How would you advise encouraging my friend to BF...

[allsquareknickersnofurcoat]

I'm not trying to force her!!
She has a newborn and is BFing constantly at the moment, I want to explain to her that it is worth it in the long run, even if at times it is VERY hard, without sounding like a BF nazi!!!

WWYD??

Tell her the truth. That yes, it is really hard work at first, but in just a few days or weeks it will get easier.

I remember the toe-curling pain and the difficulty latching, but suddenly I got to a stage where I realised "hang on, this is easy now!" :)

if she asks your opinion then you should share it. otherwise I would leave it, it is her decision after all.

My friends sil didn't want to bf her dd. we talked to her before the birth and gently gave her all the facts on how it would benefit her. DD was very small due to mum being on beta blockers. We told her if all you can manage is 1 day then you have given her so much health benefits. When she was on day 6 and struggling we gave her the health benefits of feeding for a week and then a month. We were also there for her if she needed a moan.
I think it helped her to know that I was still feeding dd2 at 15 months so she could see it could be done.
She did find the constant newborn feeding tough but she realised that all the feeding in the early days helped her get a good supply up which was beneficial in the long run.

Try and be there for your friend and offer as much help as you can with housework and any other children. She will find it very hard somedays and knowing that someone is supporting her will be a great help. If she sticks at it then one day it will just come naturally and she will love it.

cheers guys, I did tell her the truth that it is damn hard work but that my DS is feeding a lot less now so it will get better :)

she wrote about it on her FB, I haven't mentioned it up til now as I didnt want her to think I was judging if she didnt BF (I am the only one in my group of friends that did. Well, does :))!!

You could try giving her a copy of "How not to be a Perfect Mother" by Libby Purves. It makes no bones about how awful it can be in the early days (the bit about "think of an early Christian martyr being mauled by a small and persistent lion cub" was oddly helpful to me), but then was so right about how it all clicks into place and is so much easier and less fuss than dealing with bottles.

And do praise her lots for how well she's doing right now.

The first six weeks is "breastfeeding boot camp" - if she can get through that then it will all get easier and be so much easier than bottlefeeding. Establishing BF is hard work, once you've got through that though, it's worth it.

Also tell her about any local BF groups you know of - just say you found them really helpful when your baby was small. Support can be so important, especially if not many people she knows BF.

Appeal to her nature - I am bone idle and the thing that most convinced me to carry on bfing was the fact that it's so much easier than fiddling around with formula! All the sterilising and lugging around of stuff - when you always have your boobs with you...

Of course, if she ISN'T a lazy mare, that may not be the best angle

The Libby Purves book is great (for more than bfing too) as is The Food of Love by Kate Evans. Both made me laugh and are upfront about bfing being tough to start with.