Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 75
Jan. 10th, 2023 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia
As we proceed through the second year of these open posts, it's pretty clear that the official narrative is cracking as the toll of deaths and injuries from the Covid vaccines rises steadily and the vaccines themselves demonstrate their total uselessness at preventing Covid infection or transmission. It's still important to keep watch over the mis-, mal- and nonfeasance of our self-proclaimed health gruppenfuehrers, and the disastrous results of the Covid mania, but I think it's also time to begin thinking about what might be possible as the existing medical industry reels under the impact of its own self-inflicted injuries. So it's time for another open post. The rules are the same as before:
1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry et al. are causing injury and death. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.
2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its tame politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here.
3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue.
4. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. Also, please don't drag in current quarrels about sex, race, religious, etc. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules.
With that said, the floor is open for discussion.
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-10 07:31 pm (UTC)I would appreciate prayers for figuring out the issues with my milk supply so that I can breastfeed my daughter successfully. Thank you!
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-10 08:09 pm (UTC)I will add you to the list with the phrasing you just asked for, but may I ask: would you prefer for us to just pray directly for you to successfully breastfeed your daughter? Or even the higher level issue, for your daughter's good health and development?
My closest childhood friend told me a story. When her daughter was born, she just would not drink. Just refused. And there had been complications and the baby's health was endangered, and it just seemed to her so terribly important to get her daughter drinking. Finally, after many tears and prayers, she just sat down with her baby, and just told her: it is so important for you to drink. Please, please, just drink. And amazingly, the baby did. The prayer to get her daughter drinking was answered!
And then, after that one time, she never drank again!
Luckily, she turned out fine in the end. But it was bottles from then on out. Completely healthy girl, off in college now. I'm not sure whether there are any lessons for you to draw out there-- maybe, at least, that babies somehow seem to be understand us even when they are newborn. Which I'm sure you already knew. I guess one other lesson to draw out is that it seems sometimes not drinking is a choice the baby makes, rather than some shortcoming of the mother. And even though, of course you and I understand the benefits of breastfeeding, if your daughter just doesn't agree... it will still almost certainly be okay in the end.
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-11 03:39 pm (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-11 07:13 pm (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-12 04:36 am (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-12 05:43 pm (UTC)I will readily agree that nature’s way is usually best, but as you said a fed baby is the most important thing.
I won’t thrown any rocks at people who do what they have to do. We were there. All of us made it through.
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-10 09:32 pm (UTC)My mother is a lactation consultant, who has a 24/7 guestroom set up for newly lactating mothers to be observed and assisted with breastfeeding problems. She lets them get comfortable, and stays within reach to come and observe/help if/when the infant is wakeful and hungry, otherwise leaving them alone and private. If I may, what I set out here is some of what she has shared with me. You may already be familiar with much of this, and if it is redundant, please accept my apology.
The most common problems are:
1. correct latching on (correct latch-on results in the entire aureola of the breast being completely within the infant's mouth, if the infant takes only the nipple into its mouth, milk cannot flow and it can be very painful. If an incorrect latch on takes place, use a finger to break the suction by letting air in between mouth and nipple (this can be very strong), and reposition the baby. Whole baby in close, and gently stroke its cheek to help it find the breast again. (baby will turn towards the stroking). A good latch-on positions the nipple at the back of the baby's mouth, and most or all of the aureola will not be visible at all. This is still a bit startling, at first, but will not produce pain.
2. Not learning how to recognise the "let down" reflex and patiently wait for it to occur. There is a knack to learning how to read the difference between a child sucking the scant foremilk (suck, suck, suck, suck, swallow) and sucking the abundant aftermilk (suck, swallow, suck, swallow, suck, swallow). (These different rhythms relate to the time it takes to fill the mouth before swallowing.) Sometimes, in new mothers it can take a long time for the let down to occur, especially when being watched by others, or when anxious about "doing it right". However the change in rhythm is the "tell" that a let down has occurred, and after this the infant will feed until full, which can happen quite quickly, at which point they simply relax their suck and (often) succumb to sleep.
3. Engorgement can also cause problems if the newly stimulating milk-making glands in the breast fill it so full that it is painful to touch. In addition to the usual "cabbage leaf in bra" advice (this is *really* useful for helping relieve the pain and swelling), it can help to adopt a temporary policy of completely emptying one breast before nursing from the other, on the basis that new milk production will not be stimulated as long as one breast continues full. One can "take the top off" the overfull breast with a bit of squeezing for relief, but very often, once each breast is emptied one at a time (this may take several feeding sessions over the course of a day), the engorgement is gone.
