Dear Dr PB,
You were my son's assigned paediatrician at the hospital after he was born in June 2013. I have enclosed a copy of a magazine feature article I wrote when my son was 10 months telling the story of my struggle with post natal depression (and anxiety) caused by a series of unfortunate issues, such as breast feeding my son despite my every effort. One of those efforts included contacting you regarding my suspicion that my son had posterior tongue tie. We spoke on the phone when my son was 5 weeks old. You told me you'd never heard of posterior tongue tie, and after making sure you heard me right you dismissed me by asking if I had received my information from an actual medical website. Instead of looking into it further yourself, or referring me onto a specialist in tongue tie, you left the conversational at that. A few days later I ran into you in the hospital with my baby as I waited in the lounge area for an unrelated issue with a different Dr. You looked like you were about to begin your rounds but came over when I greeted you. I reminded you of our phone conversation and you had a quick look in my son's mouth. You told me he had no tie, and that the issue must be solely with my supply.
As a new mum I trusted you, the professional who saw babies every working day. I wish now I had instead trusted my own instinct, research, and eyes on this subject. I didn't and another extremely hard and gruelling 7 weeks passed until we were in Canada visiting family. By then, my son was 12 weeks old and breastfeeding had reached it's climax of difficulty. My sister was also a breastfeeding mother and offered to try and feed my son when she saw him rejecting me during a feed. My son would not breastfeed from her either. It was then that she looked in his mouth and asked me if I'd ever had him checked for posterior tongue tie. I shared the story with her and then she recommended I see one of Canada's top specialists in this area, a Dr who sees two babies for laser frenectomies a day.
I called Dr Jimmy Chan and they were able to fit us in right away after we explained we were visiting from Australia. In the appointment his assistant was able to immediately identify and confirm that Charlie not only had a serious posterior tongue tie, he also had a severe lip tie - which meant he was incapable of opening his mouth wide enough to latch properly. Because we were overseas we paid a huge amount to have the procedure done, followed by 2 weeks of agonising "stretches" on the cut areas in the hope that this would be the solution. However, it was too late for us. Our son had given up the will to feed from the breast any longer than 1-2 minutes at a time, even with the help of a lactation expert. I know, and the specialist also felt, that if Charlie had had a frenectomy at 5 weeks instead of 12 weeks there would have been a great possibility of being successful at exclusively breastfeeding; and even more chance of success had the procedure been done closer to his birth.
It's taken me a long time to be able to write this letter to you. I'm hoping this letter brings a new level of awareness about this issue. I hope you will take this letter seriously enough to choose to educate yourself further on the topic of tongue and lip ties, and research actual medical websites to gain more information to pass on to your future patients. From there, my ultimate desire would be for you to use the preventative method of checking newborn babies for posterior tongue tie and lip ties in your hospital rounds. I hope the next time a new mother comes to you with an issue that you won't be so quick to dismiss her.
"To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge." - Confucius
Sincerely,
Jessica
