My nipples bleeding and sore

[PB122]

Can anyone help please had my baby on Monday 12 days early
Desperate to breast feed but nipples very sore and bleeding
Baby been awake most of the time she is my first baby so all new!
I just want to be able to breast feed any advice would be so a
appreciated

Congratulations on your baby! Have you seen your midwife yet? They should be able to help with positioning/latch. Also (assuming you’re in the UK), there should be local clinics run by health visitors. La Leche League are meant to be great too. It’s a new thing for your nipples to have so much attention from a tiny mouth so some soreness is to be expected I think, but bleeding isn’t good. My daughter had a tongue tie that did cause bleeding and once this was sorted it was all fine. Not saying your baby does have one, but it’s good to get it checked early. Good luck!

You can get soothing gel pads from amazon - rite hydrogel they are called.
Use those between feeds to help the skin heal, and while it’s healing consider a different hold, for example rugby ball as this will put the pressure on a different part of your nipple so won’t be as sore.
But ultimately you need to get your latch looked at, so speak to your health visitor or see you there are any lactation clinics in your area.
Good luck, I remember those days so well, I was so close to giving up I was in so much pain, but here I am 14 months later and still going strong.

Call the NCT helpline ASAP - yes you need face to face help but they can talk you through some ideas that might help in the meantime

Definitely get your latch checked, but even with a good one sore nipples are very normal.

Lots of lasinoh balm in between feeds, no need to wipe it off to feed. Nipple shield if it gets very bad.

Congratulations on your lovely baby! I'm so sorry you're in pain :( you've done so well powering through breastfeeding even though it hurt so much. It shouldn't hurt, you shouldn't suffer and it can be fixed.

The pain and nipple damage happened to me too, it was excruciating. It all comes from the baby not attaching properly to the breast. Don't worry, it can all be fixed.

For us it was the tongue tie that was preventing correct attachment. This video illustrates how it should look:
This is how you can practice it:

Definitely try to get seen by a lactation consultant as soon as possible. Sadly midwives often aren't educated enough to recognise a tongue tie, and even some GPs, so try to get to a lactation consultant for review.

I used nipple shields to help us until we were able to fix it and they really did help massively with the pain and nipple damage. They are often advised against, as there are some associated risks to your milk supply, but most of the risks seem to be based on older generation shields which were thicker and less natural. We didn't have any issues coming off them. But for them to work well it's really important to keep practicing the correct latch.

Good luck You got this!

Feel for you OP. I had the same for the first week or so, but it honestly does get better. Nipple shields were the saviour of breastfeeding for me, although the midwife and HV both advised against them. If I'd listened to them then I'd have given up on breastfeeding by the end of week one; as it is I'm still feeding DS myself at 12 months. The shields made the pain that bit more bearable during feeds and seemed to make it easier for him to latch too. I used plenty of Lansinoh nipple cream which helped with the healing and after a couple of weeks could feed without the shields altogether. Best of luck