Delayed lactation due to haemorrage
On January 22nd 2021, I had a beautiful baby girl called Zahra Nisa. I had a long labour but delivered naturally. However, I unfortunately had a postpartum haemorrhage straight after in which I lost nearly 3 litres of blood; Zahra was taken off me before I could nurse her and I was rushed to theatre and put under a general anaesthetic so that the doctors could stop my bleeding.
I woke up three hours later on oxygen and requiring strong pain relief. I felt like I had been hit by a truck. The first thing I remember thinking was whether Zahra had fed. The nurse told me my husband had given her some formula milk.
My blood loss meant I wasn't able to feed my daughter for the first 24 hours as I had to recover. I wasn’t able to breast feed her nor hand express. This meant my husband and midwives had to give her formula.
On discharge, I had to bottle feed as I had no colostrum. This was extremely stressful for me as I exclusively breast fed my first daughter for 13 months and planned to do the same for Zahra. Naively, I hadn't bought any bottles to bottle feed as I was so sure I would be able to breast feed.
I panicked and immediately got in touch with Shaheda. Over the course of several virtual discussions, Shaheda was great in guiding me and encouraged me to put my daughter to the the breast to stimulate supply. Her positive, calm, and encouraging approach meant I trusted her advice. By day four, Zahra was latching well and my milk supply had finally come in. When we went to get Zahra weighed on day 10, she was 100g above birth weight, which the midwife described as phenomenal!
I was so relieved and can't thank Shaheda enough as without her my journey would have not been so smooth. Zahra only had formula for 2 days and has been exclusively breastfeeding since.
