I wanted to post my experiences so far with breastfeeding particularly as I've had a positive outcome after a very rocky start, there is hope for anyone who may be experiencing problems!
I was desperate to breastfeed my baby but I had problems right from the start, it was so painful even though the midwives at the hospital said the latch was fine. On the first night after she was born I was breastfeeding her and she became very distressed, crying and pulling off me then desperately trying to get back on, only to pull off again. I took this (incorrectly with hindsight) to mean I didn't have enough milk. Looking back I think it was more that she had a bit of wind and I should have spent more time winding her. Instead, after a few hours of this I was also very distressed and overwhelmed with everything. I spoke to a midwife about forumula, she said this might be a good idea as my baby had been crying for a long time (the ward was very short staffed and the midwives didn't have time to spend with patients individually, if the midwife had had more time perhaps she would have talked to me about winding - my baby is still a windy thing even now). The midwives asked me to stay in hospital for a few more days to help me establish breastfeeding. However, they just didn't have the time to spend talking me through my issues, and I spent the time sleeping and formula feeding my baby. By the second day both nipples were very painful and had scabbed over due to the distressing night previously, I stopped trying to breastfeed her. I tried to hand express and nothing came out (I still struggle with hand expressing even now. I stopped trying until the third day when I was about to be discharged, and feeling a complete failure, when another midwife spoke to me about expressing with a pump. I was over the moon to be able to get colostrum out of my right boob, although the scab on my left meant nothing was able to come out. I realised i'd have to get a pump to use at home but it was late and I resolved to get this the next day. The midwife assured me I wouldn't get mastitis by waiting this long so I was discharged from hospital still formula feeding my baby.
That night at home my milk came in. I was in so much pain as I hadn't been feeding or expressing since I left the hospital and my tiny A cups were heavily engorged! I wasn't able to hand express anything still, and after many hours of tring several things, warm compress, hot shower, cold cabbage, I resorted to picking the scabs off my nipples (yuk!). A trickle flowed out with hand expressing, but not enough to relieve my pain, it was a very tearful night! My dp rushed out to buy me a pump first thing that morning, and what a relief when I got this. However, I did develop mastits. I was treated for this with antibiotics, and very soon after I developed nipple thrush, and my baby oral thrush!
I spent the next two weeks mix feeding with expressed milk and formula, and my nipples felt too sensitive to try to put my baby on my breast. However, by now i'd started to do my homework and was reading up on breastfeeding. I made sure I pumped every time my baby was fed forumla. In around week 3-4 I decided to try a nipple shield. We both still had thrush, but I wanted to restart the breastfeeding asap. That worked well, but only if I expressed with my pump on the other other boob at the same time. If I let my baby breastfeed without pumping then it would take around an hour and a half and she still didn't seem satisfied. This made leaving the house very difficult as I couldn't really use my pump in public.
Well, this situation went on for quite some time. By week 6 after a gradual reduction I was able to feed my baby with breastmilk (via nipple shields and expressed) completely which I was overjoyed with! Now it's week 8, our thrush has only just gone. I've started to breastfeed her without the nipple shields. I'm finding she will now feed for about 20 minutes off one breast and be satisfied. Before when I was feeding her through the nipple shields she'd feed for about 20 minutes, then sleep, wake to finish the feed and i'd have to give her what I had just expressed from the other boob, as well some of the milk I'd also expressed from the boob she had been on, it was a very time consuming situation. I'm so happy with this new situation, it means I can now breastfeed in public without it being a neverending session, and I can express the milk from the other boob at the same time for storage!