BF after a c-sec. Will it be hard?

[StormInaCCup]

I am not due for another 12 weeks but already looking forward to giving BF a good go. I am having an elective c-sec though and presumably might find it difficult?

Can you give me any advice on how to establish feeding and continue with it in the first few difficult weeks when I will be recovering from the op.

Thanks.

I was going to give a lot of the advice you've already had, but won't bother repeating it all!

The most important thing I was going to stress is a point you came up with yourself - store these intentions and ideas in your phone or on paper and refer to them after the birth. I had most of this in my birth plan, discussed it all with midwife, and then promptly forgot it all in the haze if babies. Nobody suggested I try to feed my babies until 13 hours after the birth, and for some reason it didn't occur to me to try. Feel very sad about that now, despite still EBF my twins successfully at nearly 5 months. We managed to sort it all out, but I still feels I should have fed them so much more in the first few days.

Good luck with the birth and your newborn days - I thoroughly enjoyed those early weeks (ducks) and would dearly love to relive them!

I'd like to point out - you might not be able to call yourself StormInACCup after b-feeding! So says I after 5 weeks of b-feeding...

You'll be fine though - i had emergency c-section and I'm breast feeding fine. Once you get your groove on with positions it'll be ok - just get as much support as you can from partner/friends and family IMO.

Good luck with it all!

Oh - and DEF ask to do skin to skin as soon after birth as poss - i managed about 45mins after as they couldn't find a porter til then [grr] but DS had a little suckle on boob - and then he was lazy in ward and latched on but didn't suck - so we did hand expressing - but 2 days later he eventually sucked! little bugger - got me worried - but KEEP perservering!

Also - I started expressing 3-4 weeks down the line - which made my life a little easier - but that's a whole nother story!

Oh and agree about enjoying the early days - i still loved my first night in hospital with DS in his little see-through crib and i just gazed at him the whole entire night.

all great advice above; I would add accept as much help as is offered when you get home re: cooking meals, cleaning etc, so you can just focus on BF and resting yourself. I am still BF at 5 months. I didn't know that it is sometimes harder after c-section, so just assumed that my experience was the norm....BF is like walking - although it's natural we all still have to learn how to do it!!! Good luck.