To think that breastfeeding mothers should be offered gas and air POSTNATALLY

[ReallyTired]

Many women find that breastfeeding is extremely painful at first. Even if they are given good support and a bad latch is corrected breastfeeding can be still painful. It can take days for the damage caused by a baby latching on badly to heal. The memories of cracked nipples bring tears to my eyes.

Rather than bullying do think that decent pain relief would help mothers establish breastfeeding? Ie. if a mother is scared of the pain of breastfeeding then the offer of gas and air might tempt her.

Maybe gas and air would not help, but good medical attention for cracked nipples might. I feel its almost misogyny to expect women to breastfeed without doing something about physical pain.

Erm. No. No. No.
Just no. Can't. Find. Words. !

Lansinoh. 'nuff said.

THAT'S THE WORD I WAS LOOKING FOR!!

Oh, TBH if I'd been using GandA while trying to feed my newborn son I probably would have mistaken him for a goat (or similar) and thrown him out of the room. That stuff sends me loopy.

All you need for cracked nips is lansinoh and sympathy.

Yes, Lansinoh.

Nice as it would be, how would you hold the mouthpiece in, hold the baby and get your boob into the right position and into the baby's mouth all at once?

Surely a better plan would be putting some of the resources and time that's spent constantly bombarding pregnant women with the message that breast is best (yes, we're all aware of that) into decent postnatal NHS support and training so that women could be helped properly with things like latching on or diagnosing tongue tie rather than having a MW thrust your breast into baby's mouth because they've no time or training, or having to seek out a volunteer who has put their own time and money into being able to support and help breastfeeding women?

You can take paracetamol if you feel the need and use Lansinoh. I think gas and air might be a step too far though

Lansinoh does fuck all if you have severe cracked nipples.

I can sympathise with a mother who tells someone to stick the lansinoh where the sun doesn't shine. Laninsoh has no pain relieving properties. Certainly it helps some people, but some people NEED more. In my personal experience jelonet is better and unlike lansinoh it does not exasabate ezcema.

Why is it so bad to consider PROPER pain relief for a mother who has hideous after pains and problems breastfeeding.

I would think that if it was hurting that badly, there must be something wrong and some damage being done - I'd rather either fix the problem if possible or switch to a bottle, than mask the pain and continue having my nipples shredded...

(no problem with pain relief for afterpains though!)

They had to literally wrestle the g&a mouthpiece off me after they'd stitched me up! Then gently remind me that I might want to stop performing my one-woman stand up routine and start looking after my new baby!

YABU - it's strong stuff!!

I took ibuprofen and paracetemol for the first 2 weeks. Prescribed them because of my stitches but actually very good for dealing with painful bf (and associated afterpains). After the first fortnight I stopped the painkillers but used to bite on a wooden spoon when dd latched on. And when my boobs got cold they were agony.
Bloody awful bf.

Wonderful wonderful bf.

I was on pain reflief both times as I had c-sections. But it still hurt for the first couple of weeks. I also had sore cracked nipples but it wasn't that bad. Lansinoh sorted it out. If it was worse I'd have consulted a BF councellor, as it prob isn't normal to hurt that bad you'd consider having G&A.

I hated gas and air. I only tried it with my first - it just annoyed me.

I had a pessary for after pains with my youngest child (they get worse the more children you've had, I've found). Lansinoh really helped too in the early days, enough for me to continue feeding.

I have had a pretty disastrous history of breastfeeding, barely managing more than a couple of months with all 3 of my dcs. This was due to a combination of tongue ties, nipple vasospasm (caused by Raynauds), awful (non existent) breastfeeding support, and ds being in SCBU mostly tube fed and with no suck reflex. Strangely I managed to feed ds longer than the other two, despite my milk not coming in for 5 days and him being in SCBU for 8 days. I realised afterwards that the reason why I was able to establish feeding more successfully was because I was dosed up on painkillers after having a csection, which got me through the jawclenchingly awful first couple of weeks!

I don't know about gas and air, but agree that painkillers should be considered if you have really sensitive nipples. Oh and Lansinoh did nothing.

YADNBU.

DS latched well and fed well and I had no cracked nipples, but the first few minutes of him feeding in the first weeks were hell, I tell you.
I'd have tears rolling down.

Yup, gas and air would have been a godsend. :o

I'd rather either fix the problem if possible or switch to a bottle
There were no problems. It just hurt.
And I EBF until I returned to work and even then only one bottle a day.
I'm glad you were not around to "advise" me.

ReallyTired I totally agree Lansinoh does nothing for pain. It is slightly soothing and helps healing but that's all.

If you have severe nipple pain when breastfeeding then it really is sooooo painful. Someone once said to me that some women have compared the level of pain they feel to having an amputation for eg. I can believe that because I have felt that pain. It would be nice if there was something you could take or use to mask that pain but in reality masking it isn't an option. If you're feeling that level of pain then your nipples are being severely damaged so the latch/ possible tongue tie etc needs sorting.

I think I should be allowed some in my place for whenever I need it. I love the stuff

I've breastfed 3DC, while I love gas and air and have experienced problems feeding, I can't say this would help.

I had a slit down the side of my left nipple that opened up every time DD1 fed and I cried everytime I had to use that side, Also 3 bouts of mastitis didn't help. But surely if you take the pain away the latch can't be corrected and may lead to more problems.

Had I been given gas and air for every other feed I think my nipple would have ended up completely mashed up and I would be an gas and air addict, convinced DP was an alien and my mother was all seven of the seven dwarfs.

I think the OP means for the afterpains?

BFing definitely exacerbated mine.

I would've like a nice shot of something to take the edge off engorgement, that's fo sho.

I don't think G&A would be suitable pain relief for bfing and after pains. It makes many people nauseous, and establishing bfing requires effort that I for one would not be capable of making if I was high on G&A. There are other forms of pain relief available.

Midwives berate you if you switch to a bottle because of nipple confusion. There is even opposition to in my area from midwives and health visitors.

I think with gas and air the mother would need to take a couple of puffs before latching the baby on. In such a situation the mother would need support at every feed to make sure she is latching on correctly. I 100% agree the problem needs to be fixed.

Pain does not disappear once the latch is corrected as shredded nipples do not heal instantly. For example I found it too painful to wear a bra because of nipple damage.

I think it's a good point to be honest. I didn't actually suffer too badly with cracked nipples but I think a lot of pre-emptive Lansinoh had something to do with that. However, I know LOTS of Women who had been really motivated to breast feed antenatally but found the process so painful and harrowing that they gave up within a few days and then felt like massive failures.

Also different women have different levels of nipple sensitivity, some find the initial learning to latch on stage incredibly painful and I think of they had extra pain relief during that time it might help them to get through that and breast feed successfully. I don't know if G&A is the way to go but info on what you can take to ease the pain would be good. Also I only found out about the wonderful Lansinoh from MN - maybe a little heads up on that would help too!

I think more emphasis on the REALITIES of breast feeding antenatally would be a massive help. I am a fairly intelligent, clued up woman, I read all the info I was given and I am a HCP. However I still had the idea that I would be breast feeding my DS around every 4 hours from birth. Nobody told me about cluster feeding, about how supply is dictated by demand, about how if you feed infrequently your supply won't increase and (despite one HV's advice) that it is not better to leave long gaps between feeds in order to "build up a good amount of milk". Sorry for the slight hijack

TheHonourableNagoo,

Many women find that breastfeeding is extremely painful at first. Even if they are given good support and a bad latch is corrected breastfeeding can be still painful. It can take days for the damage caused by a baby latching on badly to heal. The memories of cracked nipples bring tears to my eyes.

I think the OP means breastfeeding pains, not afterpains.