breastfeeding - so what am I doing wrong here? Ow!

[TottWriter]

DD is a week old today, and I'm getting on fairly well with breastfeeding. I've more or less passed the unbearable engorgement with my 32K boobs (I dread to think what size they got up to - they seemed about twice their normal size!) and my midwife helped me with latching to reduce the pain I was getting while feeding her (it helps that DD is a good feeder and when she's on, she's really on).

Thing is, on my right side, DD latches on quickly and easily, and I have no pain (aside from slight engorgement discomfort), only what I assume is the let-down feeling. Great. But on my left side, every time she latches on I get a sharp pain in my breast that lingers well into the feed, and though it lessens as she slows down, it stays pretty uncomfortable throughout. I've also noticed that this breast, despite being the bigger when I was engorged (and by far the most painful) is now looking smaller than my right breast, though that could be because my milk seemed to come in one breast at a time.

I have some slight cracked skin on both nipples, though I'm using nipple cream which is helping that out, but I can't work out why it hurts on this side and not the other. DD still waves her head around a lot before latching on, and seems to have greater trouble finding my left breast than my right, even if I express a dab of milk first so she can smell it.

I have flat nipples, so have to manually raise them before she latches on, and my left side is definitely more tender, but I don't know whether that's what's making the feeding sore, or if it's the feeding issues which are making the nipple sore - it doesn't look any different to the right.

So, genuinely stuck for answers here. She's not having any difficulty feeding from either breast, and stays latched on to both for good long feeds. Anyone have any advice?

when you latch her on do you bring her up to the nipple or do you giude the nipple to her?

i had a similar thing with ds3, and it was as simple as bad positioning! for some reason i was getting it ok on one side, but I was holding him too far up and to the side on the other.
if you can let the breast sit naturally, and then bring baby to the nipple it avoids and unnecessary pulling or tugging on the breast while baby feeds

is the cracked skin healing on the pain-free side? if not then it could still be a latch problem?

your best bet IMO is to see if you can get to a breastfeeding counsellor in person who can watch you feed and see if there is anything that could improve it
have a look for baby cafes or la leche league groups in your area

I think it's normal for mother and baby to find one side easier than the other to get the latch right. It sounds to me as though your baby just isn't latching on quite right on the left side. If I were you I would consult a breast feeding specialist as soon as possible before your nipple becomes too damaged. I left it a bit late when I was having trouble with dd2 and got very cracked nipples. Lots of blood and it was a nuisance because it took a while to heal up. Still, we got there in the end after a very helpful midwife sorted us out.

Congratulations on your daughter's arrival and on how well you're both doing!

I had problems with my left side early on. It does get better, and I found the rugby hold on the left side helped in the meantime.

Congratulations and well done on getting bf off to what sounds like a cracking start!

I'd echo jemja. I too have always found one side easier and more comfortable. It settled down quite quickly, though ds clearly prefers the other boob and has gone through phases of rejecting the "wonky" one. I have no doubt that it is to do with positioning. Tbh in our case it was never so difficult or sore that i've felt the need to seek help, but had it got that way i'd have rang a bf councillor. I believe they have three years training specifically on bf so one may be able to spot something your midwife has missed.