Is breastfeeding as painful second time?

[PastaandCheese]

Due my second this week. I fed DD for a year and naively assumed this meant my nipples might have 'toughened up' a bit but they are so sore already before I've even fed the baby I think I might be a bit deluded.

What was your experience second time please? I'm assuming I'll feel a bit less clueless but other than that is the very sore start inevitable again?

Well 200 out of 1800 is hardly insignificant. As I said, in any case I don't care about the precise statistics, it feels like meaningless nitpicking. It's a real enough issue for a lot of women, I don't think it is helpful to dismiss it because it only affects 1 in 10 or 1 in 5 or whatever you think the statistical norm might be. We get told that labour is hard, but any idea that breast feeding might take perseverance and some discomfort in the initial stages is somehow seen as unacceptable discouragement.

And why fixate on whether or not it 'should' be painless anyway? In practice latch issues are incredibly hard to fix sometimes - saying it should be painless is not that much help. I've spent hours and hours in bf clinics in my time. I've still had 3 kids who all latch more easily on one side, leaving the other frequently sore, cracked and prone to mastitis. I'll go to the clinic next week to see what they suggest, but if there were a magic solution I think we'd have worked it out by now!

Oh please Zoe- I have never suggested that unexplained early pain does not exist- I am simply arguing that it is not usual.

"Fixating" on pain is crucial in supporting breastfeeding women.
If we simply accept that breastfeeding will be painful and that's normal we will be brushing away problems which need addressing.

Painful first time - used so much lansinoh, second time hardly used any so pretty pain free. Got a little vampire now at 9 months tho!

Cbeebies was my best friend during those first few weeks when bfing all the time. Dc1 didn't seem interested in any other activity I had in mind...

And I'm arguing it doesn't matter! I just wish there was less rose-tinted and more realistic promotion of breastfeeding. Most women give up, and often feel like failures as a result. So easy, cheap and convenient! Not to start with, no, and not for most women, or else we wouldn't have 95% of uk women not bf to 6 months.