Little bit of help please!

[Beccaroll]

Hi

I had my baby on Sunday at 1:58am (birth story to follow) Im really pleased to say he is breastfeed and we seem to be doing ok (I never managed to BF my first).

Im just not sure what should/shouldnt be happening.

I was under the illusion that my nipples shouldnt hurt if Im doing it properly - well they do hurt!! Quite alot actually. The midwives have all insisted he is latched well though.

When should my milk come in? How often should he feed?

Questions, questions, questions!! Just lacking in confidence I think.

Thanks

Becca
xxx

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Becca - Hi ya. Congratulations and looking forward to hearing more. Yes it hurts and if you get problems then catching them early is a good idea. I found that the best bit of help was from NCT breastfeeding counsellor so if you start to feel you can't continue phone them first. I've had rather a lot of problems and so far they've really helped me to keep going.

Also whilst the mw and hv advised me to get Kamilisan cream to put on the nipples others on the August baby thread (in parenting) advised lansinoh or calendula. I've had problems getting these and in the meanwhile Kamilsan has helped a little, but ended up ordering them from boots.

Looking forward to reading more.

I think the 'professionals' have it all wrong. They do say your nipples should not hurt, well if I had 1 person I had 20 people tell me how well we latched on. I still ended up with sore, cracked and bleeding nipples!!! All I can say is I used nipple shields for 48hours to allow the nipples to heal and use Kamilosan to keep the nipples moist for healing. I also expressed once using an avent hand pump.
Nipples are just not used to the sucking every few hours of a young baby and will get sore. The advice we need is that there are things available to make it easier.
My Dd is now 6 weeks and we are still learning, as I think she is on a growth spurt. My health vistor told me I should be feeding 5-6 times in a 24 hour period.
Good luck!

Becca -Great news -
As for BF - it can hurt - it should NOT be unbearable.... your latch may be find but maybe it's a question of tongue tie or something else.... so get a BF counsellor (they are FREE) to have a look - sorry but MW are not necessarily best to judge !
Your milk should come in soon 3 to 5 days, Feed often and if he is very sleepy do wake him to stimulate your milk production as well as making sure he is gaining weight. IT WILL BE FINE

Firstbump - FYI Lansinoh is far better (it's pure lanolin) than Kamillosan (Kamillosan contains other things which are not necessairly ideal).

Lansinoh is sold by mothercare.
Firstbump - there are many reasons why BF can be painful - most common is bad latch - but babies are not suppose to be nipple feeding but BREAST feeding... this is why it shoudl not hurt.
As a BF counsellor I see many mums who have been told their latch is fine and it is not... and I just expereinced my own SIL telling me her latch was absolutely fine (yet she fines BF painful)... after a close look from a BF counsellor she rings me back to say - her latch was confirmed to be absolutely fine but she needs to make sure this and that... her latch is NOT fine but she believes it is.

I do think you need to feed at least 6 times a day ! Certainly a tiny one can be fed from 8 to 12 times a day.

Congratulations. Only one side hurt when I fed DD so I tried to do that side second. It was strong pain but only lasted a couple of seconds and stopped after a week.
My biggest warning is the baby blues, when your milk changes after 4ish days, it did pass quickly but was worse than I expected. With both of my babies I found things were so much better after the first 7 days. Look after yourself.

Just because a midwife says your baby is latching on ok doesn't mean it is so

Soreness is very common, but it is not something people need to put up with.

It can take time for some mothers and babies to learn to bf without any pain, but why should they have to? Get someone who knows what they are talking about to take a look at the way your baby is positioned. Yes, for some people, amending the position and attachment does not instantly cure it, but it certainly helps most people at least a bit, and often, a lot.

Nipples become sore when the baby compresses the nipple between tongue and hard palate. This doesn't happen in happy breastfeeding, when the baby manages to get a mouthful of breast and scoop the nipple to the back of the mouth.

If soreness gets better over the first few days, then that's a sign the baby is sorting this out for himself. If it gets worse, then it means you need help.

But lets scotch the myth that soreness is something mothers just have to put up with!

My own experience is that it just can hurt for a while. I was also told that my baby was latched on perfectly and that it therefore shouldn't be hurting. I was sore for several weeks, often in tears during feeds, but my dd merrily put on weight and fed well and gradually it did get less painful and eventually stopped hurting at all. That took about 6 weeks on my 'good side' and a bit more on the other side. I have eczema, which I think exacerbated the problem because the skin became cracked and dry. Other people I know seem to manage pain-free feeding in a shorter time.

I do think getting a counsellor to come and help is a good idea. I got excellent support at the start from one of the country's leading breastfeeding units.

As for when the milk comes in ... I think 3-5 days on average? But I may be utterly wrong there!

