New mum, Remi Peers, had no idea what was wrong with her when she was in excruciating pain, shivering and eventually rushed to hospital.
The 24-year-old had developed sepsis due to not recognising the more subtle signs of mastitis and is now making it her mission to ensure other mothers are educated about what to look out for and how to prevent it altogether.
In a heartfelt post, Remi wrote that after reaching one year of breastfeeding she felt compelled to share her story.
“Breastfeeding did NOT come easy for me,” she began. “My milk came in after 5 days. I wasn’t aware that it could take that long, I didn’t even necessarily know what “milk coming in” meant.”
“I was the only mother breastfeeding on my ward. One woman did try to breastfeed, but switched to formula after 12 hours because she ‘had no milk’ (nobody taught her either),” she said in the Instagram post.
“While the other babies slept with full bellies, my son screamed and cried attached to my breast through the night. (What was cluster feeding? Nobody told me)”
Remi says she persisted with breastfeeding despite having her nipples “literally cracked in half”, eventually developing mastitis, an inflammation of the breast tissue which is often caused by a blocked milk duct.
“I remember waking up at 3 am shivering, putting on my dressing gown and extra blankets and trying to feed my son. The pain. It was excruciating. I was shaking and sweating but freezing to my bones,” she said.
“I was… given morphine, anti sickness and the strongest antibiotics they could give, and separated from my baby for two nights. I was heartbroken.”
“There’s a lot more to this story but my point is, the lack of support and education surrounding breastfeeding is just terrible,” she said.
“I see many professionals push breast is best almost aggressively in some cases, and yet there is no real support post baby. Breastfeeding is HARD, it needs to be taught and it needs to be learned. Just like walking, talking, reading and writing – it may be natural, but it does not always come naturally.”
She also shared a photo of her breastfeeding in public at the time of her hospitalisation, writing, “Because our society makes women feel awkward and ashamed to feed their baby in public. Because so many people have asked me when it was time for his next bottle and I have to uncomfortably explain that he is breastfed. And because I’m in hospital today recovering from sepsis and mastitis, separated from my baby.”
“No one should feel like they have to hide when they’re trying to do what they feel is best for their baby,” she finished.
