Lauren* was ecstatic when her baby girl latched to breastfeed in the labour ward’s recovery room. Her dreams to have a vaginal birth and breastfeed had come true. By her second day, however, Lauren had very sore nipples, but the nursing staff assured her that this was normal for first-time breastfeeding mothers, and she was sent home with her baby. By her fourth day, Lauren’s breasts were hard and painful, her nipples were burning, and her baby was struggling to latch and fallingengorged, her nipples were flattened and cracked. Her baby was showing signs of jaundice; she was lethargic and dehydrated. It took a few home visits to solve Lauren’s feeding problems. First, her lactation consultant helped to soften Lauren’s engorged breasts so that her milk supply didn’t dry up and her baby could latch. This was done by massaging and hand expressing. Lauren and her midwife experimented with different feeding positions until they got it right.
