Day One of OB: Lactation!

The good news is, my clinical instructor was very understanding about the whole alarm clock fiasco. The even better news is that the lactation consultant doesn't start making patient rounds until about 0745 or 0800, so technically I wasn't late to my scheduled clinical activity.

I really enjoyed my day making lactation consultations -- which is great, because I had many fears and misconceptions about breastfeeding. By the end of the day, I even got to do some patient teaching of my own! I was so happy to be able to answer a new parent's questions. It felt very natural and satisfying.

If anything, my experience demonstrated the fact that a) pregnant mothers, by and large, are not sick or ill and b) breastfeeding is a learned skill for both mother and baby. It seemed that a lot of new moms struggled with that, because they felt like they should just naturally be good at it. Turns out breastfeeding takes practice. Who knew?

There were lots of questions about whether or not baby was getting enough food. Imagine the surprise of new parents (and this student!) when they learned that their newborn baby doesn't usually eat more than a few teaspoons at each feeding. During their first week of life, newborn stomachs aren't much bigger than the size of a walnut.

It is so hard for me to believe that my stomach was once that small.