Goodbye Mia!

The world honors the 1st week of August as World Breastfeeding Week. Turacoz Healthcare Solutions brings you some touching stories of breastfeeding. Turacoz invited stories on breastfeeding from the lovely mothers and received some heart-rending stories.

Goodbye Mia is a tear-jerking tale of Mrs. Stuti (changed name). The narrative is as expressed by her:

Pregnancy is the most wonderful phase for any woman & I was relishing this chapter of my life. I and Rachit were trying to have a baby for quite some time and I was on cloud nine when I came to know about my pregnancy. Rachit & I already started searching for the names of a baby girl, yes that was our will!

I have always been fond of girls and wished to be a mother of one and so does Rachit. We didn't know whether we will have a girl or a boy, but we named our baby Mia, wishing she was a girl. We bought a teddy, several dolls, and various other toys. We illuminated and decorated the room like that of a princess.

Eagerly waiting for the D-day, we spent the 9 months. I used to talk to Mia every day, and she listened to her Mumma quietly and sometimes she tried to talk by kicking. Rachit and I were so delighted with this experience and couldn't wait for the day we would see our Mia. By 5 months it didn't even matter to us whether we had a boy or girl. The fact that it would be our child was enough to make us happy and excited.

I joined prenatal yoga classes, kept the diet very healthy and took care of myself in every possible way, just to make sure that our Mia was healthy. And then the day came 15^th March 2017 when our princess Mia was born. My happiness knew no bounds on having a girl. I had a normal vaginal delivery.

Mia was born with normal weight, weighing 3.5 kg at the time of birth. I was always informed about the importance of breast milk. I breastfed her. Her latch was good, and she latched on nicely for 15-30 minutes every 1-2 hours. She was having the expected number of wet & dirty diapers.

The feeling of breastfeeding my baby is something I cannot put into words to date. I felt so complete. The lactation experts were making it sure that Mia was breastfed 10-12 times a day. My Mia used to cry a lot when not being breastfed and constantly wanted to get suckled.

I thought to myself that the infants normally cry this much. She would not cry when she held onto my breast. They discharged me after 2 days and we brought Mia to our home. Everyone in my family was so happy to meet her. Few days, she had lost much weight & continued crying hard when not fed. My instincts told me that something was wrong. We went to the doctor, and it shook me up to know that I was producing little to no milk and my Mia was crying out of starvation.

I cried, Mia cried. The doctor told me to either wait for 2-3 days for my milk to come or formula-feed her. I wanted to breastfeed my Mia and after coming home I tried again for the same. That night after suckling up to my breast she slept.

Next morning, she was unresponsive. We rushed to the hospital. She was having no heart rate and was on CPR. They put her on the ventilator, but ultimately, she couldn't survive because of dehydration & cardiac arrest. 28^th March 2017, she breathes her last. Doctors were telling the reason for her death and I didn't listen to any as for me the fact was only one, Mia was no more.

It has been more than a year today since Mia left us. I cry every day thinking that if I could have breastfed her properly she would have been alive. Why couldn't I? Had I doubted early, my baby would have started calling me Mumma, the word I wanted to hear the most. But nothing can bring her back now.

It was discovered that Mrs. Stuti had PCOS which somehow went undetected earlier and this was creating issues in her lactation. Also, she doubted late that something was amiss. It was obvious as according to her she was breastfeeding, but the reality was different. Mia succumbed to “hypernatremic dehydration”- a condition caused by insufficient lactation, and cardiac arrest.

We are extremely sorry for the family's loss.

Breastfeeding is extremely vital for a newborn and it should be made sure that the baby is being breastfed properly. With PCOS, appropriate actions should be taken timely to make certain that there are no troubles later in lactation phase. Physical therapies can be practiced during the issue to treat it, if not then the baby can be formula-fed, depending on the situation. Consult your doctor before any step.

Turacoz is proud to promotes the practice of breastfeeding babies by their mothers as it is extremely essential for a newborn in the initial first 6 months.