Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Jan
13
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“They Fit Just Fine!”
“They fit just fine!” – Lactation consultant to mother who inquired if the flanges for her breast pump were the right size as she was extremely large breasted. 6 days later, mother returned with significant blisters from the improper fit.
There are 17 comments to this post.
Paige had this to say,
Jan 13, 2012 @ 3:28 pm (Quote)
I had a LC like this one at the hospital. I told her I didn’t think the pump was working right because it would suction out and then my nipples would pop back (like pulling off the fingers of a rubber glove). She told me I just needed to get used to it. It was my husband who made her realize I was right.I had a lot of pain nursing for a few hours after that.
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The Deranged Housewife had this to say,
Jan 13, 2012 @ 4:18 pm (Quote)
I find it so sad that someone who makes the effort to go through all that training still comes out of it giving crappy advice and not really knowing anything. I was skeptical of the last LC I had – the one with my first was fantastic.
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Rebecca Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 4:56 pm (Quote)
Notice it says lactation consultant, not IBCLC. As far as I know, anyone can use the title LC, and there isn’t required education to do so.
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Jen Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 5:04 pm (Quote)
Sadly, the IBCLCs aren’t all great even with the training. At one of my local hospitals, they have 5 on staff who are IBCLC, but they are all primarily L&D nurses who have to fit in their LC duties around laboring patients. They just don’t have time to do the job properly, so they fall back on “quick fixes” that aren’t always appropriate for the situation.
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Bazile Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 6:17 pm (Quote)
The hospital my daughter was born at had an IBCLC whose primary job was as a lactation consultant, and then she taught the hospital childbirth classes, parenting, and breastfeeding classes. But, she basically worked 9-5, so by the time I was brought up from recovery and got to actually attempt to nursing, she was off work. The LD nurses tried to help since, between the c-section and the meconium my daughter and I totally missed the alert hour or so, I was having trouble getting her awake enough to latch on to my swollen nipples. They were nice and tried to help, even brought me a breast shield (that didn’t fit since I was a DD before I got pregnant)to try. But they weren’t really sure how to help. I’m not even sure since they pronounced my nipples flat that they even realized that it was probably actually caused by the hours of Pitocin and the over 24 hours of iv fluids that I was still on at that point. The actual lactation consultant is someone whose praises I will probably sing for the rest of my life because she’s the reason I’m still nursing 11 months later, because much longer of not nursing probably would have had me giving her formula just so she could have something to eat, and luckily she had the LD/Postpartum nurses trained well enough to not offer formula to women who planned to nurse. But as well meaning as I think the nurses were there and probably at other hospitals, I don’t really think they normally have the time or the training to truly help beyond what’s textbook normal.
Though as far the OP goes, that lactation consultant sounds like a complete idiot, and I am truly sorry.
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Boy it took like 2 weeks of trial and error to get the right size flanges while I was pumping for my NICU baby. And not only were the poor fitting ones quite painful but they were useless too, leaked more milk than got into the container!
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They come in different sizes? Maybe that’s why I was completely unable to pump breastmilk. Thanks LC for yet another way you screwed over my ability to breastfeed.
I saw 3 LCs and they all sucked worse than the last. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there’s some great ones out there, I just didn’t meet any.
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Teri had this to say,
Jan 13, 2012 @ 8:10 pm (Quote)
At least you got to see a LC. During my pregnancy I asked my midwife 3 times if my inverted nipples would cause me any trouble and without even looking at them she told me I’d be fine. When my Lil man was born I had real problems because they were just completely flat. I was determined to breastfeed and they wouldn’t let me leave hospital until I could feed him. After 3 days of every nurse on every shift thinking they’d be able to help and doing the exact same thing as the last my partner bought me a breast pump and they let me.go home. I asked to see a LC as I knew they had one on staff whose job was just to be a LC but I never got to. Saying that they didn’t even change my bed sheets til the day I left so I’m not that surprised.
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Teri had this to say,
Jan 13, 2012 @ 8:21 pm (Quote)
My breast pump did actually have a pretty good size flange that I didn’t have a problem with, which isn’t bad considering I was an E cup before pregnancy and by that point had given up trying to work out my cup size. I had a TommeeTippee pump and it was brilliant but it was a hand pump and I have weak wrists so I had to give up. By the time I got to see a LC my son was 6 weeks old and due to stress and problems my milk had started drying up. But she was fantastic and I’m pretty sure if I were to have another baby I know what I’d need to do to get baby latching. The midwife who was there during delivery taught me to hand Express. It’s not great if you’re doing if all day but its great to relieve some of the pressure and its not as difficult as you’d think.
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You know, I have only seen “petite” and medium sizes, where in the world does one fine larger ones? I know there has to be a need (I would need if I pumped), and yet it isn’t readily apparent as a selection.
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Les Reply:
January 14th, 2012 at 11:15 am (Quote)
I was able to get what I needed from the hospital’s LC department. I’ve seen the large size Medela ones at Babies R Us, but their is also an XL that can be ordered. I think Hygeia also makes different size flanges. Check through the websites and on the different retailers sites. You may also be able to find a hospital lc dept that would let you try the different sizes.
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This is mine. DD didn’t latch at birth b/c of the interventions we had, so we started off with pumping and all. I repeatedly said I didn’t think the flanges fit, and this LC(yes, she is an IBCLC) kept saying they were fine. I didn’t know that pumps even came with different sized flanges at the time, so I went home on a hospital grade pump with standard flanges for size H breasts. When I went back to the LC department at the end of the week with the blisters, thankfully I got the REALLY GREAT LC on staff, and the first words out of her mouth were, “Well, I think you need the larger size flanges.” When the blisters were gone the next day after getting the larger size ones, I was livid. I reported the LC to the hospital, and also made sure the head of Lactation knew what had happened. I’ve been assured that the original LC has been brought up to speed on helping moms find the correct fit.
This was almost six years ago now. We struggled for about 10 weeks to get my daughter to latch, and I went through mastitis 3x, thrush for 6 weeks, Reynaud’s that has caused permenant damage, and several more issues in that time period. She did finally go from screaming at the sight of my breast to being fully breastfed at 3 months old(mostly b/c of the support of the awesome LC!), and we were able to make it to just over a year. Our initial issues were due to a rough epidural delivery and a bottle that was given to her 4 hours after birth. The good news is that everything that happened during her birth and postpartum period sent me into researching breastfeeding like crazy, and that sent me into researching birth. My second was born at home in 08 and latched wonderfully despite having a posterior tongue tie. She was also dairy and soy intolerant, and we really HAD to make nursing work simply for the financial side of things for our family. We went on to nurse for 14 months without having any of the issues I had the first time around. In a way, having so much trouble with my first truly saved my second baby’s health, and made me a better mom for it.
Now, I just have to birth the third that was due on 12/31 and is taking his/her sweet time getting here…..
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As an M-cup full-time working mama who had to make pumping work: http://www.pumpinpal.com/ best flanges out there particularly for larger breasted women. But regardless of size, they don’t have the hard right angle corners, so less pain/blistering
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Well, of course they do! Everyone knows that breast pumps are a one size fits all kind of thing!
The stupidity hurts. Sorry, OP… I’m guessing those blisters hurt pretty bad, too.
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