Been thinking a lot about breastfeeding and how sad it is that people get discouraged/give up for any number of reasons. How do you think it would be better to promote/give information about BF?
I am in no way criticising people who choose/ end up having to FF, and freely admit to having no experience of it, but I think a lot of people give up because they don't get the support they need, have unrealistic expectations, have problems such as thrush, blocked ducts, mastitis, tongue-tie etc that they never dreamed existed.
For me, BF has been a really positive experience but even with no particular problems, I wasn't expecting it to be so physically difficult to get the baby to latch, that it would sometimes hurt quite a lot (even if latch was good), or that you would do it SOO frequently, and for such a long time.
I think if more information was given that actually, it can be difficult and painful to begin with but there are a lot of benefits later on, that would really help a lot of people. I think most people are aware of the health benefits to baby and mother (antibodies, lowering cancer risk etc) but good things that I think should be promoted include:
*once you get the hang of it, you can do it anywhere - it is really convenient and requires NO equipment at all - and unlike a bottle, you can't accidentally drop a boob on the floor and make it unsterile.
*it's free
*you can't 'run out' while out and about
*no sterilising
*(personal experience here) you can eat masses and the weight just mysteriously vanishes - I weigh less than pre-pregnancy
*if the baby wakes crying for food, you can feed her immediately without having to make up a bottle while LO cries
*(possibly the biggest amazement for me) if you BF a baby in the night, the lovely BF hormones mean you drop right off back to sleep - and it tends to have a soporific effect on baby too
*if baby is in pain, upset, teething, has banged head, ill, etc you have an instant source of comfort
Plus it's really lovely 
What does anyone else think?