It was so good to speak with you this afternoon. I am amazed at your energy
and resilience, and most of all your dedication to and love for your
daughter, Jadalyn. She is a very fortunate little one to have a mother like
you who works so hard to give her the best.
As I mentioned on the phone, our local trainer there is Karen Peters, who is
the chair of the LA Breastfeeding Task Force and is one of our Peer
Counselor trainers. I am copying this to her and I am sure she will respond
to you as soon as she can. I do not know whether she has any trainings
planned but she can fill you in on when or if there are any scheduled. Your
situation does not eliminate you from the Peer Counselor Program. Your many
attempt to bring Jadalyn to your breast and your continuing to provide your
milk for her shows great determination and love. You are in a great place
for breastfeeding resources! Keep asking and looking, and never, never give
up! We need more women like you.
With warm wishes,
Kathy
PS. Your story is amazing, would you mind if I submitted it to our New
Beginnings magazine?
Peer Counselor Program Manager
La Leche League International
==========================================================================La Dear Kathy,
I am interested in taking the La Leche League Peer Counselor Program. I
have wanted to become a Lactation Consultant for the past ten years but I
was waiting until I had nursed my own child before starting on the path.
I was married in July 2002 to a wonderful man and we decided right away to
get pregnant. I was pregnant by December. I went through all the
prenatal testing and visits, had a few scares but in the end it was
determined that everything was okay with the baby.
My water broke a week before her due date. I wasn't contracting so the
Midwife suggested I use Castor oil to get things started. I had some
contractions but they stopped. I went into the hospital the next day
thinking that I would have a natural childbirth labor and a healthy baby.
I could not have been more wrong. They had to put me on pitocin because I
was not contracting. After 19 hours on a very low dose they decided to
increase it to the maximum level. At that time my Midwife suggested that
I get an epidural. So I did and then in the morning they checked me and I
still was only dilated to 5cm. Finally at 10am I had dilated to 8cm and
there was still hope that I would be able to push the baby out. At 12pm
they checked me again and I still was at 8cm. They had been also been
monitoring me from outside the room as well because my Midwife came in
with the doctor and I knew it wasn't good. (She had mentioned c-section
earlier if I did not continue to dilate) They told me that they would
have to do a c-section as I was not contracting in a regular way, or
dilating and the baby had never moved down beyond a -1 position. So I
went in for the c-sec at 2pm. When the baby came out she made a small
little cry/sigh and I knew something was wrong. They called my husband
over and my Midwife held my hand while they finished sewing me up. I saw
the baby for a moment and they whisked her out of the room. In the
recovery room my Midwife brought the baby in (Jadalyn Angel Sidener - 6
lbs 15 ounces) and told me that there were a lot of problems with her.
She had hydrocephalus and that is why she never descended in my pelvis.
She had club feet and they couldn't tell what else. We were in a smaller
hospital so they had to send her to their larger hospital that had a NICU.
I had to remain in the hospital to recover from my surgery. My husband
went back and forth between the two of us. She was transferred to
Children's Hospital in Los Angeles the day after she was born. When I got
out of the hospital I wanted to go straight away to see her. It was so
difficult because she had so many problems. I cried and cried so very
much in those early days. She stayed in the hospital for two months. She
had five surgeries (a shunt, an operation to take it out when it got
infected, a revision shunt surgery, an open heart surgery to repair a hole
in the center of her heart and on the bottom of her heart and a surgery to
fix the malrotation of her intestines and to put in a G-Tube because she
was not feeding every feed with the bottle (she tired easily) and they
wanted to get her home to us). Although she had many challenges, she
continued to get better and better. I never gave up hope even though it
seemed that the doctors wanted us to. A few weeks before she came home
they told us that due to her hydrocephalus not a lot of brain material
had formed and what did form was very abnormal. Due to this and her
chromosome problem (which is what caused all of these abnormalities) they
did not think she would live very long and they wanted her to come home as
soon as possible so that she could die at home. After her abdominal
surgery she had respiratory distress and they had a meeting with us and said
they would take her off of the respirator and they did not think she would
live through the weekend. If she did and she was okay they would send her
home with us. Talk about a contradiction! She made it through, as she
always did before, and she came home. She is continuing to do well at
home and there is hope. She went to her pediatrician on Friday and she
seemed to think that Jadalyn is doing really well and could make it
after all. We have hospice care for her but we continue to think it is
just a nice bonus to have nursing care at home, instead of a death
sentence.
