Three days in, in excruciating pain

[takethatlady]

Hi. My beautiful baby daughter was born on Sunday and I BFed immediately. It pinched quite a lot the first time but the MW said the latch was fine, and the mw who came to see me on the postnatal ward said the same. On Monday we were at home and I didn't feed her quite enough because she was so sleepy and I was reluctant at first to wake her, but soon realised I needed to and spent most of yesterday on the breast with her. It pinches quite significantly when she first goes on the breast but usually eases up during the feed. I thought this would be okay. She doesn't get a full inch of areola in around the nipple but pretty close, and I try to evert her lips (difficult with the bottom one!) and her nose has a good gap. Her head is very slightly back and I'm using tummy to mummy, nose to nipple. I thought I was getting it 99% right.

But my nipples now feel like they're on fire, I can't bear to put her on the breast, and when I tried to put her on this morning blood came out of one of the ducts and hit her cheek. Told DH, who had got her out of her moses basket, and he said there was blood in her spit - he showed me, and indeed there was.

Not sure what to do. have BFing clinic at 11am but need to feed before then. What am I doing wrong?????

[RitaMorgan]

If you are in pain and have nipple damage then it does sound like the latch isn't perfect - unfortunately midwives often don't know much about breastfeeding, hopefully there will be a breastfeeding counsellor or specialist at the clinic.

There are some videos on Jack Newman's site that might be helpful?

[Emzar]

Hi, congratulations on your baby. :) Not sure I can help much, but just wanted to reassure you that it's probably something quite simple to fix with an expert. I was also in terrible pain for the first few days and couldn't see what I was doing wrong. I went to a clinic too, and one of the main things I was doing wrong was moving my boob towards my baby's mouth by dipping my shoulder, rather than the baby towards the boob. You need to move your baby's head, chin first, onto your breast when she's got a good wide gape, aiming so that the nipple almost looks like it's going for her nose, not her mouth. Hard to explain in words, but the clinic will help.

To be honest, if you're bleeding, it's likely that your next feed will hurt whatever you do. Do you have a breast pump so you can express the feed? Can you take some painkillers to help before the clinic? I've been told by several breastfeeding experts that Ibuprofen are fine to take.

There are some videos here that might help too - www.breastfeedinginc.ca/content.php?pagename=videos

[takethatlady]

Hi ladies,

Thank you so much for your replies. I ended up taking the baby to the doctor's because she was screaming so much and I feared that she was constipated/not digesting her food properly - she obviously wanted to feed but wouldn't go on - and the doctor checked her over and said she was absolutely fine. She also said it's inevitable that there's some pain the first few days and that the baby is definitely getting food. She had passed a lot of mec-type stools by the time we got there. When we got home she had calmed down a lot (she loves the car seat, I think), and I managed to give her my first pain-free feed on the easiest boob. I think I might have freaked out when I saw the drop of blood earlier. Neurotic mother over here!

Will check those videos out and go to the clinic. emzar I think that may be part of it - it's so hard not to lean forward and push the boob in, especially when her head is wriggling about or you see the mouth open wide and realise there's only a split second to get it sorted. The last feed I did i took your advice and wouldn't let her latch until I did it by moving her shoulders forward and it definitely seemed to help.

Thank you again :) I think this may have coincided with it all suddenly hitting me just how much I love her ... been a bit weepy. Feel like a crazy lady!

[suzikettles]

takethatlady, good advice here and it will really help to get advice from someone who can watch her feed to it's great that you've got a bf clinic to go to.

Around day 3 is also when most people get the baby blues kicking in (I went home on day 3, took one look at dh's breakfast dishes sitting in the sink and sobbed to ds about how sorry I was that I was bringing him home to such a hovel ). Pesky hormones.

[takethatlady]

Yes, I think baby blues may be responsible for much of it. Sobbed and sobbed to DH and couldn't explain why, except to say I really loved her which made me cry all the more Luckily DH is pretty damn amazing and gave me the skin-to-skin treatment he's been learning about

Thank you :)