The most helpful thing about breastfeeding you wish you'd known...

[Fishpond]

I am hoping to breastfeed DC1 when he/she is born next summer. I am not a crazy anti-formula woman, but it's very common here in the US to bottle feed so I expect to get a bit of looks and meet a bit of resistance, so would like to go in with the most knowledge possible from (imo) the best experts - mums who previously breastfed.

What do you wish you had known before you started? I plan on not buying bottles / formula in 'just in case' as I have heard that makes it much easier to stop. Family is already telling me that I'll "need to have bottles or else you can't pass it to anyone else"

lansinoh nipple cream

massage any lumps as soon as u feel them (and if it helps also stuff a cold cabbage leaf down your bra)

bf on demand

be patient

after a few weeks it WILL feel 'normal', not hurt, you wont feel sore. just stick with it cuz the hgard part doesnt take long to get thru

Kellymom website and Dr Jack Neuman has great dvd / youtube clips showing latch positions good and bad. Watch these in advance. Remember to lower your expectations of you and your baby, to be kind to yourself. i had lots of difficulties with bf but with support from midwifes / lactation consultants and my partner I managed 4 months exclusive bf , followed by a month of mixed and only now at 5 months am bottle feeding. This, despite a baby that never latched properly as would onlytake the nipple and no areola into his mouth, fed every 2 hours and I had Raynauds of the nipple (I kid you not....) remember any breastfeeding you manage is of benefit even if it is a couple of weeks. But if it doesnt work out that is Ok also. Do not let anyone ever make you feel bad or inadequate as bf can be a huge challenge even with great support. Good luck!!

Thanks Northern for your kind words, they're much appreciated . It was more like 5m, but I'm saying 4.5m just to be absolutely sure that I did at least that amount of time BF.

I didn't want to give up, but Drs and BF Counsellors were stumped as to what was wrong with my nipples. I look back now and am happy that I gave formula at around 4.5m because I feel that I started bonding, whereas, when I was BF I spent the whole time spaced out and unable to bond with DS.

It was worse with DD and it's not that I didn't want to BF, I just couldn't bear the pain anymore and had to stop. The strange thing is, about 30 seconds after de-latching, I could pinch my nipples hard and it didn't hurt at all .

That it was harder than I would ever have expected, one of the hardest things I have ever persevered with, and nobody tells you how hard it can be. My advice would be to find out where any local breastfeeding support groups are. It was hard to find the effort to get out of the house and do the 2 bus journeys to my local group and ask for help in a busy group and persevere with going back and asking again when it felt like nothing would help and I would have to give up breastfeeding, but the group leader saved us in the end and I am still breastfeeding nearly 9 months later.

That nipple shields can be ok for some cases. I know some people say they are bad for supply and the baby doesn't learn to latch on properly, but for us it became a case of give them a try or give up on breastfeeding, and fortunately they helped, don't seem to have affected my supply and I was able to wean her off them after a few weeks.

What nipple thrush is and what to do about it. I was in agony for weeks before it was diagnosed and treated.

That newborns need feeding more frequently than 4hrly despite what the hospital midwives told me when I was discharged with DD who didn't wake for feeds.

That most advice is SHIT and you do what's right and healthy for you and your baby, I expres, feed her it from a bottle, use nipple shields as without them my nipples are far too flat to breastfeed comfortably and i'm perfectly happy with a good milk supply and a satisfied baby she's doing fan and gaining weight and my nipples arnt sore yet (she's 4 weeks tommorow) So the best advice i was given was as long as you and baby are happy and healthy and not in any danger then that's all that matters bugger what the "experts" say they arnt the ones dealing with a baby who's been awake all night who won't latch! I have such respect for anyone that perceveers with breastfeeding it's the most natural yet most difficult thing you'll ever do for baby!

^^ the above post is rife with spelling errors please excuse them!

That you can hold the baby in different positions. I have big breasts and almost gave up, then discovered the rugby hold on a leaflet in the box of my breast pump. Am still bf and dd is 2.4

Babies feed all the time at some points - it is NORMAL.

