Breastfeeding? how many of you didn't find it difficult?

[MeeWhoo]

I know that obviously this is the place to come for advice and support and therefore the threads are generally about problems with BFing, so I was genuinely wondering how many of you would say you didn't finf BFing "hard", particularly with your first baby.

Also, if you have breastfed several babies, was the experience very different each time and harder with some babies than with others?

No problems - other than oversupply - with either DC.

Getting them off the boob, however, is another story.

No problems with supply, latch etc; but the round the clock feeds got me down in the early days.

Hurt like buggery for the first 4 weeks with both dcs though. ANd I got thrush.

I think it hurt with dd (dc2) because she has a latch like a bastard snapping turtle. 8 teeth now and I do wince occasionally when she approaches, as she's partial to a cheeky nip.

Me. Everything else was difficult, but not that - once I got him out of hospital that is.

I had a lot of support from family. Not so much from health professionals.

I had no problems at all - no pain, no mastitis, anything like that. My only issue was a tendency to spray the walls when DS chose to come off the boob mid-feed for a look around

I couldn't decide what to do about feeding. I knew breast was best but I thought formula would be easier. When my DS was on my chest the midwife asked and I answered honestly that I didn't know and she said 'well, lets give this a wee try then' and put him to the breast. He suckled away and from that day he fed like a wee dream, I had no pain at all (until he got a tooth!) and he fed beautifully (despite being badly tongue tied).

mine all latched on fine and knew what to do, no sore nipples etc. i did however had over supply issues that were a pita and got thrush and mastitis a few times. oh and fussy babies who were easily distracted and a pita to feed when out and about sometimes!

I wouldn't have said it was easy as such, as in, both DS and I had to work hard to learn how to do it, but I was very lucky as I have a very supportive mother and very supportive friends, and it was essentially very straightforward for us (after a bit of work we got the latch and position right, no tongue tie or anything). So I enjoyed bfeeding until DS was 13mths, and now hoping that it goes the same with DC2 due early next year.

I think having good support around you, especially in those early days, can make the world of difference and I'm gutted for friends who didn't have that and therefore found it so much harder (and beat themselves up when it didn't work out ).

Bf is great - I like it so much more than I ever thought I would (am doing it as I type, in fact). It was tough at first as dd would only feed from one side (I have one inverted nipple). But once I accepted this and embraced lopsidedness, couldn't be happier!

DS1 was difficult because he was tongue tied.

DS2 was easy peasy. He is tongue tied too, but nowhere near as restricted as DS1.

There seem to be lots of tongue tied babies on this thread.

My ds is 8 weeks today. He's my first baby and I'm loving breastfeeding him. I thought i would mix feed but that was before I learned about how supply and demand works! Now planning on sticking to breastfeeding for the foreseeable future! Only problem was a bit of engorgement in week one but just fed through the problem! I think I got lucky though, I know one woman who did have terrible problems. It seems like some babies are better at it than others so it's not always just down to us.

Me. Absolutely zero problems. Found it really easy from the start and I had an emcs. Dd never lost any birth weight and was and still is a large 91st centile baby and i've fed her on demand. She's 20 weeks now and still ebf on demand. She's never even had a bottle of expressed milk. She is my first baby. Bf has been and still is such a lovely experience. I plan to continue for quite some time!

Problems with my first were really only that he was big and hungry and colostrum wasn't really enough, and it took quite a while to make enough to satisfy him, and then only just. I felt that I hadn't got enough milk and didn't really understand about cluster feeds/feeding to increase supply because it was never really explained. But compared to most people I didn't really have any problems.

I really felt with all of my DCs I had about 1 floz less than they wanted in my boobs at any time. But no problems with latch... 1st DC knew what to do, with 2nd and 3rd I knew what to do.

Acute difficulties: very hard at first, and suddenly spectacularly falling-off-a-log easy.
Chronic difficulties: constant years-long exhaustion. Not sure whether I would have had it without bfing because I don't know what it is like to have a non-bf baby. Maybe that's just motherhood.

I think it is very hard to get the right sort of information out there for people who haven't tried - because you don't want to be all doomy and put them off if they might have had a go, but on the other hand, it is genuinely astonishingly how suddenly things can improve, and a person hanging on for 24 miserable hours might be the difference between agony and effortlessness - some of those people might need to hear "it is honestly agony for honestly a very short time" or they will just despair and give up.

I was very pro-bfing when I was doing it but now I honestly wonder whether I made the right choices. I didn't question the exhaustion, the tunnel vision, the lack of personal space, and ended up back in work with no sense of having had any breathing space at all after 2 babies, back-to-back pregnancy and braestfeeding. I am in the midst of a mini-breakdown and I don't know how I am going to get out of it. I look and feel like shit and I don't have a tiny baby to blame for it. I can't blame bfing for everything but it is one of the things I didn't question and now I am not sure how things might have been if I had had the sort of life where DP and I left a baby somewhere for a weekend a few times a year; or a night off bfing once a week when they were tiny and I was wrecked; or something.

