BY: MARY E. WOODIS
FEBRUARY 14, 1999
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Nursing Parker Daniil Page 3 Our Family More Links Our Garden of Links
Let me share a few of the technical details of how I, a woman who had suffered a complete hysterectomy was able to breast-feed a child. The first thing that I learned, much to my untutored amazement, was that you don't have to carry a baby to be able to produce breastmilk. Wow! That was good news! Next, your pituitary gland is what triggers the production of milk and it doesn't rely on your uterus or ovaries. Great! So how do I get the message to my pituitary gland that my breasts needed to start producing milk. By nursing! That was so easy!
By talking with my Herbalist, Pam Tomberlin, I discovered that you can help your body by giving it the nutrients that it needs to supply this milk. All the while giving your nursing child vital nutrition that it needs. I started out by supplementing my diet with the following herbs from Nature's Sunshine: Marshmallow, Blessed Thistle, and Alfalfa. Because of some unpleasant side affects in my own body, I changed the Blessed Thistle to a Wild Yam/Chaste Tree Combination. Chaste Tree Berries have also been called Vitex. This really helped me out tremendously. The Blessed Thistle had caused a moodiness that I could not explain and headaches. I was glad to stop taking this herb and get relief from the unpleasant side affects, my family was too! Plus, when I began taking the Wild Yam/Chaste Tree Combo, my milk almost doubled overnight. I was soo excited! I could feel that full sensation when it was time to nurse. A feeling I was beginning to wonder if I ever would feel again. It took me approximately one month to build up a good milk supply. I have nursed Parker Daniil three or four times in one day and not run dry. That was a comforting thought to me.
Many people have asked me how I taught my young son to nurse, since he was three years old when we began.This was something that perplexed me and caused me to suffer alot of soreness at the beginning. I knew to expect some initial soreness, but when it persisted for more than a couple of weeks, I knew something was wrong. Positioning is crucial in nursing, so I tried a variety of different positions. Nothing was helping. By contacting The La Leche League over the Internet, and a local counselor by phone, I was able to learn the root of my problem.
When nursing, the child needs to suck on the dark area around the nipple, instead of on the end of the nipple itself. Because of our unique language barrier, I was having a hard time explaining this to Parker Daniil. The key to
The LLL counselor also recommended that I use pure lanolin to heal my cracked and bleeding nipples. This precious cure absorbs into the layers of skin below the wound and heals from the inside out. After being certain that there was no infection, this was my miracle cure. It was very disconcerting for me to see blood on my son's face after nursing. Jessie even went to far as to ask me how long I was going to continue to torture myself. What a joyful day when I was finally able to relax and enjoy nursing. It didn't hurt anymore! I had learned, once my breasts healed, that if it was hurting, I needed to have him reposition his mouth. Sometimes we reposition three or four times before we find the right one! You see, with a child of this age, teeth come into the picture. I had to teach him to not try to hold onto my breast with his teeth. A little like the chewing a straw habit!
Because this has been just as much a spiritual journey as well as a physical one, I would like to share with you verses that have comforted me and taught me during this time. Psalm 8:2 says, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemies and avenger." The enemy in my case was fear. Out of the mouth of my suckling would I find strength to still my enemy, fear. When my little son asks for his "nummies" I find the strength to put all fear of criticism aside and nurse and nurture my son. As I researched this verse out, I discovered that both the word for infant and sucklings refers to one that sucks a mother that gives milk. This indicated to me that both the infant and the older little one nursed and received milk from their mother. More encouragement that not only infants were meant to nurse but older toddlers as well. I love to find affirmation from Scripture in this way.
In Matthew 21:14-16 the Bible shows us a beautiful picture, look at this illustration; "And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple; and he healed them. (v.15) and when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying,