A word of encouragement for those contemplating breastfeeding, but a bit worried about it...

[sushistar]

...because that was my situation 4 months ago. I'd read so much about mastitis and thrush, about bleeding nipples and agony, incorrect latch etc etc etc...

I know some people have a hard time, but i thought it would be good for once to have a thread about it going right! Ds latched on literally less than a minute after he was born, and we both took to feeding like ducks to water. he's been exclusively breastfed since then and he's 4 months on sunday. We have had NO physical problems at all. Not even any pain. I found the first 2 weeks tough cos he fed all the time, but that was more about me than the feeding itself. Overall it's been really really wonderful, and i'm a bit sad i'll be weaning him in 2 months!

I don't want to discount any of the struggles people do go through but i wanted to encourage any prospective bfeeders lurking on this board - it's not necessarily difficult, sometimes ... it just works!

Yes yes please give it a try Porpoise. It would be very very easy to research, and then you could try to flog it to G2. It's not a million miles away from what I was talking about on another thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/1364/503082?stamp=080327211358

A thread I killed BTW. I seem to always kill threads.

No you don't!

Sabire - thanks for making me feel really crap about myself and the birth and the fact that the midwife didn't put my dd straight on to me so she could root around for the breast herself. Thanks for making me feel crap about the fact that my dd only had brief skin to skin contact with me before having to be whisked off to paediatrician because the birth wasn't without complications and they were worried about dd being distressed.
And there I was, feeling only slightly proud that I've been breastfeeding for 10 months despite not wanting to and pleased with the ante natal care I received.
I can only assume you had a natural birth, no pain relief with immediate skin to skin contact with your baby who instinctively rooted around for a bf straight away - well good for you!! I didn't realise there was only one way of starting to bfeed.

Interesting to think about whether the 'rose-tinted' or the 'it's hard but worth it' approaches are best. I guess the one down-side about a forum like this is that people (quite rightly) come when they need help - because of mastitis or pain or whatever. So by definition the board is skewed to represent the 'breast-feeding is bloody difficult' view. Those who are not needing help, quietly pootling along, never needing to see a bfc or anything, don't need to post, so other people looking at the board get the impression it's all bloody-nippled superwomen bfeeding till 6 months. I wonder how many women are out there who DO find bfeeding easy, convenient, and not painful at all, but just as a result don't talk about it?

(Just read that back and want to emphasise that of course the support SHOULD be there for women who do need it!)

And respect to the bloody nippled ones who carry on! Hope I havn't upset any one - this was supposed to be a happy bfeeding thread!!

Message withdrawn

Message withdrawn

Tea, I also don't think Sabire meant anything negative towards you. I've read her post several times and I can't see what you're getting het up about
I also didn't have skin to skin with DSs from the start (DS1 because I was being stitched up after emergency CS and DS2 because he had to go to special care for the first two hours of his life) but I BF both of them for well over a year.