After giving birth to my first child, I was guided by hospital nurses through my first few days of breastfeeding. Everything looked correct according to all of the books and videos I had seen, and I received the thumbs up from the nurses. As most of the new mothers would think breastfeeding as a simple and straightforward process that would come naturally however after a few days of breastfeeding, I experienced painful latch, nipple soreness, needle like pain in my breasts and nobody could explain why that was happening and how to ease that.

Hospital staff encouraged me to turn to formula milk. I had difficulty processing all of the advice being rushed at me as I focused on my feelings of failing at breastfeeding, physical pain from delivery and postpartum recovery.

I decided to seek professional help from a lactation consultant, that’s when I found Dr. Manisha Gogri in near me options and being listed as one of the best lactation consultants in town.

I reached out to her over a text message with the challenges I was having breastfeeding my baby and asked if she could accommodate my appointment as early as possible. She got back to me right away and fit me into her schedule within a day since I couldn’t take the pain of sore nipples and inflamed breasts.

During our consultation, she spent quality time helping us on the initial evaluation of baby’s oral cavity and understanding my challenges with breastfeeding. I had challenges like latching issues, prolonged breastfeeding sessions, painful breast and soreness, clogged milk ducts, etc. Baby’s oral examination revealed restricted tongue movement and tensed neck muscles.

She was extremely communicative before, during and after my appointment. As advised by her, I practiced oral stretches to improve tongue mobility of baby, massaged baby’s neck muscles, helped my baby to practice tummy time, breast compressions while feeding to empty milk from breasts, breast feeding positions that provide deep latch and lastly maintaining breast milk supply.

Within hours of our visit she provided us with tons of information and resources like baby mouth massage exercises, deep latch training exercises and techniques to help me with my breast feeding journey.

My first consultation with her left me feeling relieved, relaxed, and it revived in me the feeling that I could do this after all.

Trust me, most of my challenges disappeared after my first visit to Dr. Manisha. She helped turn breastfeeding into an enjoyable experience rather than a dreaded one. Within weeks of practicing oral exercises & tummy time for my baby, I was able to see greater improvement in baby’s neck muscles & tongue mobility which improved milk intake and subsequently supported baby’s growth and development, largely measurable weight gain.

Dr. Manisha was extremely knowledgeable in identifying the root cause of the problem. The amount of care and dedication she puts into each session is incredible. She is thorough, kind, compassionate with a wealth of knowledge.

As a new mom, having Dr Manisha as part of my support system has been invaluable. I can’t express enough how much her guidance and support means to me. I am forever grateful for her.

- By Mom Darshita

Back then, I remember seeing a lot of mothers including mine, managing to grow up a baby all alone (fathers would hardly involve). Breastfeeding is largely associated with only mothers. However, in today’s era I believe to make a baby both genders are imperative. Same goes for parenting and breastfeeding. As a new father, I may not breastfeed but I was wanting to make the process enjoyable, smoother and right for my wife and baby.

We welcomed our child early in September 2022, we saw everything running right and positive back in hospital. My wife practiced breastfeeding as guided by the hospital nurses and watching videos of breastfeeding. We came back home and after a few days my wife began to share concerns with breast feeding such as needle like pain in the breasts, extreme soreness, longer feeding hours, etc. However, these challenges with breastfeeding further took toll on her health and back and diverted her from recovering after childbirth. Most of the advices we received from the dear ones was to either bear the pain or switch to formula milk.

I felt unprepared for the challenges I was seeing with my wife’s recovery and breastfeeding our baby. I was unsure how to help my partner.

I was sure I wanted to be proactively involved to support my wife in our breast feeding journey. After hours of research online, I came across renowned lactation consultants in Mumbai. I decided to consult Dr Manisha Gogri. Today, I am glad that we met her!

She readily accommodated an appointment for us since my wife was in agony. She performed examinations on baby’s oral cavity and neck mobilities that plays a role in breastfeeding practice, wife’s breast examination to understand soreness and inflammation stage.

Upon completion of the examination, Dr. Manisha was precise in identifying variety of problems my wife and baby were facing while breastfeeding; baby had some grade of tongue tie and tensed neck muscles that would contribute to poor latch and thus affect breastfeeding. Breastfeeding position that my wife was following that was not ideal for both, wife and the baby to share a few problems.

She demonstrated oral massages and exercises that I could do on the baby to help release tension on the tongue movement. She also involved me to practice tummy time for baby that would help in improving neck tension, more such practices have helped me strengthen my bond with my baby and give some time off for my wife to rest and relax.

After a few weeks of oral exercises, changes in breast feeding position, and coaching has helped my wife and baby to happily continue the breastfeeding journey. We are able to see our baby gaining adequate weight and reduced incidences of colic.

After meeting Dr. Manisha, I could find best ways to help and support my wife in her breastfeeding journey. She really is a pro with abundant knowledge, her experience speaks it all.

Dr. Manisha has made a huge difference to my family.

- By Dad Gaurav