“I’m a mother of two and I live in Melbourne. I knew from the start that I wanted to breastfeed as there’s lots of research out there that says breastfeeding reduces your risk of breast cancer. My mum passed away from breast cancer at the age of 44 so I want to do anything I can to reduce my risks. I did antenatal courses but nothing prepares you for the actual act of breastfeeding. I had flat nipples so when Violetta was born she couldn’t latch so I had to use nipple shields for four months.

“Thankfully while I was in hospital a midwife mentioned i had flat nipples and she gave me a nipple shield. Through all her hard work Violetta actually drew out my nipples so I haven’t had to use a shield with my second baby. Supply wasn’t something htat I really thought about at the start although in hospital, I’d have one midwife tell me I had an excellent amount of colostrum and then another that told me I wasn’t making enough and my baby was hungry. From early on I actually had a really good supply; even when Violetta was on the shield she was gulping; I had a very forceful let-down.

“My second baby brought completely new challenges. He had a shallow latch and a tongue tie so we had to get it released to help with his latch. No matter what I did, the latch wasn’t getting better and it was painful for every feed and I knew it shouldn’t be. When he would cry sometimes his tongue would be the shape of a heart because it was held quite tightly. I sought as many health avenues as possible; Australian Breastfeeding Association drop-in clinics and my local community centre and both lactation consultants there told me I would need to see a private GP to consult on his tie and release it.

“I went to a specialist clinic in Richmond called Juno and saw Dr Nicole Gale and she’s absolutely fantastic. She observed a feed, assessed Roman’s mouth and released the tie using scissors. They swaddled Roman and put him on the examination table and did a very quick snip with the scissors and I was waiting on the couch, breast ready, to latch immediately which helps with his pain relief. His recovery was very straightforward – feed per usual with a good latch. He was obviously sore and he had a small sore underneath his tongue which took about a week to heal fully.

“We’re still working on a good latch; he doesn’t like getting a deep latch and his tongue needs to learn to come forward but his latch is definitely deeper than it was and I have less pain. We’re getting there – slowly – despite cracked nipples and mastitis

“I didn’t get mastitis at all with my first but this time around I’ve had it three times and he’s only 10 weeks old. I’ve had three rounds of antibiotics and now suspected nipple thrush – all the fun things. Within two days of birth my nipples were terribly cracked and bleeding so I went back to hospital and they suggested pumping and feeding him expressed breastmilk but that added an extra stress for me because I was worried about him developing a bottle preference. I was consistently getting 100-150ml from each breast and I was pumping every three hours to ensure I was building my supply.

“With Violetta, I chose to pump overnight because nipple shields were so fiddly but the freezer was full and she wasn’t drinking what I’d pumped so I reached out to the Red Cross Milk Bank and they did a homevisit – I was living in NSW then. I filled out a questionnaire, they did a blood test and then they took the milk I had. I donated twice and each time I donated 5 litres.

I’m going to push through these hardships and hopefully it will get better because I want to feed Roman for as long as possible. With this postpartum journey, trying to find the resources for breastfeeding has been hard. It would be great if the hospital could offer easy access to lactation consultants on site because it would be so helpful. ‘Ve had to go to multiple clinics and sometimes they’re only open once a week.”