BF Pain

[pettyprudence]

we are 3 weeks in to BF and while my DS is thriving (he put on a whole pound in the last week) my nipples are not. MW thinks we should have settled in to it by now and so do I. I have had help pretty much every day for the last 11 days with latching and tried about 3 different positions. The one that hurts the least leaves me feeling like my areola (sp?) is being pinched either side of his mouth and that my nipple is being rubbed by sandpaper - thats during the feed. Latching feels like a burning/stabbing pain but that does go after about 20 seconds.

Will BF just click one day or is there more we could be doing/trying with the latch?

Are your nipples misshapen after a feed (lipstick shaped)? Have you just been seeing a MW or have you managed to see a breastfeeding counsellor?

No the nipples are not mis-shapen. Not sure who I have been seeing! Maternity care assistants who specialise in breastfeeding have been coming to the house and I have been going to groups arranged and attended by HV's, MW's and MCA's. I did meet an amazing MCA/MW who had a really good poke around before, during and after latching and she taught us the hold/technique that causes the least amount of pain and has been really looking after us but unfortunately I dont live in her on-call area so I can only see her when she's holding groups.

The MCAs who come to the house either come when he's not feeding or shove him on my boob and write in my notes that he's feeding fine (which technically he is). My personal MW was horrified that they have never mentioned in my notes that I am REALLY BLOODY SORE! Night time is the worst but I think its just because I am tired.

I dont know if this is relevant but i have/had inverted nipples - my nipples appear cracked where they are being drawn out but its almost definitely not cracking.

The fact that they're shoving him on the boob raises alarm bells for me! They shouldn't be doing that at all. Is there a La Leche League or NCT breastfeeding group near you? They'd probably be able to give you some more help.

Also have you tried biological nurturing/letting the baby self-attach? I found this really helpful - if you google it you can find videos. Basically you get yourself into a reclined position with the baby on top of you, head above your breast, and let him use his natural instincts to push around and head-bob until he latches himself on. We got great latches in the early days doing that - I found all the grabbing-and-shoving the midwives did worse than useless

Can I just second all that Rita just wrote? Too true about the mws. I was told that ds1 was fine. He wasn't. At all. I found a good bfing support group and feeding ds2 has been a skoosh and pain free.

Anywhere near you? Bfn, LLL, Nct?

abm.me.uk/breastfeeding-support-groups

Just type in your location

Does the pain come back after the feed? Just wondering if it could be thrush.

Tongue tie would be another thing to rule out too.

Hope you can get some good help soon.

OK, hold fire on the thrush, but I reckon it could be TT.

Have a read of this article which describes the 'sandpaper' feeling just like you did.

Also in an article on TT by la leche league it describes how
"The baby may also be using the lips to try to maintain a grip on the breast." This could be the pinching you describe.

I may be completely wrong of course, but it's worth a thought.

HTH

Thank you everyone, I think I will contact the NCT and see if I can get some private/non-MW help with BF.

Reading the article it looks like he might have tongue-tie which I had ruled out without really looking at because I assumed the latch was due to me "just not getting it". Where would I go to get him diagnosed and snipped if needs be?

Also thank you for the link to the locla BF groups - turns out I have been to every single one in my city (Cardiff). According to my midwife there is only one BF person I haven't seen yet but her group isn't until next Tuesday so I think investigating the TT is the next step.

Spotting a tongue tie is pretty easy. Getting it snipped is another question. I think some IBCLCs will do it at home - I'd be happier getting it done on the NHS though, but different boroughs have different attitudes to snipping.

You need to talk to the BF support folk, and maybe your GP, to scope out the options ...

My midwife referred us to a tongue-tie clinic at the local hospital to get ds's snipped - could your midwife/HV tell you how to get it done?

went to another bf group today and someone else had a look at our latch (I have lost count of how many people have poked my boobs now! You really do lose any inhibitions when you have a baby don't you?) and it seems that my LO is not curling his bottom lip properly and so in turn is not using his tongue properly. We are going to practise latching in a slightly different way to exaggerate drawing down his bottom lip and see how we get on. So far it does seem to help but its a bit of a guessing game as I can't see whats going on down there.

That's good that you are getting to the bottom of it

There's a useful technique called exaggerated attachment on page 10 on this document here

Hope things improve for you now and there is much less boob poking going on.