or myself, it was concluded that I had a low supply and should start pumping or offer formula so I could rest and try to build my supply. Both of which seems highly contradictory, considering I understand it's common knowledge with breastfeeding that demand feeding is the most effective way to increase supply, assuming bub is able to attach correctly, which by the condition of my nipples, was not the case.

Following my distress by this suggestion, my midwife suggested we come into the hospital to discuss further, even at this point, I felt the senior physician showed no interest in checking bub or discussing feeding issues with me in person.

One of my midwives took it upon themselves to approach one of the paeds directly, who were happy to view bub and could see there was a slight tongue tie issue. It was then arranged for us to meet with Mel the following day.

Following our appointment with Mel and her thorough assessment of bub, watching our feeding, listening to my concerns and going through the scale to measure the severity of the tongue-tie, she was happy to perform a small snip on bub, explaining this wouldn’t necessarily fix all feeding issues, that we needed to ensure correct positioning and attachment and offered some online resources to assist with feeding.

This occurred on day 9 post-birth. We are still working through feeding and trying to increase weight gain.

It’s my hope with writing this that the Broome hospital can remove what seems to be a stigma around tongue ties, actively check to ensure bubs are thoroughly checked over to ensure issues with feeding, which would ultimately result in ceasing breastfeeding altogether.

Whilst I appreciate some women can continue to feed successfully through tongue tie issues, I believe this is not always the case. I would also like to highlight what I think is the lack of support around lactation services offered to mothers as often advice from midwives seems to differ greatly.

Whilst I appreciate recruitment issues in the Kimberley make it difficult to have a dedicated lactation consultant, I feel possibly having the option of a Telehealth service with a more experienced, dedicated professional might be a possibility.