Casey and Libby’s story - breastfeeding with a cleft lip
- Apr 18
- 4 min read
-October 2022
It has been an amazing breastfeeding journey with my baby. Let me start off with saying that babies are smart, and they are incredibly instinctual. I think that combined with La Leche League’s support and information any breastfeeding journey can be properly navigated.
Our journey started with the foetal anomaly scan when we discovered that our baby had a cleft lip, and it was measuring one millimetre at the time. The emotions that we had to deal with when we were told that our baby had a cleft lip ran wild; I had to swallow and fight back tears.
My husband had to help me walk out of that examination room and just hold me together. When we were able to step outside of the hospital, he just said that everything that was vital was functional in her body, but it was still really difficult because I had to process all the emotions. Our breastfeeding journey hadn't even started yet, but I felt extremely robbed that we needed to adjust our expectations.
Just before we left the examination room, the ultrasonographer offered us the opportunity to return for a 4D scan—both to see what our baby might look like and to help us begin processing the news.
After that first examination, when I returned to work, my colleagues immediately began asking questions like, “How will your baby feed?” and “How are you going to manage that?” I hadn’t yet had the chance to process my own emotions, and their questions only stirred up a growing sense of fear.
We consulted a reconstructive surgeon. After reviewing the scans, he explained that he wouldn’t make predictions about our baby’s appearance based on them and that we would address things as they unfolded after birth. He did express concern that the lips need to form a proper seal for breastfeeding, which might be challenging. He advised us to keep a specialised feeding bottle—a Haberman feeder—on hand in case it was needed. Still, something within me felt that it would be fine, and we decided not to allocate funds for the specialised feeder.
Later, when we went for the 4D scan, the cleft lip had actually widened in diameter and it was measuring almost two to three millimetres, which doesn't sound like a lot, but on a tiny baby in utero, that is quite big.
As we moved forward and began putting our birth plan together, we chose to have a home birth. Naomi was our doula and also a La Leche League Leader. What’s remarkable about La Leche League is how well connected the organisation is. Although Naomi hadn’t personally supported a baby with a cleft lip before, she was able to reach out and connect with another mother who had been through the same experience. The surgeon could tell me many ways to try and work to get the baby to breastfeed but this mommy had actual experience. She told us about the possibility to tape the baby’s lip together to help create that seal that I spoke about earlier.
We met up with Naomi a couple of times just to talk things through and deal with our fears and emotions, which was really important leading up to the birth and to physically starting the breastfeeding journey. You need to be sensitive to your emotions, and you need to be in a good mental state.
Once Libby was born, it was incredible. After four hours of labour, she arrived and she immediately latched. She started feeding and there was no issue. Naomi just showed me how to get her lips in the correct position and how to create the seal. Not only did she immediately feed on the one breast, she immediately fed on the other breast as well.
I didn't get to have that wonderful sleep that I was told I was going to have after birth in our antenatal classes, when babies supposedly rest after their delivery. She just went ahead and fed straight away.
Obviously with those first couple of days breastfeeding can be challenging and truly, if it wasn't for Naomi, I probably would have given up. It is a learning process. Some latches started getting shallow during the night and Libby was frantically feeding and creating painful nipples, but Naomi was right by my side, ready and supporting me and just navigating through the challenges.
Yes, our parents know how they fed us and other people around me had so much advice, but they don't necessarily have the right advice. The new updated information of skin-to-skin contact with the baby was so important to help us with bonding and milk production. Having supportive people walk alongside you for this kind of journey is really, really important!
If I fast forward a little bit, we went for Libby’s surgery when she was about four months old. Libby was actually born with an incomplete cleft lip. We had prayed for a long time that it would be healed. And although it wasn't fully healed, we still received our miracle. The cleft was not all the way through to her nose as it was previously diagnosed on her scans. So the surgery was smaller than we first thought it would be.
I didn’t necessarily need Naomi’s physical help with breastfeeding at that stage, but she carried a deep sense of confidence. She passed that confidence on to me, reassuring me that everything would be okay and that Libby would be just fine. After the surgery, to our surprise, Libby woke up and she fed immediately. She just couldn't wait. She fed as if she hadn't had any surgery.
It has been such a beautiful journey; one I don’t think I could ever fully put into words. I wish I could give you a bird’s-eye view of what it’s been like; it truly has been incredible.
I can’t take credit for my daughter simply knowing what to do; she has been amazing. And I couldn’t have done any of it without the support of the La Leche League group.