DD latched on minutes after the c section and fed with no problems until she self weaned at 12 months.

BUT it did hurt quite a bit in the first few weeks and i did get sore/cracked nipples. this could have been prevented if i had gone to latch on groups but i was shy and no one really encouraged me.

i had one day/night where she fed constantly until i was exhausted and worried. she fed and fed and then pulled away and cried. i rang nhs direct and a fab nurse told me dh had to take her out for a walk and i had to rest/eat and that probably things would be ok in the morning. she was utterly right and i never had problems again but if it wasn't for her it might have broken down then. dh (now exp) was getting over excited about topping up - i know now that too would have buggered it up as well.

im pg with dd2 now and am expecting to feed at least 12 months. i'm much more informed now and if there are problems i will go to latch on etc and get them sorted out. i know bf hiccups dont have to be the end and theres lots of support out there if you know where to look.

DS was prem, and in SCBU tube fed for a few days and it took a few more for him to be well and strong enough to feed effectively. But once he did, that was it and it was brill. Fed till 23 months in the end

It wasn't hard for me. No bleeding nipples or anything like that but I fouled up my milk supply with DC1 by doubting I was producing enough and replacing feeds with bottles regularly or topping up and there wasn't any need. I hadn't started posting on mn yet at that stage. So I paid the price by my supply dropping and dropping and then she preferred the bottle over me in the end. I truly wish I'd known about mn, as none of that would have happened, with the great advice available on here.

DC2 would't take a bottle at all and I breast fed exclusively to 6 months.

It depends what you mean OP. DS had no problems latching, milk supply was good (apart from a 2 week wobble when DS was 4 weeks) and my nipples have never been sore. I have found it difficult for non-physical reasons.

Pekka, what do you mean by non-physical reasons (if you don't mind me asking - obviously you don't have to answer)?

I found bfing v easy, 2 babies so far and no issues except oversupply with DD2. Was separated from DD1 for 4 hours after an EMCS and she latched on and fed no problem when I finally got my hands on her. I don't know if it's just luck but I have been surrounded by a large extended family who all successfully bfed so I never even considered the possibility of problems.

ds is almost 12 so my memory is a little hazy, but I do remember having horribly sore and cracked nipples, and that let down was just agony. Both right at the start though; it didn't last long.

After a matter of days it was piss easy, and being a lazy cah I was relieved not to have to fanny about with bottles.

I've breastfed 4 without any problems; all were c-section births (3 elective one emergency). I have never - thankfully - had sore nipples but have had a couple of blocked ducts.

#1 - emergency was slightly premature, jaundiced & anaemic due to an antibody issue. She had phototherapy for a week & I pumped & she had a ng tube. She self weaned with a bit of help at 18 months.

#2 - elective section, fed while still in theatre. Was also jaundiced & anaemic but not as severely as dd1, was a dream to feed. Weaned with lots of help at 4 years old.

#3 - elective section, fed in recovery, had prolonged physiological jaundice & I fed her on a schedule to start with (feeds no more than 2 hours apart) to get that under control. She had pretty bad reflux which we finally got under control (gaviscon from a spoon before feeds) when she was about 8 months old. She weaned at 2 years old just before dc4 was born.

#4 - another elective section, fed in recovery, no jaundice only issue is tongue tie which made positioning tricky when he was small, he's still going strong at 14 months :)

At one point I was pregnant & still breastfeeding dc2 & dc3 (extreme breast feeder medal ). They've all been fairly small at birth - between 2nd & 20th centiles - but piled on weight during the first year, my smallest is now on the 50th centile. I introduced solids at 4 months with dc1 but the 3 younger ones were all exclusively breastfed until 6-7 months. None of them have ever needed formula milk.

First time was difficult for first two weeks, then fine. Second time I have had no issues at all and daughter seven months next week.

Just read some more comments, my DC2 was tongue tied it was picked up at birth and snipped when he was 2 weeks old. That helped him to feed better and swallow less air. I also had mastitis twice with DC2, it was a pita but I realised quite quickly and saw the GP.

vezzie I find it hard to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes BFing so hard for me. Maybe it's the exhaustion, the lack of support (when I told MW and HVs that I struggle with BFing, all they did was agree that the latch was perfect!), sitting on the sofa most days just BFing, having to expose my body in public places, having to use my body to meet someone else's needs. Maybe it's the unrealistic expectations (I thought BFing is the easiest part of having a baby). I really don't know, it's all a bit depressing :) I feel guilty for saying all this, I love my DS so much and I know the above complaints are all about me, me, me. I should be able to put DS needs above mine.
It is getting better now that we have started DS on solids. I am not his only source of food, it feels like a huge responsibility is gradually being lifted off my shoulders.