Poor latch and low supply - help me not to give up!

[Serenity05]

DD is only two days old so I know this is going to be hard. She's my second child and it was tough establishing breastfeeding with my son as well, but I got there in the end. This time feels so much harder though.

Her latch is really shallow and painful. How can I get her on properly? If I do nose to tip she just ignores it. The shallow latch is affecting my supply so I've been topping up with formula in a syringe (I've tried hand expressing but I can only get about 0.1ml out) just so I know she's getting something. She was only 5lb8ozs at birth so I really don't want her to lose too much weight.

It probably also doesn't help that it's hard to find a comfortable position to feed in because of the stitches in my vagina...

I don't want to give up. Breastfeeding my son was wonderful once I got through the first few weeks but I'm so fucking exhausted already, I don't know how long I can do this.

I bf dc1&2 reasonably well past 1 yr old with an odd formula top up.

Dc3 was completely different, I don’t know whether I just had supply problems, whether he just couldn’t latch or what, I tried everything I could think of to make it work, I ended up hiring a hospital grade breast pump and did a mixture of expressed milk and formula so at least I knew he was getting some benefit from bf. Plus with 2 other dc it had the advantage that dh could feed while i spent time with the others.

There are tons of latching resources here which are really helpful: kellymom.com/ages/newborn/bf-basics/latch-resources/ - take a look and see what might help.

Can you ask the midwife for some advice? They helped me figure out some early problems and then I subsequently had a referral to the infant feeding team who did an online session with me talking me through how best to approach latching problems - it was really informative and helpful. Alternatively there are tons of support groups and organisations which will also want to help. Best of luck.

Thanks both.

I spoke to the midwife yesterday and she suggested using nipple shields. I've heard good and bad things about them but I figured it was worth a shot so I ordered some. They arrived this morning and I've only done one feed with them so far but it didn't hurt and DD looked very milk drunk afterwards!

Oh excellent, I am so glad. I was going to suggest posting the boob- literally squash it and shove it in there; but looks like you've found a solution, well done!