Breastfeeding is both an art and a science that takes practice to find the perfect rhythm.
“Many women assume they are just going to pop the baby on (their breast) and they don’t realize that there is a little bit of a learning curve,” says North Shore-based lactation consultant and “lifesaver” Marianne Brophy.
Her go-to metaphor for moms is: If you were handed a violin, you wouldn’t be playing a symphony the next day.
Brophy has abated frustration and guilt for many new moms, some of whom contacted the North Shore News to sing her praises, including Margaret Kainer, who estimates 70 per cent of North Vancouver women who had babies in the past 20 years have received support from Brophy.
“She is a legend,” says Kainer, explaining how Brophy often volunteers her time and answers the call or email day and night from panicked moms.
Before anything else, Brophy gently takes the mom’s hand, looks her in the eyes and says: “You are so brave. You are doing such a good job.”
Those simple sentences, along with Brophy’s sage advice, “saved” West Vancouver jazz vocalist Amanda Wood during what she says was “such a dark time” in the months after she gave birth to daughter Bella on Christmas Day last year.
Wood said her experience backs up Brophy’s belief about how mothers are educated about breastfeeding, in that that all the emphasis during prenatal classes is on labour and delivery. But what happens after the pushing is over?
Buying into the perception that feeding is an organic part of motherhood, Wood imagined Bella latching onto her breast and everything flowing naturally during the bonding experience. It was not so magical, as Wood recalls, but more like a nightmare.
Being Christmas Day, the maternity ward where Wood gave birth was short-staffed, so she wasn’t shown how to achieve a proper latch for her and Bella.
While Wood struggled on her own to nurse Bella, she wound up with painful bite marks all over her nipples. The tiny wounds opened the way for a hospital-acquired staph infection that went in through Wood’s breast.
Through repeat infections over four months and a horrible case of mastitis – an infection of the breast tissue that results in pain and swelling – Wood was determined to keep breastfeeding Bella.
“And my body was battered,” says Wood, who recalls recurrent fevers, the shakes and her milk supply plummeting.
As Wood pushed forward to nourish her child, her husband felt helpless, watching her eyes roll back into her head as she sweated and gritted her teeth in excruciating pain.
Pumping 20 minutes a side would yield a pitiful one ounce of milk.
“It felt like I was a failure,” says the first-time mom. “Literally, you are in survival mode every day.”
She was soon put in touch with Brophy, who was the breath of fresh air Wood so desperately needed.
Wood had become overwhelmed by conflicting breastfeeding information being thrown at her from all directions, and paralyzed by fear and guilt over the best route to take for her and Bella.
Enter Brophy. Equipped with experience, a sense of humour, patience and some breastfeeding props in her back pocket, Brophy worked her magic.
“There was never any sense of pressure or rush,” says Wood of Brophy’s teaching.
Brophy figures out the mechanics of breastfeeding, working with myriad shapes and sizes of babies’ mouths and mothers’ nipples, so they can focus on the bonding.
Finding the perfect latch involves positioning the baby so they can get a big mouthful of breast and not pinch their mom’s nipple in the process.
“Helping that be a symphonic dance, instead of everyone stepping on each other’s toes,” explains Brophy. “Then breastfeeding becomes such a natural and easy thing, like riding a bicycle.”
While she has a private practice, Brophy also offers her lactation services as part of a weekly drop-in group at the North Vancouver City Library and at the Family Services of the North Shore’s I hope family centre, located next to Maplewood Farm.
There are residuals aplenty from attending the breastfeeding support group, which can be a therapeutic outlet for many and a place to foster friendships among new mothers, says Brophy.
Many moms come to the drop-in presenting their own unique breastfeeding challenges for Brophy to try and fix, from physical disabilities that make it hard to hold the baby to, in extreme cases, the infant having a tongue tie.
“It’s about helping moms find their feet,” says Brophy.
North Vancouver new mom Ella Hanni was lucky enough to hear about Brophy’s breastfeeding workshop before she gave birth. Hanni signed up for the one-day, six-hour workshop, but also assumed a lot of information would be redundant.
“It was funny because I thought, ‘What am I going to do for six hours?’ I was thinking I was going to duck out early, but it was one of the most interesting classes I had ever taken,” recalls Hanni.
During the hands-on workshop, Brophy has the moms practise with model breasts and other props.
Brophy also covers the science of breastfeeding in an approachable manner, which Hanni says is fun and fascinating. Moms-to-be learn how the body makes milk and everything along the way to nursing the baby.
“I felt that I had a good understanding of breastfeeding before I gave birth,” says Hanni. “I felt empowered. I can’t say enough good things about Marianne. She helped me so much.”
Hanni also reaped the benefits of Brophy’s drop-in breastfeeding sessions after she gave birth to her daughter Eva.
“Marianne gave me useful, practical information and emotional support,” says Hanni.
Brophy brings a science background in bacteriology, virology and anatomy and is a certified lactation consultant who speaks at conferences worldwide and is considered an expert in her field. She is also a UBC professor who teaches best breastfeeding practices to midwives in training.
So what happens when a mother exhausts all avenues and still can’t breastfeed? New moms are increasingly bottle feeding their babies instead of directly breastfeeding, according to a new UBC study.
The research also found that moms who bottle feed with breast milk typically transition their babies to infant formula sooner than their breastfeeding peers.
A 2012 Statistics Canada study found that 89 per cent of mothers initially breastfed their babies, but only 26 per cent were doing so six months later.
Breastfeeding difficulties were the most common reasons why the women stopped.
Looking at the study, Brophy said it’s important to support women when it comes to breastfeeding.
“Our first point is always feed the baby,” explains Brophy. “And if the mom is not able to latch adequately or doesn’t have enough supply, our first hope would be to use her expressed breast milk. Or if she doesn’t have enough, hopefully there will be enough donor milk. Then, commercially prepared formula (can be used).”
Some moms are so worried about formula they are hesitating to introduce it, which is definitely not the stance most lactation consultants take, says Brophy, adding all the formulas available in Canada are of a high standard.
At the end of the day, Brophy says it’s satisfying for her to see a mom bond with their baby. One of the infants she helped 20 years ago is now finishing his second year of engineering studies.
“He’s 6-foot-4 and towers over me,” says Brophy with a laugh. “Just seeing how great it is as little people grow and become effective, wonderful adults – it’s a very rewarding job.”
More information about lactation support is available online at familyservices.bc.ca.
