To hate breastfeeding....

[Wingingit07]

Hey,

I'm mentally finding breastfeeding really difficult and have done bottles a couple of times and find my bonding with baby is alot better.

I am 3 weeks PP and my breasts are always engorged and leaking. I've looked online and they all say to feed more and express some off. Surely this will make my supply worse and produce more milk? This is from la leche and my health visitor. When I mentioned it to my HV her response was it will create more but will give you that instant relief. Anyone else have any suggestions?

Getting so fed up with BF did anyone else switch to formula? I feel so selfish but it's effecting bonding time with baby as I feel like a milk machine rather than a mum 😭

God I felt exactly the same at 3/4 PP. Felt like nothing more than a milk machine and it was horrible. I was so down in the dumps. It's definitely the hardest time!

I cried everytime baby latched because it felt like rubbing a burn and woke up with soaked t-shirt and bedsheets every morning- I hated breastfeeding and was desperate to stop but the guilt won.

Decided to give it a few more weeks and to give up if I still felt crap. I bought bottles and formula and decided to give him one a day before bed to take the pressure off. Also bought some of that Lanisoh cream which really helped.

I stuck with it. One day a few weeks later I realised that it didn't hurt anymore and I didn't hate it! It then got so so much better over time.

Four months in and I never use bottles now, too much of a faff!! Now breastfeeding is dead easy and completely pain free. Plus it's the miracle cure for everything which is handy

That being said, absolutely don't feel guilty about giving formula. Your baby will absolutely thrive on it!

One thing I will say is that I messed around with bottles and pumping quite a lot in the first 6 weeks or so. Once I stopped all that and just fed the baby my leaky boobs went away. They are far more comfortable and very rarely get engorged now. I'd say just leave them alone and only get them out to feed baby- they will adjust.

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@june2007

I think it,s sad when people liken themselves to a cow. Because it shows how distant people are from seeing bf as what humans do for human babies. we are lucky to have an option but we are not cows but we are mammels.

Why is it sad to acknowledge the truth of how i felt? Some find it magical, i found it disgusting and not for me and thats ok. No amount of seeing women bf would have changed that. We are lucky to have formula, a safe, healthy alternative and we not forced or stuck with only bf

If you don’t want to continue with bf, stop and use formula. Bf isn’t compulsory. I used formula from day one and it gave DC’s an excellent start in life. Happy healthy baby and happy parents.