Their tummies are tiny when first born (about the size of a marble) so they can only drink very small amounts and very frequently.

If it isn't working, or if baby seems unsettled in a way that is out of the ordinary, or your instincts are telling you that all is not as it should be, make sure you get baby checked for tongue tie. And if they say they're fine, get checked again!!

Oh and Jack Neuman's recipe for All Purpose Nipple Ointment (you'll need to get it prescribed, it is a cocktail of steroid, painkiller, and antibiotic) will get you through the most horrific episodes of thrush, cracked nipples etc.

Hopefully you will never need it .

This thread is great. In my experience of breastfeeding my 11 week old daughter we only really 'got it' at about 8 weeks. Before that I didn't enjoy it at all but got through it by taking it a day at a time. We also introduced a dummy and a bottle within the first week and were lucky enough that she took both and still latches on to the breast perfectly.

My tip would be to get reusable breast pads. I used various different reusable ones for weeks but they made my nipples feel moist and unpleasant. When I switched to the reusables it was so much better. However, make sure to wash them in the little net bag they come in - somehow I have managed to lose 5, yes 5, in the washing machine! Better get the plumbers number in my phone I suppose

What everyone said (hurts but gets better, Lansinoh, can be literally constant day and night with feeds taking an hour, and back on again 15 mins after 'finishing' the last one - but by (in my case) about 12 weeks baby will get a bit more efficient and you might find 10 min feeds are occasionally possible).

PLUS food:
Look up milk enhancers (galactagogue) I think Kelly mom has an article on it - as someone has said already fenugreek is one, but also oats (porridge for breakfast, flapjack for snacks!) alcohol free beer (something in hops) - there are a few others, there may or may not be much truth in it, but for me it feels like I am doing something helpful by switching from digestives to hobnobs or flapjacks .

I chose to carry on my pre go vitamins+omega, and also added vit K for a while as I rejected the vit K injection for baby (we decided we didn't want her earliest intro to the world to be needles/pain, after a natural water birth with no drugs, and a baby who arrived wide eyed and no crying at all neither one of us could bear to jab her with needle and make her cry!); I didn't want to pump her full of orange flavoured syrup crap instead (the alternative to injection in the UK) and so took it myself and hoped/assumed some would go through to my milk. I suggest do your own research if you are interested in this approach.

how painful it is to begin with.

That co sleeping isn't weird and makes things allot easier

How little support I'd get in the hospital (especially at night)

Hire a cleaner.

Get lots of nursing bras. One or two won't cut the mustard unless you want them to be constantly wet/stink of sick. I have about eight cheap ones that are in the wash just as much as our baby's grows.

Get to a decent antenatal session and line up decent RL uspport before your baby arrives so you know where ot go, who to speak to and have no qualms about calling someone you don't know out of the blue to talk about your boobs.

That not everyone (ime most people) around you understand how bf works, and will try to compare what is happening to their experiences of ff. You will have people telling you you need to top up with formula because the baby is feeding so frequently and you are exhausted, but listen only to the advice of the bf counsellor, accept that its normal, and if you still want to, perservere because it does get easier and you will sleep again (after a few months). Noone told me how hard it was, but dont let that put you off, all i needed someone to tell me was that i was having a normal experience - its natural but it doesnt necessarily feel like it comes naturally, it takes a lot of work.

As someone else said, enforced routine and bf dont come hand in hand, follow tje babies lead instead, it will save your sanity.

What others have said but I'd also add:

1. Never settle in for a BF session without your phone, the TV remote and a glass of water within reach. Nothing worse than finally getting a good latch and realising The Good Wife is on pause and the remote is on the other side of the room!

1. Drink lots - you'll be thirsty like you never imagined and it helps with your supply in the early days

1. Don't spend loads on BF clothes - buy a bunch of cheap strappy vests and wear them under your normal clothes. You can then just pull the vest down and your top up. Minimises public boobage, the number of clippy things to unhook and you can wear your own clothes.

Good luck!