What would have liked to know about breastfeeding?

[SleepForTheWeak]

I have 10-15mins tomorrow to talk to a group of expectant mums about breastfeeding...

What would you have liked to know about it prior to having your baby? What would have helped and what let you down?

TIA!

If it cries stick a boob in it.

Seriously! Stopped me trying to time/monitor feeds and all that bollovks that Ruined BF DD1.

Cluster feeding!!!!!!!

It's okay if the baby wants feeding 10 minutes after it was last fed, in the early days that's supposed to happen!!!

Yes, Blinky: 'drain' is so misleading.

As in my post: baby sets the pace and takes the lead. Swap sides when baby indicates he's done with side one :)

That it doesn't always work. I spent four months trying with my first. Latch checked. Attended regular sessions at the hospital with an "expert". Fed on demand (often for bloody hours). Drank fennel tea. Did lots of skin to skin. Pumped after each feed and even resorted to pills.
My body couldn't do it. My baby was starving. I was exhausted. But all the experts implied if I just tried hard enough it would work. That's not always true.

That it shouldn't hurt. And that you need to drink lots of water.

That every week gets easier as baby learns to latch themselves. I wish I'd of been shown different feeding positions and have understood more about combination feeding there isn't much support about that and I ended up doing that for 6 months

Simply that cluster feeding is normal and doesn't mean the baby isn't getting enough milk. I know so many people who started formula top ups at this stage, convinced that they weren't producing enough and that was the beginning of the end for them as then supply waned.