Does breastfeeding hurt?

[Friedseasalt]

For info I formula fed my little one 5 years ago. Due in a few months and really keen to try and BF. Trying to educate myself as much as possible. However, a lot of stories I read online are about how painful/sore it is and it’s scaring me. What essentials do I have to buy to help? I am absolutely clueless tbh.

Yes, this. I breastfed both of mine for a year each, and the first week or two was painful (you'd be surprised how strong a newborn's suction is!) even with perfect latch. I found silver nipple cups incredibly helpful to heal sore nipples (you can buy them online) and a good nipple cream. Bear in mind that for some folks (ask me how I know) lanolin cream can actually make nipple cracking worse. I used a nipple balm from weleda and it was magic. Also, your boobs may get sore when you're due a feed for a while until your supply regulates.

This all may sound scary / stressful / unpleasant, but after a couple of weeks for me it was a lovely experience.

I can’t remember any pain or soreness with my two.
I do remember feeling like I had two rocks strapped to my chest as my milk supply settled.
The convenience of being able to feed whenever and wherever you are far outweighs any initial discomfort IMO, and I fed everywhere. I think the best was in the queue for a particularly slow supermarket checkout. Not to mention the cost benefit - why pay for something when your body provides it free?

Very painful for me, baby had a mild tongue tie (we didn't cut it just let her grow a bit) and poor latch. I used nipple shields, silver cups and lanolin during the first few weeks.

After it stopped hurting I started to get a rush of euphoria, happiness, or calmness every time I fed her - I guess from the hormones. It was amazing and definitely made up for the initial difficulty.

Just be careful with lanolin nipple cream. Lansinoh, was camillosan. The mw told me it was fantastic and completely natural. She didn't tell me it co trained lanolin to which I am allergic - it triggers eczema.

Maybe it was of my time but cabbage on the breast helped soothe. And lanolin cream.

Also and it’s hard the more tense you are the longer your milk will take to come down and the more painful initial sucking can be. It’s really hard but try and relax. It’s also worth watching some videos or speaking to someone. I had no idea when I first started that the baby wouldn’t just ‘suck the nipple’. They actually take in quite a lot of breast! I found what worked for me was to put their bottom lip at the bottom of my areola and then sort of ‘flip’ the nipple part into their mouth so they got a good mouthful. If they suck just around your nipple this will be painful so remember to give them a good mouthful.

it can hurt. My first did for the first week or so and my second never hurt at all. But it was so easy and worth it. No bottles, sterilising, formula to buy and make up etc.

Good luck!

Ah yess, I forgot to mention that it is an ongoing process: babies grow and learn too, so it gets easier with more time and practice. Other pps have already mentioned it, too: it's a skill for both, mother and baby.

Not really painful but a bit weird at first. Then you both get the hang of it. The pain people speak of may be when they get cracked nipples or an infection. That’s different. Some nipple cream and patience are needed.

Many people, as I understand it, do experience soreness, some pain, but there are an awful lot who also don't. I was very lucky in that I had no discomfort at all (although that has changed a little now as my DS is 6 months and turns his head when distracted while still firmly clamped on to the nipple!) I just wanted to give a perspective on breastfeeding that illustrates that you might turn out to be one of the lucky ones for whom it's actually pain free.

Some discomfort and soreness in the first 6 weeks, yes, definitely.

For me, breastfeeding made the first 4 weeks or so absolutely horrible. I was incredibly jealous of the mothers who were smart enough to not even try BF and just give formula. Because they could take turns with their DH, actually get some sleep. etc.

However it did get easier and I'm still BF at 8 months.

It can be painful at first, especially if they’re not latched properly or deeply enough. But it was very bearable pain for me, and tbh the pain was only a few times, normally it was fine. Mentally it can be exhausting the first month or so when they seem to cluster feed so much, so get into a decent TV series for that. But it get soooo much easier, and can release relaxing hormones and oxytocin which is lovely, makes going out and about easier, and obviously is so much better for your baby.

Oh and also, if you BF, try to be open to safe cosleeping. It’s so natural when nursing your infant to sleep next to them and can really help you and baby get sleep. When you BF and baby feeds at night, you sleep more
lightly which makes it safer for you to cosleep with them. I’m still breastfeeding my 21 month old and it’s lovely. It gets a lot easier about 4-6 weeks in, then easier again at 3 months and by that point I would say it’s easier than FF.

Not painful for me at all, had loads of milk from day 1. Had the different problem that my daughter wouldn’t take a bottle so I struggled to leave her.

Ooh and watch YouTube videos in advance showing how to get a good latch. V helpful.

It's a bit sore at first, but a lot of that is due to tissue stretching behind the nipple and eases off dramatically after the first few days. I was very lucky to find it really easy once my milk had come in and I'd got into the swing of it, as ds took to it well and had a good latch. I'd been really scared of it hurting but it was nowhere near as bad as I'd expected and I kept it up for several years.

La Lechę Leahue International are an amazing support group. The best £150 I spent was on a lactation consultant, when my baby was 3 weeks old and she really helped me gain confidence with the latch, positioning and co sleeping. I am proud to have breastfed my baby into toddlerhood, she is strong, healthy, confident and independent.

Really painful nipples for first 10 days with first and 7 days with second. Nipple shields saved my sanity! After that all good and much easier than I would've found bottle feeding.

I found it absolutely excruciating, but I think I was just very unlucky and breastfeeding just didn't work out for us anyway. What was frustrating was being in so much pain but being told the latch was good and there was no tongue tie. There must have been something wrong because we ended up in hospital with severe weight loss and failure to thrive. After tube feeding we moved to mainly formula and my poor blistered, cracked nipples recovered.

I wish I knew what had gone wrong - it does play on my mind that I didn't do enough, but at 10 days pp, a touch of PND and no sleep, I just didn't have it in me to persevere when my baby was clearly thriving on formula.

Same here. Also due to tongue tie. Once it stopped hurting though, it was SO easy. You can go out and about, and even if there is a problem, eg train delays, your baby has food there ready. It’s free, it’s safe for your baby and you always have it with you. In the night you just wake up and feed the baby without having to get out of bed and fully wake up to faff about with formula. It was all so simple.

Only when the latch is wrong. And your bog standard midwife or health visitor is not qualified to diagnose latching issues, they all missed to tongue ties and lip ties in my kids. Once mine had see lactation consultants and had TT snips it was a whole lot better and not painful.

Really fucking hurt

It wasn’t painful for me at all, with a newborn It was when they were 9-10 months old and had teeth and started biting.

Unbearably so for me (and I have a very high pain tolerance - broken nearly every bone from
waist down in a car accident so definitely know what pain is) - HOWEVER…. I have many friends who didn’t find it painful at all…i think it has a lot to do with how successful the latch is, i found this really hard. A lot of people say if you can get through the first few weeks it’s fine (i just didn’t make it!!)

I have a very low pain threshold and I was lucky - it was uncomfortable at the start but silver nipple cups made a world of difference and it got better fast. It was so much easier than I thought it would be

I didn’t find it painful, either time, but I did find it very intense.

I don’t regret the choice to BF either of my children.

Super painful for a few weeks then was fine! It was just the initial latching on that was sore, I remember curling my toes! But then it was a breeze. I found watching TikTok/ scrolling MN really helped keep me distracted and keep my mind off it when I was feeding in the early days.