What are some misconceptions you had regarding breastfeeding?

[Hope54321]

Before I gave birth to my baby I never read about breastfeeding and I didn’t talk to anyone regarding breastfeeding. I just assumed I would come home with a baby and he would be feeding like all the other breastfed babies I see. Hah! Little did I know how tough it would be trying to establish breastfeeding. Anyway we got there in the end. Here are some of the things I was unaware of regarding breastfeeding:

1. It can take weeks or even months to get a good latch.
2. Cluster feeding for hours is a thing and it is normal.
3. Oversupply and fast letdown exist.
4. Comfort feeding isn’t a bad thing.

I also believed that she’d lose interest in bf at about a year. She was three last month, and although I’ve cut it down to the morning (as much as possible - she sometimes gets in with me in the night and helps herself) it makes her so happy I feel I can’t stop, and I would rather like to.

Some great posts, especially from Bertie.

I loved night feeds, rarely felt more peaceful and content, and we started cosleeping a few months in. She night weaned herself a bit before she was 2 but I never found it a hassle and always got back to sleep quickly.

I didn’t notice my milk coming in, literally switched sides feeding on day 5 and noticed it was white and thinner.

One of my bitterest misconceptions was about periods. Most of my friends didn’t get theirs back till they stopped feeding. 4 months pp for me to the day, and I knew it was coming as I had strong ovulation signs 12 days earlier. I was properly fucked off. Like clockwork ever since. But they’re much less painful now and shorter. So not all bad.

@Looneytune253 if breast feeding is a breeze, obviously making up bottles is a faff. If, however, breastfeeding follows birth as a right of passage to prepare a new mother for the pain of bf making up bottles is a breeze

Making up six bottles took me about 20 minutes. BF oth was a painful, long drawn out process that never resulted in a contented baby. Feeds took two hours sometimes, my nipples were frequently bleeding. At the end of a feed sometimes I was in so much pain I could barely move for an hour, my dressing gown brushing against my nipples was excruciating. I now know I had thrush of the inner breast. Midwives, HV or GP never mentioned that as a possibility. Add in a couple of bouts of mastitis and a breast abscess and bottles were a breeze. I was back to normal in two days and had energy again.

Weighed against the impact of a sick mother, three courses of ABs and copious painkillers I'm not sure the benefits of bf were very real.

May I also throw in that ds had breast milk until 8 weeks; dd until 8 months. They both had: bronchiolitis, asthma, eczema and rank ears.

That no one tells you if you take high bp tablets from the hospital they will
Stop your milk coming in.

That hospital staff are not experts on babies. I asked 5 hcps if DS had tongue tie. All said no. He was finally diagnosed at 7m old which was far far too late.

That's not being able to bf would almost break me and my still have pangs about it 13 years on.

That it would just be easy and it would be amazing and easy,

It wasn't. I have small nipples, I didn't think this was an issue, I have inverted nipples. I didn't know this either until I went the breast feeding clinic. This apparently makes it harder.

That your milk doesn't always come in the day you need it!

Sometimes it takes a day or so, so when you have small nipples that are inverted and it's hard to do anyway, instead of telling you that straight off, they just make you feel like shit.