Anyway, all of these tips were hugely helpful to me, and - I hear - to many, many of her clients.
Best wishes to you and your small 'un, whatever happens! Many blessings on your lives together!
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-13 10:16 pm (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-14 02:13 pm (UTC)I am very aware of the degree to which any new mother becomes a magnet for unasked advice, so I wrote that with some trepidation, too. ;)
Many blessings on your new, expanded family life with small 'un.
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-10 09:35 pm (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-10 09:48 pm (UTC)But the weight gain was no fun.
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-11 02:43 am (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-10 09:48 pm (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-10 09:50 pm (UTC)When our daughter was born, she would continually feed all day and night light she wasn't ever getting enough. It took a couple of weeks to see a lactation nurse who looked at her as we walked in and the way she was moving her mouth and said" I think she has a tongue tie". This was after she was checked out by a specialist before we first left the hospital. 2min procedure rectified, we still did have to do supplementation feeding as my partner's milk never seemed to fully come in after but it was night and day. Also fenugreek helped, she took it in a homemade lactation cookie.
YMMV
Mr Kemble
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-10 09:52 pm (UTC)https://www.americanherbalistsguild.com/sites/default/files/sample-articles-pdfs/herbs_for_lactation_by_sheila_kingsbury.pdf
Off the top of the head, I can say that I have myself used fennel and fennel seeds to increase my own milk, and also, with some success, that of the lactating sheep on this farm.
Also, I have used sage, both on myself when wanting to wean and dry my milk supply, and on sheep on recently bereaved lactating sheep on this farm - to help their milk dry more quickly and ease their suffering.
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-11 12:07 am (UTC)My child was born premature and the doctor recommend that I provide him fortified breast milk (pumped milk mixed with premie formula.) Due to this recommendation we never figured out how to breastfeed. I found the pumping to be a more agreeable arrangement that allowed me to provide breast milk long after he started teething and since my supply wasn't constrained by his appetite we were able to make it to the one year mark without trouble.
I hope this helps.
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-11 12:21 am (UTC)Do not try to diet. Lots of moms want to 'get the baby weight off'. Nah. Lactating takes a ton of calories. Eat, eat!
I will pray for you and your baby girl both, that all will be well!
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-11 01:53 am (UTC)My MIL says that having a beer makes you produce more milk. I know that's blasphemy in some circles, but I experimented with it-- half a beer in the evening a couple times-- and I did in fact make noticeably more milk. Dunno if it works for everyone-- and I did it just for curiosity. I had the opposite problem: one baby, and enough milk to feed two or three! Pumped to avoid engorgement/blockages, and gave away the excess.
I was told to get tons of protein and not be shy about egg yolks, and that worked great for me-- I often went in for a 6-egg breakfast where I chucked five of the egg-whites, during the nursing stage (now, on the far side of babies and nursing, I can't imagine doing that-- too much!). It kept me from plowing through a sack of bagels at breakfast (ravenous!) every morning.
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-11 06:13 am (UTC)Alas, I dislike beer, so gave it all to my husband who does like it. Fortunately I had no problems with supply.
It was not a tribal nor a regional conviction, either, the ladies were from all over the continent.
BoysMom
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-11 06:36 pm (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-11 02:25 pm (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-11 01:45 am (UTC)Valerie
Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-11 02:51 am (UTC)Re: Ecosophia Prayer List Update
Date: 2023-01-12 06:06 am (UTC)I don't know much about humans but believe their milk supply will be much like that of a sheep. I keep dairy sheep and I do know a lot about their lactation. I am guessing this is your first lactation which, were you a sheep, would be your smallest lactation. A ewe has as much milk as she is going to have when she lambs and there is no amount of feeding special mashes that will increase that one bit. Also, your milk production will not be the same in both breasts.
The main thing is that you got some colostrum into her. Bottle feeding, as a supplement or as her only feed is not ideal but it will be good enough. Your next lactation should be a lot more ample.
Please don't be disappointed. Lots of babies through the ages have been bottle-reared. There are even some lovely bronze-age baby bottles in Europe of ceramic or bronze that have the chemical signatures of heated milk in them. We have been bottle-feeding for ages.
Hugs and best wishes from Maxine