I ran into a very pushy lactation consultant after having my daughter. During my pregnancy, I had problems with frequent bursts of SVT and was taking a betablocker up until a week prior to delivery. After delivery, I passed out in the shower and they didn't know if it was r/t SVT, so I was on maternity, but wearing a heart monitor. When I tried to breastfeed my daughter, she latched beautifully and had no issues, but I suddenly felt dizzy, chest pain, nausea, heart racing. The nurse said it was probably the rush of hormones, but then my cardiologist ran in and said that I was, in fact, sustaining SVT. Each time she latched, my heart rate hit 200bpm. So he said no more breastfeeding, no way, no how. That evening a lactation consultant came in and I told her that I appreciated her stopping by, but I was unable to breastfeed because of a heart problem and she told me that that was nonsense, everyone can breastfeed, you just aren't trying hard enough. I tried to explain to her that my cardiologist said that it was a significant risk to my health and she persisted. I had to tell her to leave. The interaction with her made me feel like a complete failure, despite knowing that I had no control over my heart's reaction.
My SIL is one of the pushy-it was easy for me to nurse so it should be easy for you too- types and when she saw me bottle feeding a few weeks postpartum, so started in on how she'd never poison her child with formula and she would have kept trying to breast feed because it's natural and doesn't cause any problems, by this point I was less inclined to be nice and told her that had I kept trying maybe she could have breastfeed my daughter while the rest of the family planned my funeral. Some people(lay persons, doctors, nurses, consultants) take things too far. My peds office has a poster that says "Breast is great, but fed is best" I'm going with that slogan for this baby when he arrives.
