"Feeding and care"

I spent 6 days on the ward when my baby was not gaining weight and was jaundiced. 4 days in their jaundice had reached levels that required phototherapy. The midwife placed them in their open cot with just their nappy on and turned the light on. After approx 6 hours I felt as if my baby was not maintaining their temperature and requested they be put in an incubator which was quickly organised by the midwife. At midnight that night approximately 12 hours after my baby was placed under phototherapy the night shift midwife woke me up and told me that the lights had not been correctly turned on and that the last 12 hours of phototherapy would not have done anything to help their jaundice.

We were obviously having difficulty feeding as my baby wasn’t gaining weight so it was suggested I express and feed them bottles so they could have measured amounts (as I want to breastfeed).

3 hours would come around and I would try and wake my baby and feed them EBM with great difficulty sometimes taking longer than 30 minutes and not being able to get them to finish the bottle. When telling multiple midwives that it was taking that long and I was struggling to get them to drink their bottles I was often told it should take approximately 5 minutes for my baby to finish the bottle and to keep trying to force them to drink the EBM. I then would ask for the midwives to be present for a feed to which they would agree but would never come back in time even if I pressed the call button. Sometimes it would take 20/30 minutes for them to come.

After not having any help with trying to feed my baby I pleaded for hospital staff to let me take them home where I believed I would have more help from my fiancé and family at home. We were sent home with scales to monitor their weight. 2 days after we went home I had the home visiting midwife arrive at the perfect time - my baby was due a feed. Finally someone to watch them feed. The midwife spent some valuable time with us and agreed that my baby wasn’t feeding well and couldn’t get my baby to drink their bottle either. The midwife gave us a few other suggestions on how to feed them.

That afternoon the midwife called me and said after discussing our situation with some colleagues suggested we take my baby to another hospital. The next morning I decided I would take them to the other hospital as I felt that they were not getting enough milk and was not producing wet nappies. My baby was assessed and transferred to my local hospital as they felt that they could provide the same amount of care just closer to my home.

I finally felt heard and my baby ended up spending 2 nights in the special care nursery with the most amazing people looking after them. They were fed via NG tube while they had a great big sleep and the nurses worked with them to get them sucking their bottles.

I wish I had been heard in the early days as I feel it would not have taken so long to get my baby to feed.

Since coming home I have had 2 appointments at the breastfeeding centre with Sandra where her help and advice has been invaluable and I am now exclusively breastfeeding with great weight gains.

I really hope that by sharing my experience it can at least help one other mum to not go through what I did.

Some sort of follow up would also be appreciated.