This post is part of the Ask Me Anything series I’m running on my blog. To submit your own question, use the form below. Here’s the original post that talks about what I’m looking for.
How do you handle your anxiety while breastfeeding? Are you able to take any medications? I’m such a control freak, it would drive me nuts not to be able to measure how much the baby is eating!
Since these questions are completely anonymous, I need to make some assumptions about this one. The two questions seem to me to be about my anxiety in general and how breastfeeding affects that because certain medications aren’t safe for nursing moms or are more of a risk. However, she may be asking me how I handle anxiety about breastfeeding, as her statement talks about if the baby is getting enough nutrition.
So I probably need to be back on antianxiety meds. Probably. I think I do fairly well and then I don’t. And my whole anxiety stems completely on Olivia getting sick—with vomiting. I’ve noticed this is spilling over into Emelia, and either kid becoming sick in general, regardless of symptoms. And I know there are medications that are deemed acceptable in nursing and I haven’t done that, probably from stubbornness or concern. Maybe it’s because I’m floating along, not sure if I’m bad enough to actually need meds or not. So to answer the question, I have a therapist I’ve been seeing for the last two years, and yes, I can take medications, but I haven’t taken that plunge yet.
As for not knowing how much the baby is getting, well, luckily, I don’t have any issues with supply, not even when I was exclusively pumping that first month while Emelia was in the NICU and she needed to learn how to suck without pooping out. I know how much that helps. I nursed a lot and I still do. Nursing is all about supply and demand—the more you nurse, the more your body is triggered to produce more milk. My rule of thumb was always, as long as they’re gaining weight and making wet diapers, they’re getting enough. I’ve never used any supplements as the midwife I worked with who was a lactation consultant had said there isn’t much to those anyway. I did NOT need anything else to over-focus on during that time.
I hope I answered that right. If you submitted this and I got it all wrong, please feel free to clarify!
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That stressed me out the most in the beginning when it was like I was barely producing any milk and you are almost guilted (by the hospital) into not using any formula. It’s like if I could have just given him some formula to make up for what I wasn’t producing he would have been fed and happy and I wouldn’t have felt so terrible for not being able to feed him. (granted he ended up have pyloric stenosis and he wouldn’t have been able to keep anything in his tummy anyway until he had surgery)
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I don’t think I knew that – that he had pyloric stenosis. Maybe I did. But that’s so stressful!