What a Letdown!

With the first child, I could not understand what mothers meant when they talk about the letdown experience during breastfeeding. I felt as if I was not gaining enough on-the-job training on this one: Does one need to have to go through the engorgement, mastitis, nipple soreness in order to become an expert in breastfeeding?

With the current baby, I was quite taken aback to see the other breast spurting milk out of the nipple, like water shooting out from a fountain jet, while feeding on one side. Each feed feels as if one has a tiny blister with the plaster taken off during a bath – you can handle the pain but you’d rather not have the blister, if it’s in line with God’s will. It is quite strange to see milk coming out of the nipple: drip drip drip like water dropping from a faulty faucet.

What do I do with this letdown? While she’s feeding on one side, I place a towel over the breast that’s having the letdown reflex. Then as soon as she’s fed enough for me to feel comfortable, I take her off to feed her on the letdown side. A baby suckling at the breast is not as painful as letdown milk letting down on its own.

There are many suggestions one can find on the Internet for this ‘overactive letdown reflex’. I’m not here to provide a solution. I’m here to state my side of the pain and to say that even though I’m ‘in pain’, I would still carry on… knowing this is what’s best for me and my baby. And because I’ve gone the miles for the first, there’s no way I would do any less for the second.

So to the Letdown: I’ll just live and let live. jeanne anne hsi