Breastfeeding newborn -help!

[ilooktothehills]

DC2 is 6 days old. Although I breastfed DC1 for 11 months (and should therefore know what I’m doing!) I’m having real issues with my right boob which has become very engorged as my milk has come in. I’m keen to avoid this turning into the nasty bout of mastitis I had with DC1, but when I saw the midwife earlier the sum total of her advice was ‘you could try a warm flannel’. Not quite the comprehensive latch check etc that I think is probably needed. So I thought I’d see if the good folk of Mumsnet could help instead....

Briefly:

• on the left hand side (which is ok) I can see baby does nice wide mouth, outturned lips and my nipple is rounded shape when he’s finished. So I think my latch is ok here.
• on the right hand side (which is sore and engorged) I can’t see his mouth properly when he’s latched on as my boob is bigger and obscures the view. I’ve tried hand expressing a little at the start of a feed to ease pressure to make it easier to latch but he regularly fusses and bashes his head against my nipple. Even when I manage to position him so his latch is okish (and feeding is not painful) my nipple is a bit lipstick shaped when he’s finished and it doesn’t feel like my boob has fully drained. This makes me think the latch is needs to be deeper but I don’t know how to do that. Any ideas?

One bit of context is that I hurt my lower back in process of giving birth so I am limited to the range of positions I can currently sit in. At the moment a semi recline in bed has proven to be most comfortable.

The prospect of another sore night feeding the baby is a bit depressing.... If you have any suggestions as to what I could do to improve feeding on my right side, I’d be very grateful.

Probably not the best advice but I found laying down and pinching my nipple and placing in mouth worked. Meant she could latch on with little effort as I sort of shoved it in her mouth. As I said it's probably not official advice but it might work and could be worth a try?

Sorry just re read mine and feel like it's hard to understand! I would pinch the top to bottom of my nipple, so it's sort of flat and then place in the mouth. This meant she got a big surface area without having to do much and do this while laying down I have found is easiest as you can half relax and boob is less forced into face. Hope that makes better sense!

Thanks! In an adjustment to my normal position I’ve just tried lying back further so there’s less boob in his face and he seems to prefer that. Hopefully a small step in the right direction....

I had a similar problem, midwife advised that I express (electric pump) after DD had finished feeding on that breast.
I had to start expressing from day 3 as was producing so much milk
DD is now 7 weeks and feeds fine on both breasts.
We also use the 'Rugby ball' position. I put a horse shoe space pillow on my side and lay her under my arm. Works a lot better for us than what across the body did.
I hope you both find a comfy way soon!

My baby does the head butting thing instead of properly latches. She doesn't actually latch at all on either side (although the other day she did mid feed!). I have to use nipple shields and just hope that she'll get used to it. Is that a possibility for you?
I know someone who needed to use shields up until her baby was about 4 months old and then one day baby just got it and hasn't needed them since.
I've noticed midwives and health visitors don't really mention shields unless you do but I had an amazing breastfeeding support worker who sat with me for hours until she realised that no matter what my baby wouldn't feed straight from the nipple, and when I mentioned my friend she said to definitely try it. I now go to a group every week so that I don't feel alone in my problem but also so that hopefully some other mums can give me advice if they've gone through the same.
Also if he does feed but not properly maybe you could try without a shield and then at the end pop it on just in case?

Use an electric pump to express until it's no longer engorged, then get the baby to feed from that side and make sure she keeps on top of it from then on. She probably can't latch because it's too full.

La leche league, call them, very knowledgable.
Found them very useful.
I managed to feed up to 18mths through some major trauma too, all with help from la leche.
My advice would be to feed from side you are having bother with first.
Have you tried feeding lying down? So relaxing which in turn helps.
Hope you get sorted, doesn’t matter how baby gets fed at the end of the day, bottle or breast, whichever works for you both is best