Did you find breast feeding a doddle?

[Willow2]

Just thinking aloud here really, but how many of us honestly had that "baby immediately latched on" experience? For those who didn't, were you surprised by how hard it was to establish b/f. Did you manage it?

Several friends have just become mums - they are all having a really hard time with b/f, not helped, IMO, by the fact that they were given the impression that problems are more abnormal than normal.

Your thoughts, ladies?

My experience was like NQC- murder the first time with ds, hard-going for several months, and completely easy-peasy with dd. Nothing to do with experience, dd just found latching on easier, and was generally calmer.

I have to admit that once we got established we were dead good at it.
Initially we had a few struggles but fortunately i have a fantastic breast feeding support group attached to my Drs surgery so was able to iron out any problems quickly with advice from people who were confident in thier advice and experience. Got tons of support from every angle.
It helped that i was completely determined to do it,persevered and was heart broken to have to give it up when ds was 6 months old.
If it works for you, its wonderful thing if not...hey ho it doesnt matter, no biggy IMHO.

I would say at 2 months it was a doddle but before that it was really painful.

It didn't seem to be the latch because I had loads of midwives, HVs, etc. look at the positioning. I just had a searing pain for the first ten minutes of every pain which came back in between feeds , then cracked nipples which bled and blistered, then blocked ducts. Finally a course of antibiotics and some antifungal/antiseptic cream seemed to work, but by then it was 6 weeks on and perhaps it would eventually have sorted itself out. I kept going because I believed strongly in the health benefits and because it also hurt so much not to feed. But was proud of myself for sticking with it and kept going for just over a year.

first ten minutes of every feed, I mean! I think I'm having a flashback...

The feeding itself was great it was the feeding every hour night and day for however long that took its toll and obviously was hard going.

I couldn't do it with mine, FOUR TIMES.

Everybody can't do it, but I think part of the reasoning behind playing that down is that many women have initial problems but do overcome them with help and support; if they were told from the start "oh it can be incredibly tough to get going" they might well give up before they had a chance to get established - I think it can be considered good psychology (but does make it more depressing when you are one of the ones who really can't ).

I hated pretty much every minute of feeding DD until the start of mix-feeding around 15 weeks (mastitis, poor weight gain, reflux which meant she chucked up most of her feeds). kept a few daily b-feeds going til 8 mths.
With DS, it was also blimmin agony from the off, despite MVs saying, 'Oh look, he's a natural', and input from bf counsellor. Started mix-feeding much earlier, around 6 wks, which I felt grisly about, but once past the guilt/shame, the sun came out. he's now 15 wks or so and on 3 b-feeds (which are fine, though I'll never really truly love it) and 2 formulas.
I'm still stuck on the ol' nipple shields, though .
Motherinferior's comment about finding the 'total responsibility of it all horrifying' rings true for me, too.

Haven't read all of the thread - but, no, I didn't find breastfeeding a doddle, either time. Not the first few weeks anyway.

Flaming nightmare to start with (won't bore you all with details again but couldn't start until day 5)but really glad I persisted. DS had obviously read the book; he knew what he was doing even when I didn't which was a massive help. Only long-standing problem was massive imbalance between my supply and his demand - even after 2 weeks of shoving him on every 10 mins (or so it felt) waiting for the miraculous nature-catching-up bit I was always behind his needs (probably all my postnatal drugs), which didn't really improve out until started solids.

Definitely agree with suggestion that it would help to know that other people find it tricky and that I was not alone. Actually it would have helped me not to have any of the "bf is wonderful" publicity as I found it underlined my feeling of helplessness when it wasn't going well, but I appreciate that is just me and that other people will feel differently.

Despite troubles at the beginning, I was really sad when ds self-weaned at 9.5 months. Roll on the next one I say!

collision - I can sympathise with the 'soft nipple' problem, mine just don't do pointy ()and my poor little ds couldn't figure out what he was supposed to be latching on to! I am always amazed at the 'skamel wheel nuts' (my husbands turn of phrase) that you see on breastfeeding positioning posters. What have they been doing to them, ice-cubes perhaps!!

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I'm not sure I believe the "pale skin means sensitive nipples" thing. I'm very very pale, more so than just about anyone I've known, including some redheads. But thankfully, my nipples were already fairly tough, pre-children.

I have soft (flattish, even) nipples, too. DS1 didn't know what to do with them, DS2 managed fine. Although, to be fair, they were less flat after 18 months of nursing DS1!

Have to say I did find it a doddle with both. And I have very pale skin, and huge breasts - I actually think easy bf is my reward for carrying these monsters around for the last 13 years.

