Is there a secret to succesful breastfeeding???

[Helenemjay]

You hear so many stories of how and why breastfeeding failed or never worked out for so many people, what about the when its a great succes and baby is fed for months/years how can some people manage that and others cant?

expat..sorry have I missed something.
IS BABY ALREADY HERE!!!!???????

Oh and not having to do anything else except feed, hold your baby and rest (while eating cake)for as many days / weeks as possible. No getting up to quickly run the hoover round!

Oh yes, that's it - it was to avoid dummies and bottles for at least a month. Nipple confusion (despite what my silly HV says) does exist! I waited until 4wks and still suffered bad latch after using these ooch!

And definately don't make any decisions when you are tired, emotional, esp in the middle of the night.

And come here for support and advice.

MD, go and check the birth announcements topic, there's a love

Lots of support, I think, and realising that at the beginning it can be very painful even if the baby is properly latched on. I only kept going with DS1 because a bfeeding counsellor told me that, and speculated that I was still finding it painful 6 weeks on becuase I am v fair skinned.

Another tip I was given was to open your mouth slightly, which stops you clenching your jaw.

oh get a good quality pillow. i have one from States called 'BreastFriend' is brill for under arm feeder.

Lots of rest, fluids, and protein. Confidence!

In the early days, it was realising that I had to sleep sometimes, so latching dd off after over an hour of feeding and giving her to dh, so I could sleep (even if it meant him carrying her about on his shoulder for an hour). Then learning to feed her lying down (and reading a book ), which made the long and frequent night feeds a lot more bearable. I didn't co-sleep, but she was in a moses basket right next to me, so easy to pick up, feed and then pop back down again.

I also used to find a few squares of chocolate after the middle of the night feeds as a reward used to make things more bearable.

I have fond memories of reading the complete works of George Orwell whilst b/fing dd2 during the night. It kept me awake because I had to really concentrate to understand what was going on in the story

be keen and willing to snuggle up with baby for hours and hours and hours
also useful..
bloody minded perseverance
asbestos nips

Bloody minded perserverance helped me too and an expectation that it wouldnt (necessarily) be plain sailing.

Learning to feed laying on my side helped hugely for the night feeds.

And recognising that tummy to tummy only applies if you have outward (rather than southward) pointing nippes

Finding a comfortable position.

Allowing both baby and mum the time to learn this skill, because it is a skill.

Good sleep and nursing bras and reliable breast pads.

Gemglebells, just read your post. Agree that health professionals know squat about bf-ing. Even my lactation consultant was suspect. Bf-ing is so much more than being a human bottle.

agree with all this
I would also say that it helps to be confident enough to feed in public or in front of anyone
if you're not confident then I would recommend faking it

dd was a gentle and ardent feeder (aka the snacker). What worked for me (all 17 months of it) was to go with the flow and throw book-led schedules out the window.

deja vu, blueshoes!

why does my PC do that??

I thought it was me going mad at first!

southward facing nipples can be perked up a bit with a some rolled up muslin under yer boob, if that helps

Secrets I have learnt:

If you breastfeed and baby doesn't sleep/ throws up/ grizzles etc. It is not your fault. It doesn't mean you don't have enough milk, or that your milk isn't good enough. It's a trap to blame everything on the way a baby is fed.

Reading about breastfeeding whilst breastfeeding is very motivating.

Reading the ingredients of formula milk also helped me breastfeed much longer than I would ever have thought.

co-sleeping & bf on demand. Also carrying my little one around so I can bf & get one with looking after my other kids.

For me... probably knowledge. Getting advice on here almost instantly for problems. Also, in the early weeks seeing DSs weight go up and thinking "I did that" was great motivation.

Thinking one day at a time helped me a lot. Then I made little milstones like "I'll do it until 2wks" then "6wks" then "3 months" etc etc

For me the key was latching on, expressing early to soften up those rock hard bits of concrete attached to my chest (I was expressing as early as 5 days in order to stop engorgement) and the major one was making myself TRUST my body and TRUST my baby ... trust my body to produce enough and trust my baby to let me know when she was hungry.
I was not very successful at that with DS and ended up giving in to formula early because my DH and my mother managed to persuade me I didn't have enough milk and he was too hungry for me. So from giving the first bottle to giving up bfing altogether took only 2 weeks.

Keep your eye on your baby, not the clock. Trust your body to provide for your baby and don't listen to unsupportive "advice".

It's very hard with the first, but RELAX as much as you can

agree with everyone. In time what helped me relax about about bf was telling myself to trust my body and my baby. That millions of years of evolution means that I can do this. I being bloody minded and telling myself that if bf takes 6 - 12 wks to get 'easy' then like hell was I going to give up so early. All that hard work just to stop?

Yes, agree that trusting that your body can do it and not watching obsessively for every little sign that your milk's not good enough, etc is good.

After all, you grew the baby, you fed the baby while pg without outside help from Milupa et al - so you CAN do it now (despite what interfering MILs and HVs tell you)