Hi all!

After a typical "cascade of intervention" birth (SROM but no labour, followed by induction, followed by epidural, followed by emergency c-section, post-partum hemorrhage... ) despite our wonderful intervention-free, drug-free, etc birth plan... we've been having trouble with breastfeeding. Apparently what it comes down to is that I lost a fair bit of blood in the c-section, plus the trauma of a 15 hour long induced labour, and I'm having supply issues.

At our first domicillary nurse visit (when Salma was 5 days old) she had lost 16% of her body weight. We were readmitted to hospital and put on 3-hourly feeds with an additional 40ml topup of formula, and expressing.

Salma gained about 250 grams in 36 hours and we were discharged. A week later (last week Friday), at the lactation consultant (at the hospital), Salma hadn't gained any more weight at all - formula was upped to 75 mls and I was put on motillium.

Tomorrow I'm back at the lactation consultant. I went to the MCHN on Monday and I know she had gained 170 grams over the weekend. I've also started taking fenugreek. I'm in regular contact with the ABA (been a member since I found out I was pregnant!) and my local leader is a real help. But I'm still worried.

I'm just praying that she has gained more weight over this week, that we won't be readmitted (not that I think that's likely, but I'm scared of it since it happened earlier), and that the formula dose won't be increased. I only seem able to express 20-25mls each time, I think because of stress and worry over weight gain. I so desperately want to exclusively breastfeed.

Does anybody have similar stories that they could share with me? Any more ideas for upping my supply? I could really do with some encouragement right now.

Thanks in advance!