Had 3 DC's and always given up trying to BF, want to really give it a go this time and need help.

[whocaresaboutyourintellect]

When DC1 was born she was taken into SCU for a week. I was too unwell to BF and we fell into bottle.

With DC2 and DC3 I began to BF and I thik they latched on. It was really painful and the afterpains of labour were too strong to cope with and after 2 days I couldn't take any more of the pain and gave them bottles.

My milk dried up incredibly quickly with all 3 pg's. In a matter of a couple of days. I tried to BF after the afterpains had subsided with DC3 but could not get any milk at all.

I really want to succeed this time but dont know how to get through the pain barrier.

Also I know this sounds silly but my nipples dont extend like bullets, they remain the same. Is this because baby is not latching on correctly?

Ask about pain relief for the afterpains. There must be something safe you could take. If you can hang in for about a week, the afterpains should really be gone, though. Bfing can be really painful at the beginning, and the latching on is important -- get help with this aspect of it right from the start.

ok well i think the most important thing you can do is make sure you are well supported in real life (as well as on here)
i would find out if there is perhaps a local baby cafe near you, or a la leche league group. these places are welcoming to pregnant as well as breastfeeding mothers and it can help to go before baby is born so you have a supportive system in place once baby is born,

afterpains are hideous. and when feeding they do tend to be worse. i found that taking paracetamol helped a lot, but there are stronger things you can take if necessary.

tbh it's really very unlikely that your milk dried up completely for no reason, although for some women it can seem like it has. what made you think that you had no milk?

nipple size doesn't matter much. mine are virutally flat most of the time but i have breastfed 3 babies!

Thank you. My breasts went soft and completely down to normal size. No leaking and nothing coming out when expressing or holding baby close.

Oh, who, are you me??
I had rubbish BFing experience with DSs1 and 2, and managed much better with DS3 due to stubbornness and lots of MNing support. I am currently expecting DS4 and am hoping I might be able to actually exclusively BF him.
So here is what helped me:
-I did not leave hospital until I felt I had latching on sussed
-I had decided before DS3 was born that I was going to do this; not try to do it: I was going to do it
-I offered him the breast all the time to the point were my bum hurt from sitting so much...
-I did not put much value on wt gain/loss as long as he was happy/pooing/weeing
-I had looked into and contacted BF support before I had him. In my case HV, midwives in hospital/community, LLL, NCT and a community peer support "buddy".

Believe me, if I can do it, so can you . Your afterpains sound horrendous! You can safely take the normal full dose of Paracetamol whilst your are BFing a newborn, so that might be worth a go.
Also lots of skin to skin contact, lots of resting (I co-slept at least part of the night - otherwise I would have had no sleep at all) and making establishing BFing your priority. Stock your freezer, teach your husband/partner how to use the microwave, hire a cleaner etc etc - you get my drift, do everything you can to allow you to spend a lot of time on this.

Very, very best of luck. Oh, and by the way, I BF DS3 until he was 14 months old [proud] and stopped because he was not terribly interested and I had had enough....

breasts do go soft again, and not being able to express anything is no sign of how much milk you have.
a lot of women who breastfeed successfully are never able to express anything.

there are mny other ways of ensuring yourbaby is getting enough milk, but it's really important to have the real life support to enable you to trust in youtself!

I had such a similar experience to you and I really do feel like I've failed three times. My greatest success was with DC3 and I really should have stuck with it. My advice would be;
find a breastfeeding counsellor before* you have the baby - make contact and get to know someone that you trust.

• Take a babymoon! I was so busy loading the washing machine and looking after the other 2 that I didn't spend enough time establishing the feeding. You need to let baby sleep naked (with nappy!!) between your breasts for a few hours at a time. I phoned a helpline who suggested this and the difference to my milk was amazing! It was just a shame that the lady never called me back

After pains were really horrendous for me too - ask your midwife about painkillers.

Really good luck but, above all, if it doesn't work out, look at your other 3 happy, healthy children and assure yourself that it isn't the end of the world .