Three hospital birth stories and breastfeeding struggles
Sarah Daggett planned an unmedicated hospital birth for her first child, for which she prepared by finding an OB who is supportive of unmedicated births and by hiring an amazing doula. These two kindred spirits, along with Sarah’s husband, Matt, helped Sarah to execute an amazing and empowering delivery with just 8 hours of active labor. A week after her son arrived Sarah made the devastating discovery that he wasn’t gaining weight due to her extremely low milk supply. Meetings with several lactation consultants and her OB led to a diagnosis of mammary hypoplasia, a condition where the glandular tissue required to breastfeed does not develop normally during adolescence. Unfortunately, mammary hypoplasia makes exclusive breastfeeding difficult to impossible.
When Sarah found out she was expecting baby number two, she immediately alerted her dream team and planned for a second unmedicated birth with the same wonderful people. Her daughter arrived on her due date, this time after just 4 hours of active labor. Despite a wonderful delivery and a perfect baby, Sarah was frustrated to discover that she was still unable to exclusively breastfeed even for individual feedings.
Four years later, Sarah and Matt were again planning for a new baby and were so thankful that their MVPs were still on board. Baby number three, another daughter, rushed into the world a week early and was born only an hour after they arrived at the hospital in an unplanned water birth with just 2 minutes of pushing.
In this episode Sarah relates all three of her birth stories and talks about her breastfeeding struggles with all three babies.
Sarah Daggett
Sarah Daggett is a data scientist and research engineer who lives just outside of Boston, MA, with her husband, Matt, their three kids, and two very patient cats. She is originally from the southeast coast of Virginia and earned a B.S. in chemical engineering at Virginia Tech. She and Matt relocated to Boston in 2005 to pursue jobs at MIT and fell in love with New England, where they have decided to stay. When not working at a small technology startup or enjoying maternity leave with her adorable babies, Sarah loves sewing, cooking, reading and watching competence porn. You can find her on Instagram @welcometoourmess.
Resources
The Birth Hour
New Mom Groups
Babywearing
Post About Breastfeeding Supply
Information about mammary hypoplasia
Jewish Family and Children’s Services support groups
Birth photography
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