Before Jadalyn was born I had bought a Pump In Style breast pump so that I
could pump when I went back to work. It was not cheap but after a few
weeks of going to the hospital every day to see my baby my milk supply was
starting to dwindle. I called my Midwife to see what she would suggest
and she gave me the number of one of the local La Leche League Leaders,
Katie D. I called Katie and she was an enormous
help. She could relate completely to Jadalyn's story as she had some of
her similar challenges. She was so knowledgeable and supportive. She
told me right away that I should be using a hospital grade pump. She
brought it over to my house and the difference was amazing. I stopped
having pain when I was pumping and my milk supply increased. I had wanted
to breastfeed Jadalyn with all my heart and soul but a few things stood in
my way - her heart problems and surgeries made her very weak and so the
doctors did not want me to put stress on her by breastfeeding. Her suck
was/is very weak. It is hard for her to even drink from a bottle (but we
keep training her every day in hopes that she can eventually eat by mouth
and not via the G-Tube) I also discovered that she is tongue tied. So my
dreams of breastfeeding (since I was 23 years old) were dashed and it
added to my many disappointments. I started pumping once my milk came in
(at about 7 days postpartum) and I continue to this day. I will continue
as long as possible because I feel so strongly that it is helping my baby
to grow and thrive and it is helping her immune system to stay strong.
Plus her little brain needs all the help it can get!
I became interested in breastfeeding when I was 23 and I was hanging out
with my cousin Laura who lives in San Diego. She was breastfeeding her
third child at the time. She is amazing! She breastfed all of her
children for three years each, she home schools, she recycles, she
composts, she is an organic farmer, she does it all! She educated and
inspired me to become interested in natural birth and breastfeeding. I
have continued to be interested in breastfeeding to this day. I have
wanted to help women to breastfeed for such a long time but I felt that I
should do it first. I have put my baby to breast, many times, but she
could not get any milk out. Katie even tried to help but to no avail. I
realize that you should have breastfed your baby before you become a Peer
Counselor but in my case I was not able to. I am planning on taking a
Lactation Educator 5 day course at the Lactation Institute in Encino in
August. I would like to become more involved with La Leche League now
that I am healed from my c-section and have a schedule with Jadalyn. I
have joined a local group called Breastfeeding Task Force of Los Angeles
and plan on volunteering with them when I can on the weekends. I work
full time and am very lucky because I work at home four days a week and go
into the office once a week, so I am able to be home with my baby. My
husband and I plan on having more children and I plan on breastfeeding
them. Due to my experience I would like to help Moms who have children
with special needs to breastfeed. I know how important it is and how they
need the support, reassurance and guidance from someone who has been
there. I did not feel the support in the hospital. I had to get it in
the community. Please let me know if I am eligible for the Peer Counselor
Program, what steps I should take to get involved and if you will have any
classes in the Los Angeles or Ventura County, California area in the
coming year. Thank you for your time.
*****POSTSCRIPT***** I did give Kathy permission to put my story in the La Leche League magazine. I eventually took a LLL Peer Counselor Training. I did not do anything after that. Life was always so busy and it was hard for me to do the follow up work taking care of Jadalyn and working full time. I still would like to help moms with special needs children to breastfeed because I feel like it is such a bonding experience and is so healthy and healing for both mom and baby!
La Leche League International
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