And how often to feed - everyone says "on demand", but it is hard to know isn't it! I just fed my dd whenever she was awake, which wasn't often in the early days, but eventually settled down to every couple of hours and then every 3-4 hours (less often at night).

The big thing is not to worry, but I know we all do! Confidence that the breastfeeding is going to work is the hardest thing, but hang in there. Can't believe in retrospect how much energy I wasted fretting about the feeding!

Oh and I completely forgot to say ... CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

yes it bloody hurts at the beginning. Then suddenly it doesn't anymore. I used to grab dh's hand and squeeze....

A shooting pain which is only brief is normal during the first bit of breastfeeding, but in my case the feed itself didn't hurt. If the whole feed hurts, then I suspect others are right and your latch is not right. I would adjust ds a lot to get it right to start with - after all your baby has no more experience than you do! Milk in 3-5 days - at the latter end if you've had a traumatic time or a c-section. Babies do well on colostrum though before the milk comes in. Feed at least every three hours at first - though I don't think I ever went longer than a couple of hours in the beginning -esp at night ! Good luck - 98% of people breastfeed their babies in other countries. You CAN do it!

I agree with many others here - the latching on process with a young baby can be very painful, but once the feed is under way then it should be pain free. The problem is excaberated if you have a baby that keeps coming off for a breather(?) and then latching on again. I did use Kamillosan very effectively but having read pupuce's message would try Lansinoh first if I were you. Obviously this is my experience. BFCs always seem to say it shouldn't be painful but that's just not the way it is for many of us - and yes - I had midwives and BFCs saying that mine were latched on fine. Often I think the baby does get to the right position but starts by drawing/hoovering the nipple in rather than with the big wide mouth and then closing round the breast tissue. And coming off the breast at the end is another sore point .... . When they are a bit older (4-6weeks?) the whole feed including latching on and coming off was always pain free for me.

but how do you correct the latch if it is wrong/sore? That was my problem. Between me and my baby we could not get it right, if right means not sore.

Becca,

One of the trainee midwives locally put me onto Breast shells. I find that during the day if I use these it seems to make my nipples more comfortable. I tend to get more sore at night when I am using pads.
They may not be for everyone and they can get messy (milk leaking out of the ventilation holes at the top when you lean over if you have forgotten to empty them!).

Might be worth a try. Mine came in a pack by Avent and contain both shells for general wear as well as two non-ventilated shells which you can wear during a feed to collect milk to feed to your baby.
I bought them in Mothercare but I'm sure other places sell them.

I kept taking ds off and repositioning him until we got the hang of it.

Congratulations Becca!

I agree with what has been said here, but I want to add a word of warning, cos I wouldn't want anyone else to go through what I did.

Yes, it hurts. I am sure everyone is right when they say that breastfeeding is painful. I kept saying "it hurts, but midwife/hv says he's latched on fine, so I have to put up with the pain until it gets better."

After two weeks of crying an hour before feeding in anticipation, being rigid with pain during feeding (dp pushed my shoulder down while I squeezed his other hand) and then crying for an hour after with the pain, I decided enough was enough - after all, I'd just been through labour, which was nowhere near as painful. I wasn't even able to hold and cuddle my baby or take a shower.

It was only after I'd stopped that I discovered I had thrush in my nipples and breasts plus mastisis. I then discovered that it is not normal for expressed breastmilk to be pink, or lumpy.

I was so determined to believe "breastfeeding is painful and you've just got to get through it" that I had put up with bucket loads more pain than I needed to. If I'd got help sooner, I would probably have been able to carry on after 2 weeks too.

So my feeling is, I know people were being well meaning when they say yes it is painful, but only you know what your normal pain threshold is, and when something is actually wrong!

Thanks so much everyone for all of the helpful comments - happy to say things are going really well. My milk came in day before yesterday.

My nipples are hardly sore at all now - all I get is about 5 seconds of sharp pain as he latches on then a comfortable feed! The only problem at the moment is Im quite engorged so he sometimes has trouble getting on.

All in all though things are going well and Im really enjoying breastfeeding.

Thanks again
Rebecca
xxx

Just another little update and request for reassurance!

He was weighed for the first time on Saturday (6 days old) and had gained 7oz!! I was really pleased.

Last couple of days he seems less satisfied and last night fed every 1.5 to 2 hours all through the night.

Just checking this is normal and ok!....

Thanks
Becca

yes, normal. Maybe an early growth-spurt or something, or maybe he's having a funny couple of days. It shouldn't last for more than a few days though - make sure you find a breast-feeding counsellor or come back here if it does!

PS well done so far!

Very normal and good for milk production. You will have evenings and nights like that. Sounds as though you are doing a good job