- “The time of lactation was very painful; he had wounds in the heads of chest, Ur cried, took and dropped continuously, he had great difficulties”; the words are from Andere Ormazabal, the child had tongue and from the first moment of lactation he had difficulties. Not being attended in Euskal Herria, he had to go to Salamanca (Spain) to cut the canvas.
Ormazabal had to have a cesarean delivery, with “impressive” contractures, and as the epidural had no effect, she had to have her epidural put twice. During anesthesia, there is a risk of puncturing the pouch that protects the nervous system from the spine. The perforation is “very painful” and produces a “tremendous” headache: “I felt fire in the neck area, then I was given two solutions, closing that hole again with a patch or closing it as a natural process.” The only solution to ease the pain was to be completely horizontal: “it was difficult to place it correctly for breastfeeding”.
As a result, he spent a week in the hospital and in one of the revisions made to the child a midwife told him that he believed the child had language thread: “He took him to the pediatrician, but he clearly said he had no tongue strings.”
When returning home, the child still had difficulty taking the chest. As soon as possible, he addressed the breastfeeding group at the Gros Health Center (San Sebastian): “The group is a therapy; when I began to say that I had a wound and was told it was painful by the tongue.” He was in the group for about five months and was attending weekly. There were three midwives: “When I slept the water I had my mouth open, and they told me it was another sign.”
"We have enormous difficulties because these diseases have no visibility, there are no resources and everything is done privately. What should people without financial resources do?"
He asked for an expert to be approached, but the only woman working on the wire beam in Gros was on maternity leave. In Hondarribia, the private midwife was also on maternity leave. “Because in Osakidetza there are no resources to attend the tongue, we were mastered from one place to another,” he said. I had to go from one hospital to another, but no one was out.” He also attended an orthodontic center in Vitoria, but he found no solution.
“In the breastfeeding group we were told that she was being trained with Dr. Carmen Vega and that there was possibility of online diagnosis.” They make the diagnosis through videos and photographs and cut the tongue in the same consultation, then rehabilitation must be carried out. Vega has his consultation in Seville (Andalusia): “We asked them, to see if there was another possibility closer, and we were told that the closest one is in Salamanca; it is terrible to have to go outside Euskal Herria to cut the language”.
They have had to go four or five times to Salamanca, where there are 1,000 kilometers “It was a fortune”. When they were in the waiting room, they met other Euskaldunes: “Osakidetza continually promotes breastfeeding, but does not provide the means to face the difficulties”. He has also denounced the impact of the class: “We have enormous difficulties because they have no visibility, there are no resources and everything is done privately. Who does not have financial resources, what do they have to do?”
For Ormazabal it is “essential” a collective process to work breastfeeding, work the postpartum body and train workers: “breastfeeding is personal and the social pressure and vulnerability of mothers in this situation must be taken into account”. He considers it important and “very enriching” to participate in group therapies: “By associating, he relativizes and sees that many issues are collective”.