Urgent help needed - friend having probs bfing newborn

[lurcherlover]

Hi guys, my friend had her baby on Weds and is finding bfing very painful (she describes it as being like "red hot coals" when he first latches on and then being a deep pain throughout the feed). She really wants to bf and doesn't want to stop but is finding the pain very hard to deal with. I live a long way away and can't get to see her until next week so I'm feeling a bit helpless at the end of the phone I've told her to get the mw to check her latch and positioning and to check for tongue-tie, but I'm wondering if she would benefit from proper bf specialist support. Could anyone recommend any phone helplines they have found useful or ways of contacting a breastfeeding supporter? She lives in Hull if that helps. Thanks all.

It looks like Hull has a peer supporter programme, complete with phone line - see more information here. If she doesn't have any success with that, I've found both the National Breastfeeding Helpline and NCT helpline to be helpful in the past- phone numbers for them and others in the box on the right hand side here.

La Leche League good - don't know if they have a local branch.

For what it's worth - i had exactly that. The deep pain when they latch is, I think, 'let-down' pain (when the milk starts flowing) - it felt like red hot skewers being stabbed into me. And it was agony throughout the feed.

For me, the only thing that helped was time. The agony peaked at around 5 weeks, got a bit better after 6 weeks and was miraculously gone at 8 weeks. Went on to feed for a year, with no pain or problems. With DC2 and DC3 had a bit of pain at the beginning but much less, and was gone much quicker.

I have quite a few friends who had similar experiences and those who persevered all found the pain was gone by 6 - 8 weeks. Is your friend very pale-skinned? I have heard that for some reason we are more likely to hurt!

I mainlined paracetamol, which wasn't much use, and slathered on Lansinoh which prevented cracking but didn't get rid of the pain. Only time did that. Having a lot of help with other stuff (DH did all the nappy changes and cooking, which meant that in between feeds I could relax a bit) helps too. Also having positive supportive sympathetic people around helped a bit.

If she is happy to pay for support, she could contact milkmatters. It is run by a certified lactation consultant and they do cover Yorkshire. No personal experience of their services but well regarded in the 'breastfeeding world'.

Or, like you say keep nagging the mw for help or ask if the hospital has an infant feeding specialist that could visit. She might find the Biological Nurturing website useful too.

I took painkiller for the first 4 weeks which helped a lot while getting TT & latch problems sorted. Really helped.

How often is she feeding? I had pain like that when engorged so feeding more often helped as less letdown. I fed every two hours or so.

I gave birth in Hull but live outside. My DD had a tongue tie for five weeks but it wasnt until I went to the Honeysuckle Centre in Bridlington and spoke to their 'tongue tie specialist' - a lady called Maureen. Without her, I would have given up BF as she snipped it within a day of recognition. Bridlington is about 20 miles from Hull. She needs to give them a call and go, it changed my whole BF experience. Good luck!