Help needed with breastfeeding

[doihavetocleanthehouse]

My baby is now three weeks old. I am a first time mum. Had a complete nightmare starting breastfeeding which basically involved dreadful post natal support in hospital, no visit from midwife in community for the first four days, readmission into hospital due to jaundice (relating to problems feeding). I have been expressing and bottle feeding breast milk, whilst trying to reintroduce breastfeeding. I have had real problems with the latch. I am now using nipple shields (very flat nipples) and have managed to now latch her on both breasts, however I know the latch is not right because my nipples are burning with pain!!!! I think I get the latch right at times because I can breastfeed without pain at times.

I have a community midwife coming tomorrow so will go over my latch again but I have a couple of questions.

1. I am feeding usually every hour for about 10 mins (sometimes 5, sometimes 20-30mins) during the day. Baby usually falls asleep on the breast. I have stopped topping up during the day with the bottle (still feeding by bottle at night, but am trying to breastfeed as much as I can) Do you think she is getting enough milk?

1. Should I just try relatch every time until I am feeding with no pain - not sure if this will happen as my nipples are quite sore. Should I just feed through the pain??

Please don't tell me to stop using the nipple shields, they have really helped and I think I would give up otherwise!!

Any advice on breastfeeding or experience shared would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[cmotdibbler]

Poor you - you've done so well to get to this point. You really need some good, face to face help - best thing is to call one of the support lines. You can see all the numbers here

[wearymum200]

Poor you, sounds miserable, but you are doing very well. Have you got plenty of nipple cream? I found Lansinoh a lifesaver in the early stages. With feeding that frequent as well as expressing, you are bound to get a bit sore! Also ask the midwife to have a look for thrush (or you can) in baby's mouth.
I'm sure lots of other people have wise words, but good luck (and do you have a baby cafe in the vicinity, good for getting out as well as advice about feeding)

[ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight]

you are doing great! offer the breast at every opportunity and she should catch up. my latch was wrong for a couple of weeks but it was so hard to get him to latch on at all that i fed thru the pain - but with practice i got the hang of it.
it will get better! xxx

[PortAndDemon]

Well done for presevering through all of that! Try to see a breastfeeding counsellor if you can; your community midwife may be wonderful but the majority of midwives have very limited breastfeeding training.

[doihavetocleanthehouse]

Thanks ladies,

I have had a great community midwife (who incidentally I had to arrange through the hosptial as my midwife team were obviously not interested in offering any support!!!) she is coming tomorrow so I will get her to go through the latch again. She is the one who has supported me to keep going.
It is just so hard when, perfect when I have her there, when I try on my own it goes all wrong. There must be progression, this time last week I could not even latch on at all!!

Please tell me I will get there, I would hate to think all this pain and frustration will lead nowhere!!!!

[PortAndDemon]

You will get there; as you said, it's getting better, and as your baby becomes bigger, more alert, etc., it will be easier to get a good latch (also your nipples should stop being so flat and you will eventually be able to wean the two of you off nipple shields).

[fishie]

well done yes yes do persevere! i had dreadful pain until i got the latch sorted but i did have such a sense of achievement. got through it with bloodyminded determination.

take all the help you can get, i'm sure the midwife won't care a jot if you ring one of the helplines.

[madmouse]

well done I really admire women like you who keep at it and keep bf despite it being really hard for them.

agree to get support. i still believe bf never hurt for me is because ds and i learned to bf in scbu with a lactation expert on hand