New Breastfeeder needing some advice please

[darlingbabs]

I gave birth via csection on monday night and my milk came in today and my boobs are like rocks. my baby appears to be finding it harder to latch on since it came in, he is being really fussy and sometimes wont even drink from one of them - do you think this is why? is it a good idea to express a little before feeding to soften them up? what else can i do to ease the discomfort? how long does this usually last for?

It won't last for long- your breasts will still feel very full but the rock-like feeling will soon subside. You can ease the feeling by hand expressing before a feed. This allows the baby to latch on more easily. When the breast is extremely full, it's often tricky for the baby to get a good latch. Just hand express for about 30 seconds or so and that should soften the breasts enough.

I am sure others will say all the stuff about checking latch, getting real life support from one of the charities, etc. I'm not a breastfeeding expert by any means.

In response to your specific question, yes, for me expressing off a wee bit can sometimes help in the early days. Just enough to get rid of the 'balloon' quality. My DD found it hard to latch when they were rock hard. Only lasted a week or so.

yes great idea to express a bit to soften them up. also try a warm bath to get the milk flowing / warm compresses before feeding.
cold cabbage leaves are great at easing the swelling, if a bit smelly (!) Chill in the fridge, then pop them in your bra between feeds to ease swelling.

Contact your Nct breast feeding counselor (sp) if you are still having difficulties. You don't have to be a member, and in my experience the service is excellent, and free.

congratulations! i think you can hand express a bit or express using a pump - just enough to be comfortable. my supply was a little haywire too in the early days - it def. will settle down. if your baby is finding it difficult to latch because your boobs are like rocks then yes it might make him fussy i suppose (not certain about this obviously). try not to get too stressed out, you can try different positions until you find one that is good. try the other boob if he is fussing on one. go to a local babycafe if you can as they are often really really helpful ... good luck and well done on new baby yay!

thanks people, i shall wind up the medela then! havent even got it out of the packet, not sure what hand expressing is, does it make any difference if i do it on the hand setting or electric setting? how long does this last then? couple of days or couple of weeks?

Week or so for me...

Warm bath/warm wet flannel should help a lot (get some towels to catch the leakage though if you use compresses outside the bathroom).

Because a pump draws milk from the breast in a different way than the baby, in the first few weeks until your supply is well established, it's best to try and not pump express. Hand expressing is when, as I mentioned before, you cup the breast between the thumb and forefinger in a c-shape and rhymethically squeeze, expressing milk by hand. You don't need to express vast quantities though, otherwise your breasts will make even more milk as they think it's the baby stimulating supply. Just hand express enough to soften the breasts and allow baby to latch on. The NHS leaflet 'Off to the best start' is fab at showing how to hand express and has lots of other useful advice.

Yes, that is why.

You kind of have to teach them to latch on again when the milk comes in and it can be very hard for them when your breasts are all hard and their mouths are so tiny.

The rocks in your bra thing won't last, only another day or two, although I have have found both times that I occasionally would get very engorged if the baby had a particularly long sleep, or didn't feed well from one side, or I lost track of which side the last feed came from and accidentally used the same side twice.

Expressing a tiny bit can help soften the breasts. I never figured out how to express my hand and could only use a machine. Be careful though, if you do use one, that you don't end up stimulating oversupply, which will make your problem worse.

Best of luck with it all

I personally found it hard to hand express to soften my boobs up as they were so tender and hard, I just couldn't get a grip! - so maybe machine pumping would be easier/less painful if it is just to let some of the pressure out of them for you.

Warm flannel in the bath did help me too.

It only lasted a short time for me - maybe a week. It does seem a lifetime at the time and is obviously stressful when all you want is a relaxed feed!

My only other bit of strong advice would be to seek help straight away from a real life expert if it doesn't improve. We had a breast feeding councilor based at my hospital who came and visited me at home on day 6 to help with latching on and positioning - I am soooo glad I called her for help and advice! That is what they are there for and it is pointless struggling on by yourself if things do not improve.

Hope this helps - well done!!!
x

Put the baby to the breast as often as you can to avoid engorgement.

Can't give you any other advice, but I've done all of the above suggestions when I was really tender at the start of BFing DS1 and DS2. When they felt sore, gently massaging in a warm bath helped soften them a bit.

Even though I fed each of them for a year my supply didn't settle down completely and I leaked right through until I weaned them (got through loads of breastpads!)

You can always save the milk you express and freeze it for use further down the line.

Oh, and if you can feel any lumps, check them again after the baby has been feeding for a little while and massage as the feed progresses to esure the milk is released.

hth

I was told it's when the actual areola gets hard that causes the problems. You need to express just enough to soften the areola area, then your baby will be able to attach properly and deal with most of the engorgement for you. I had exactly the same problems as this and it was only really bad for a day, starting from the evening after my milk came in. Cabbage leaves do help as well.

SAVOY CABBAGE
really works
rip off some leaves, rip into bra sized pieces, wash and store in the fridge
Put them in your bra and replace when you start smelling like soup
They really work to ease engorgement, and of course the coolness is lovely

Congratulations on your baby btw

can i just ask how does the savoy help the engorgement? like, actually how does it work?

I honeslty have no idea
MW recommended it to me I think and I thought yeah yeah but it really did work. My breasts felt heavy, but not as if they were about to explode

hmmm interesting - might try it next time. thanks. (sorry for brief hijack OP).

I had to ease the pressure with both of mine. My boobs hurt so much that hand expressing was out of the question, so I pumped with an Avent Isis hand pump. Result; baby could latch ok, I wasn't in pain. It was fine after a day or so.

The rock hard stage only lasted a day or at most two for me,after that it was fine,unless she had gone a bit long between feeds and the breasts had really filled up.As other posters have said,just express the minimum needed to soften the breast enough for the baby to latch on.Congratulations on your lovely new baby!

Think it's supposed to be the sulphur in the cabbage leaves that makes a difference (not sure how). You need to get the darkest green one you can, and use the darkest leaves from it.

thanks all