If you weren't going to breastfeed before you had your baby and actually DID once your baby was here

[hunkermunker]

What changed your mind?

i hadn't decided not to but was ambivalent.

thought i might give it a go.

just finished about 2mths ago, when dd was 2yrs 4mths!

does this count?

Yes, that counts!

What made you decide to give it a go?

I never thought I would. The thought of it, quite frankly, turned my stomach. I just couldn't imagine feeding a person from my breasts...but reluctantly I said I would give it a go once the baby was born.

DD had other ideas. She latched on minutes after being delivered from an e-cs.

We were so lucky, no problems with the latch at all. Regretfully I have had to wean her to a bottle due to work commitments but am so happy that we managed for 6 months.

I thought I wouldn't be able to as I had an inverted nipple. A midwife told me I could so I did a bit of reading. Then spoke to my MIL who had bf 5 babies for over a year each. She gave me lots of encouragement and told me I could do it. DD latched straight after birth. We had a 10 week struggle and still going now at 15 months.

DonDons, that's really interesting - did you find it strange to begin with having been so sure you weren't going to do it?

CCG, that's great - did you use anything to alter your inverted nipple or did she latch OK anyway?

same here. i was very lucky to have a young and informed midwife in delivery.

basically i was bleeding quite badly and while they were discussing what to give me, she put baby on stating that sucking would help womb to contract and stop bleeding. it did.

i firmly believe that as research shows, early feeding leads to successful breastfeeding.

once she started, she didn,t stop! thus my inability to wean her earlier!

Not really - it just 'clicked' if you see what I mean. I put it down to maternal instinct (or maybe the huge amount of drugs I had been given) but as soon as she latched on it just felt completely comfortable and natural (which it is obviously).

Much like Dondons. I suppose I had the attitude my breasts were sexual. I wanted to give her the best start though so set a limit of six weeks and then would switch. She latched immedatly and fed well. I felt a little awkward, much less so with the second feed and by the time had l left hospital was hooked on the wonderful bond we shared. I'm still feeding her now at 18mths whilst pregnant and fully expect to tandem.

Two reasons.

1. My boobs were big anyway, and I wasn't sure I could handle the vanity issue of having even bigger boobs and having them swing around in nursing bras for however long I decided to feed. (went up to a 34K when milk came in, then settled at 32H when into a feeding routine)
2. I didn't want to "jinx" it. By saying - "yes, I am deffo Bfing, then I was worried that I would build it up in my head as the only possible way, and that if it turned out I couldn't Bf I would feel like a failure, and it could lead to other things (PND etc)

In the end I exclusively BF for 5 months, then mix fed until he was about 8 months.

• sorry, didn't put why I changed my mind.

I thought I'd try it, and it worked, and after a tongue tie - and an incredibly positive BF HV at Brighton Hospital (Ella I think she was called) I basically decided to take it one day at a time, and not put any pressure on myself to last to 12 months or whatever limit. Also, I loved the idea of being able to eat X number of extra calories a day. In fact, that was the MAIN reason. Breast feeding meant I could eat more chocolate and cake.

I left it as it was. Hospital person suggested nipple shields but I ignored as I'd heard bad things. She struggled to latch onto it but got the hang in the end.

I have had 3 dc, FF both boys, who are 6 & 4.

When i was pg with dd (now 7 months) i ummed and arred, but bought bottles and a big steriliser, formula, blah blah

My MW was fantastic - said it was nice thing to do, easier, good for baby. I also have a RL close friend who BF.

But mostly - it was MN, and one particular poster (you know who you are) who gave me that final push to even considering it more. She showed me your blog too.

When Mimi was born (at home) the MW said 'how are you feeding' and i just said 'however you like' . She said shall we try latching on? And i agreed.

Mimi was very snotty and over her first 2 days had a couple of FF bottles; but on the 3rd day the MW came out and wrote on my notes 'may still artifically feed baby as this is how she fed others'. I thought, why would i 'artifically' feed if i have tried BF and love it; if i avoided alcohol and stopped smoking, why??

We exc BF for 24.5 weeks, still going now. She had her first bit of formula the other day (literally) since those 2 days (to prepare for return to uni)

I never ever want to stop. DH is a big convert for BF, tells everyone about it
So, in a nutshell MW, BIG help from MN friend and that note.

Lovely, lovely stories

Like Scorpio I found DH a huge help as he became very pro bf when DD was born.

CCG, I had the same problem and was convinced I wouldn't be able to breastfeed. Luckily I had a lovely midwife who dismissed my concerns out of hand!

She even said it was better as they were more likely to latch on correctly (i.e. full mouthful rather than sucking on nipple).

I very much took it in stages. Said I'd do it for a couple of weeks, then decided to get to 6 weeks and eventually stopped around 7/8 months (although wished I had carried on longer).

Obviously it's such an emotive issue for people but to be honest, it was laziness that kept me going. It was so much easier to whap them out rather than remember to sterilse bottles/pack formula/ boil kettle and all that malarkey!

I really thought I wasn't going to be able to do it.

My mum says she never made any breast milk
(she had lots of problems during her pregnancies) and I simply assumed it would be a family thing and I wouldn't make any too.

I had a terrible time in hospital, DD was small and a C section birth.
It was awful and I even managed to bruise my breast from squeezing them to express by hand.

A bossy nurse pretty much forced me to give her some formula in the midldle of the night.

Afer we got home we really struggled for at least 3 weeks eventually I dragged myself to the breastfeeding clinic and the counsellor told me to support my breast when feeding.

From then on she fed really well and I fed her for a year.

When I got pregnant I hadn't really considered breastfeeding or not. MIL rather took matters in hand by going out and buying me bottles and a steriliser so I assumed I'd bottlefeed.

My mother breastfed me for 6 weeks before being told that I was underweight so she strapped herself up and gave up breastfeeding. This was the sum total of my knowledge of breastfeeding, I truly was a 70s child!

Then I found mumsnet towards the end of my pregnancy, (thanks SWMNBM) and read about breastfeeding, the benefits and the ease.

I had a c-section, found it all very hard but had a super midwife who really kept me going. I credit it all to her and mumsnet that DS is now 2 years old, still breastfeeding and I'm 14 weeks pregnant.

I was kind of ambivalent about it in an uninformed way. I just never had any contact with babies, really.

I was having twins and thought I would give breastfeeding a go, but wasn't pressurising myself. UNTIL they came out and had their first feed. From then on, because I knew they could do it, that was it, I had to succeed. It was soooo hard at first but I'm so glad I persisted. Stopped at 13 mths and am now a breastfeeding peer support counsellor and deal with all the multiples breastfeeding in the area. Really rewarding.