New Mom Posts Pic of Breastfeeding Her Baby With a Syringe
Not all moms are able to breastfeed their babies in the traditional way, and that's okay.
New mom Rebecca McKeever is getting lots of positive feedback for showcasing one alternative solution that's not often publicized: feeding through a syringe.
"A lactation consultant came to our hospital room to ask if we needed help," McKeever said to The Huffington Post. "She saw that I was expressing colostrum but that Andromeda [her baby] wasn't latching, so she brought in little cups and syringes so we could get some food in her. I expressed some colostrum into a cup, then put it into the syringe and fed her little drops at a time."
She told HuffPo that she knew about this tactic because she's a doula - she just didn't think of it at the moment.
Lots of moms are commenting on Carriage House Birth's Instagram photo of McKeever, saluting her and sharing similar stories of their own.
"U go mama," one commenter wrote.
"Remember doing this with my second daughter like it was yesterday. Had to work hard for that latch but we made it ," one mom wrote.
"My baby had to go to the special care nursery as soon as he was born. I remember my beautiful midwife helped me hand express into a syringe straight away so we could send it down to the nursery," another commenter wrote.
"Yup, had to spoon feed mine colostrum too, couldn't quite nail the latch, but we eventually got there," another mom said.
"I had a premie who couldn't latch on for his first couple months so this is one of the techniques that I used," another mom said.
Others are glad that the photo is spreading the word about this technique.
As one commenter put it, it's a "great to show other ways to feed besides a bottle."
And McKeever, whose baby is now breastfeeding, has an important message for new moms about. As she told The Huffington Post, she hopes that new moms are able "to recognize that things might not always go as planned in a perfect picture, to be encouraged to go with the flow and let go of expectations, to meet their baby where they are at with no judgement but just with compassion and love."
(H/t Huffington Post via Scary Mommy)
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