Question about a friend who is struggling with breastfeeding

[Maria2007]

Hi my name is Maria & I'm 21 weeks pregnant with my first baby. I'm actually writing though to ask a question about a good friend of mine, who lives in Greece, and has just had her first baby 10 days ago. She's struggling really hard to breastfeed him but so far it hasn't been going well, so any advice is much appreciated. I'll jot down her main problems (sorry about putting them in numbers!!) so that you can get a clear picture:

1. when her milk came in she had very bad pain & soreness but that passed
   
2. he's a big baby (was born 4 kilos) & is hungry all the time, and everytime he wakes or sees her he cries & screams for milk which is stressing her because she's anxious too & is feeling she's not able to feed him enough
   
3. he hasn't yet managed to properly latch on & thus everytime they breastfeed he cries & struggles, probably not eating enough, making her even more anxious & depressed
   
4. her nipples are now, 10 days down the line, REALLY sore & bleeding
   5)...which is why she's now pumping her milk for the last 2 days in order to relax a bit & to relax the baby too.
   
5. this seems to be working well but she feels terribly guilty, like a failure, & is worried her milk will run out.
   
   That's about it... Any advice would be very very welcome. I've been talking to her everyday on the phone, trying to reassure her, but of course I'm no breastfeeding expert as I haven't yet had my baby herself! She has support from a midwife but that doesn't seem to solve the problem for now...
   
   Maria

[orangehead]

hopefully someone wil come along and have some advice for you soon

[tiktok]

Maria, your friend can get in touch with La Leche League in Greece - they are all over the world.

[MonkeybirdisboredWITHbuns]

Maria,

She sounds like she does need some local help as Tiktok says. In the meantime she does need to sort out the latch - the nipples won't be able to heal if the latch isn't working. If she can't get someone to advise her over the phone, and has access to the internet, www.drjacknewman.com and www.kellymom.com have some great pictures and videos to help with latching.

For healing, she should remember to keep the nipples moist, not dry between feeds - lots of people will tell her to air-dry them but if they're bleeding, all that will happen is they'll scab over and then open up again when he feeds. Something like Lansinoh - don't know if you can get it in Greece? - or vaseline even, with a layer of gauze will help - she needs to slather it on thick and leave until the next feed. A gentle wipe off is all that's needed.

We could try and advise on latching here but TBH it's much better for her to try and get help direct...

[determination]

i know how it is when trying to sort the whole latch thing when experiencing the excrutiating pain. An then expressing etc. Like previously advised she needs to get some bfing support.

Also, if she gets a set of Silverettte she will be completely healed within 48 hours and this means that when she is concentrating on the latch she will not have the pain to deal with. They can also be used as a preventative measure

[terramum]

She really sounds like she needs some expert help & reassurance.

Here is the link for LLL Greece website which contains their helpline phone number & a link to a text document (in Greek) of all the Leaders in Greece.
www.llli.org/Greece.html