I did however get thrush in my breasts when ds was about 9 months, and I suddenly realised just how awful, both physically and emotionally, it is to not be able to bf easily. I'd always felt sympathy for women who had problems, but don't think I'd really empathised before. It made me realise jsut how lucky I have been

Its too early for me to say if BF has been easy as baby is only 2 wks old. Latching on was the easy part as the m/w's all kept saying 'lovely b/f nipples' to these pointy things of mine. I have no breasts, just big nipples.

What I find hard so I would never say its a doddle is the amt of time, dedication, and emotion must be dedicated to breastfeeding. This is all on top of having labour with pre-eclampsia, baby with jaundice and coming home and immediately suffering a terrible cold.

I surely empathise with women who have nipple or breast probs early on and could never condemn anyone for giving in early. If I had already suffered cracked, bleeding nipples, etc. I think I would have already given up.

No, and never did manage to comfortably feed either baby from my right side (positioning problem)

I assumed I was lucky, both of mine fed from the off and I have never had any feeding issues, not even a cracked or sore nipple
Had mastitis once though but crap bras took the blame for that one.

I've had no problems with latch-on or technique but have had mastitis on 2 out of 3 babies and a cracked nipple on ds3 as a result of him clamping his hard little gums down on my nipple one night. Now if I could jusr get ds3 to take a bottle.........

I managed for about 5 days but gave up because I was in agony with cracked and bleeding nipples. I thought DS was latching on fine, as did the midwifes so I don't know what went wrong.
If I have another child I will try again but not beat myself up if I can't do it like I did this time round.

No,not at all.
First time it took six weeks of trouble shooting and there were some very low moments,but i clung on, like a rat to a drowning ship!
Second time,the first few weeks were dodgy but then it came good, and still is!
Yes, MI, the responsibility is very scary. That 24 hour 'on call' feeling...
What helped massively second time around was investing in a good electric breastbump and expressing regularly which gave me a break and some freedom.
There won't be a third time!!

I think both mine took about 5 or 6 weeks to get going properly. Had very sore nipples and like Hunkermunker it made my toes curl it hurt so much. It was worth it for me. Fed DS til 14mths when he decided had enough. Still bf DD 11 Mmths. I had a good friend who told me it was hard and gave me a book to read. Having said that, th hospital midwives were all consistant with their method and that helped immensely. V supportive DH too. It can be a labour of love.

looking back, yes, it was a doddle. But, being a first-timer I worried about everything - was he getting enough, was he feeding long enough, should I be offering 2 breasts, OMG why was his weight gain slowing at 10weeks etc etc etc!

I was extremely lucky that I saw a BF consultant as part of the usual weigh-in when DS was 3 weeks and she pointed out DS's lazy latch. I had been paranoid about it anyway and I guess I was lucky that the sore nips only lasted about 10 days.

In reality, maybe it was a doddle purely because I had consistent advice from the MVs in hospital, the HV, BF consultant..... and our resident MN experts of course!! (without whom I never would have been so determined to give it a go).

I am utterly amazed and humbled by the problems that some mums on here manage to overcome, often without on-hand professional support.

DS is nearly 8 months an I woudln't dream of giving BF up until he's at least a year.

No I hated it with a vengeance. I did it for 10 days which was a nightmare then put her on bottle which I regret not doing sooner to save me all the problems. With my next one it will be straight to bottls. No messing!!!

Haven't read the rest of the thread (too tired!) but, while I didn't find it a doddle, I didn't find it too hard either. Once I had the latch sussed with ds1 I was fine - he seemed to know what he was doing. I was bloody knackered, but the actual feeding was OK. I must have had nipples like shoe leather because I had minimal soreness for a day or so. I've often wondered if I would have persevered if I'd found it painful - I've heard stories of bleeding, cracked, infected nipples, and I'm not sure I could have carried on had that been the case with me.

I carried on breast feeding because I couldn't put a bottle together or figure out how to make up formula: I did try one night and gave up in hysterics (severe PND). Ended up feeding ds1 'til 12 months and ds2 'til 8 months. Ds2 was more of a faffy feeder than ds1 - but I had more confidence by then so I persevered.

I had a total nightmare, 9 weeks establishing bf with the first one and gave up after 2 weeks with the second one. Have met very few people who said they had no problems.

Yes and No. The first couple of weeks with all three of them was pretty painful. My milk always seems to take ages to come in properly (3 days my arse!) and DKids were all incredibly sucky (thanks be to dummies!). However, once I've got past that stage I've found it very easy despite leaky boobs etc.