How to help sooth your boobs! HELP!

[lockdownpregnancy]

Hi ladies. Had DS on 22/09 and my milk came in a couple of days ago and MY GOD THE PAIN!!!
I'm not breastfeeding so any tips to ease the pain?
I have them strapped up in a maternity sports bra type thing which stops them from moving but they are rock hard and hurt like a bitch!
I need to do something to ease them as they are sooooooooo painful!
I want to hand express my colostrum but I can't even touch them let alone try that at the minute!
Help! 😭😭🤞🤞

Breast pump? If you want your baby to have your colostrum, is there any reason you can't put baby to boob?

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to drain them.

Just to add, that was absolutely no judgement on you in not breastfeeding. It just seemed the obvious solution of you have two boobs full of colostrum/milk and you want your baby to have it.

@Needschoolhelp awesome 😂 but I don't have any! Any sort of cabbage leaf alternative?
@lasangoles I've tried but DS won't latch on. Tried in hospital and at home when milk came in and he's not having none of it.
I don't have a breast pump. Do you think it might be worth while just buying a cheap one just so I can get it out?

Fill disposable nappies with water and freeze. Mould round boobs = bliss

@Ohwhatbliss fricking awesome! I'll be bobbing off to do that shortly 👍🏻

@WWYD2020 wouldn't it be great of everyone found bf simple and straight forward to do? And people on the internet didn't post sarcastic unhelpful comments?

I remember in the very early days with my daughter just standing under a hot shower made my boobs leak loads! It might just take the edge off worth a try 😊

If you want to express the milk, you need warmth rather than cold to get it going - massage in a hot shower will give you some relief.

Pumping might be a good idea if you want to continue to give your baby breast milk. Hot shower also as pp above said was a real help. Also a hot bath and expressing straight in to the bath. I found YouTube really helpful for videos of how to express properly. It's not easy to do when you have no idea what you were doing. I was doing it totally wrong in the early days and was hardly getting anything out!

Thank you ladies. I don't want to express full time as formula feeding is what we are doing and it's going very well well and also I know that expressing all the time means the milk will keep coming but I wasn't sure if getting just a little bit out would help ease the pressure?
Mainly to get the colostrum out but then as I said, ease the pressure.
I'll do the hot shower thing for sure, but I don't have a bath so that's out.

Expressing enough to relieve the pressure will be fine, yes, the milk production rate will already be slowing down and it will stop eventually.

If you really don't want to breastfeed then try a warm bath or shower. Your milk might let down a little bit to ease the pain but not enough to keep supply going. And yeah apparently the lettuce leaves although I've never tried it, I've heard it a lot! 😂

I'm absolutely not judging at all as I bottle fed my first, breastfed my second, but boobing is so much easier in the night, you get a lot more sleep. Sometimes baby just needs to learn how to latch, it's a new skill.

And CONGRATULATIONS!!! 💐💐

Oh btw if your milk has come in you wont have any colostrum there. Colostrum production finishes when milk production begins.

Oh right @Bobbiepin well nothing was coming out at all for the first few days and MW said to try again when my milk comes in??
A bit disheartened now if that's the case! 😭

@lockdownpregnancy it really doesn’t matter whether it’s technically colostrum or not. It’s all the same milk, just colostrum is more concentrated and it changes gradually, not suddenly. If you want to feed your baby whatever you express that’s fine.

You can hand express, you don't need a breast pump to do this. Especially if you don't plan to do it long term and therefore don't need to do it to maintain supply. I know it feels painful at first but that's because you're engorged, even hand expressing a small amount will take the pressure off and feel 10x better

Hello, congratulations! I found hand expressing (can go very gently to start with) in a hot shower helps. The relief you will feel will be amazing and worth the momentary discomfort of hand expressing 😃

If all else fails or if the pain is just too much, there is a tablet you can take which a GP will need to prescribe, though they can be reluctant. My friend needed this when the pain in her boobs was unbearable and pumping/expressing didn't relieve it. She rang 111 and it was prescribed, and I remember her saying the relief after taking it was immense. I can't remember what it's called, maybe begins with K but don't quote me on that!

Any milk from you is good for baby, don't be disheartened. Remember that babies are born with a stomach the size of a marble so the first milk (colostrum) has to be super nutrient dense to help them not lose too much weight in the first week or so. After that their stomach grows and they can take in more milk, equalling the nutrient content.