Julia - Jaundice, high needs feeding, milk coming in after the loss of a baby, antenatal milk expression

07/11/24 • 78 min

Julia Neale is a mum of three, with two living children, and originally from the suburbs of Toronto, Canada. She now calls Switzerland, home. She is a former international primary school teacher, and is now a prenatal educator.

Julia’s takes me through her three experiences with breast milk and feeding. Her first baby was born at 36 weeks, hospitalized for jaundice and heavily supplemented with formula in the early days. Her goal initially was to breastfeed for 18 months but after the first few days that goal got moved to 6 weeks. Luckily things did take a turn for the positive and they breastfeed for 20 months, despite bouts of mastitis and thrush.
Julia gracefully shares with me the journey of her second baby, who sadly was born at 24 weeks due to a fatal fetal diagnosis. Julia chose to share this story of saying goodbye to her baby and to her milk supply. She describes the internal dialogues to choose what to do when her milk came in; take a medication to stop the milk or pump and donate it?
**Please note this discussion takes place at around 35mins in to this episode.
When Julia’s third baby came she was concerned whether her breasts would still be able to work after having taken the medication called Dostinex to stop her milk last time.
Julia discusses how she decided to antenatally express colostrum after receiving a diagnosis of Gestational Diabetes, but found it to be a horrible experience, one that made her feel she had somehow, damaged her breast tissue by taking the Dostinex – she describes this as manufactured mom guilt which needed a lot of unpacking. Julia tells me how in the end she went on to breastfeed for 18 months happily.
Join us in this beautiful, emotional, but important episode on The Feeding Couch.
LINKS:
Julia's website
Socials: @happy.day.ch

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Previous Episode

Susanne- using ritual & ceremony to say goodbye to her breastfeding journey

Susanne really enjoyed breastfeeding her two children. She had made up her mind that she wanted to stop breastfeeding when her youngest was turning two, but she found herself with a difficult internal struggle. Susanne saw this as an opportunity for personal growth and she worked with a coach to dive deeper into all these mixed emotions. The coach provided a beautiful ending ritual and Susanne's closure of her breastfeeding journey became a very empowering experience, deepening the compassionate and loving connection with herself and her children.

In this episode we delve deeper into:

Breastfeeding in a country where this is appreciated and valued, supported by the government and supported by society.
- Trying to fall pregnant again and being told by the doctor to stop breastfeeding.
- Breastfeeding and donating milk to the local hospital.
- Night feeding until 2 years old.
- Working with a coach who helped Susanne look further into her thoughts such as: (not) being a good enough mum, does she trust her son will be OK when breastfeeding stops, does she love her children as much as they need, and can she choose to take her body back for herself?
- How a wonderful ending ceremony helped Susanne feel rooted, stay fully present and not feeling any doubt about her decision to wean her son.

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Get 10% off from Katie's Feeding Couch pregnancy preparation course with code POD10

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Pregnant or in the first few weeks after birth: The Feeding Couch
For health professionals and birth workers: Breastfeeding & Lactation: the fundamentals online course

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Next Episode

Leah - successful breastfeeding with a tricky start; breathing difficulties, forced formula and bottle refusal

Leah is a first time mum who prepared extensively for labour, birth and breastfeeding through her pregnancy. She was dreaming of the first breastfeed in the birth suite and having the ‘golden hour’ together. However, when her daughter Hazel was born she had breathing difficulties and was taken to the special care nursery within 5 minutes of being born.

Leah tells me her story from the firsts minutes after birth establishing a milk supply and getting Hazel to feed at the breast whilst still being in the special care nursery. She shares how the peadiatricians were insistent on using formula top-ups but thankfully she had really wonderful support from the midwives with getting breastfeeding up and going. Leah tells me how they transitioned on to breastfeeding by using a supply line.

7 months later and Leah and Hazel are still breastfeeding. Leah shares with me how she sought support for breastfeeding positional challenges with larger breasts. Trying and not quite managing to get Hazel to take a bottle at 10 weeks of age and how the bottle refusal that came can really impact on a sense of freedom as a new mum.

In this episode Leah brings up some real home truths and a beautiful story of overcoming challenges.

Join me on the couch for this lovely episode.

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