Top tips for successful breastfeeding

[lizzyttc2017]

Hi!

I'm expecting my first baby in just a few weeks and really keen to breastfeed for their first year. What were your top tips, products or advise you can give to those of you who have had a successful breastfeeding journey (especially getting past those first few tough weeks?)

Thanks in advance!

Ignore my link op - that’s for Alpine not you!

Onceuponatimethen-Alpine, I will give you some links - it’s a very interesting subject!!

Thank you, yes it is interesting but I can't help thinking that all this 'latest' advice makes it appear more complicated than it actually is

I think most mums don’t need qualified help but for people like me where stuff doesn’t go right then it’s a godsend!

The advice now is really simple start with the side you didn’t start with last time and when baby comes off offer the next side!

My babies both fed a lot. This was very disconcerting with the first and I worried it was because he wasn't getting enough milk. When my second turned out the same I realised this was normal and was far more relaxed as a result.

Don't feel guilty about sitting in front of the tv while feeding. Before my first I'd heard terrible things about having the tv on when your baby was in the room - stunting language etc. - and I wasn't skilled enough to read while feeding. This led to some incredibly boring feeding sessions . Watch a good box set and chill - much more fun.

I longed for the day I swapped to bottles as I thought that would be far easier. On day one of bottles (at 6 months) I found out it was much harder. Faffing with sterilisers, measuring powder, having water at the right temperature then cooling... such a hassle. Breast was so much easier.

Lansinoh. In the hospital bag. After every feed. Magic stuff.

Check for tongue and lip ties early.

I found an "if it works, great, if not, no biggie" mindset very helpful. Made the whole thing much less high-stakes than it might have been, so I wasn't too stressed, and the "just in case" formula stash hasn't been breached yet.

Oh, and babies are smart, baby may well refuse a bottle if the boob is in the vicinity, but take it just fine from someone who doesn't make milk. Our GP shared that tip and it was great, DH does feeds with expressed milk now and I go out sometimes and feel like a real person again

Oh, and buy lansinoh.

Onceuponatimethen-The advice now is really simple start with the side you didn’t start with last time and when baby comes off offer the next side!

That I can agree with. Though I am still a bit puzzled why you would start on the other side when baby will have probably already fallen asleep. Aaaww

Definitely buy Lansinoh, I used this after every feed

Agree with @JoanFrenulum 'if it works, great. if not, no biggie' people put too much pressure on themselves and you need to do what's right for you and your baby.

It definitely gets better after 6/8 weeks so if you can, stick with it. I wanted to give up a couple of weeks in but I'm glad I didn't as it really does get easier 😊

I bought one of these suction breast pumps to catch the let down from the other breast when feeding at home. It was really useful. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01LZ2ZVCY/ref=mpssa112aa_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1524355893&sr=8-2&keywords=hakka&dpPl=1&dpID=51riQZZLZIL&ref=plSrch

Surround yourself by as many supportive breastfeeding mums as possible- nct group, breastfeeding groups etc. They make all the difference. Know that there are lactation consultants who are amazing and give you the tools and confidence to continue if you want to. And finally, it gets better very suddenly. Plus it may take longer than average- for me it was two steps forward one step back for over 3 months. I'd expected it to magically be OK by 12 weeks. I know that's longer than most but believe me, at 6 months I am SO happy we persisted. It's not right for everyone but in my opinion, the benefits have been immense (health and bonding aside, the daily convenience and ability to fly easily are incredible)

Good luck!

Alpine oversupply is certainly a thing. It will usually affect mums who have had to pump (prem baby) more than the baby actually needs but not always.

Number one tip would be massively lower your expectations of the first few weeks, be prepared for cluster feeding and little sleep (not saying this will be a definite but don’t compare your baby to a formula fed baby on a schedule) but it does get better. After about 6 weeks it is much much easier than ff.

To establish feeding in the hour post birth if possible (this is where I went wrong). If possible, Baby should be put on your chest skin to skin. Many will actually start to route and move towards the breast, Try to latch on in this time, if you miss this ‘window’ baby is likely to be very sleepy and you may have difficulty later. This all seems obvious to me now but no one told me!

Go to support groups. Even if you don’t struggle at all with it it’s still a great place to meet people and pick up some tips. Good luck.

I struggled to begin with and My health visitor said to get myself completely ready - comfy, suportive seat, remote control, phones, drink, food, book, etc - then relax my shoulders, get the baby in a good position all before attempting to latch on. It really helped.

Right at the beginning ds1 was an impatient feeder and would get upset very quickly if I did not latch him on straight away. A wonderful midwife helped me calm him down before attempting to latch him on and that sorted loads of issues out. She also taught me to feed lying down. So don’t be afraid to ask- and keep asking. I had seen about 4 midwives in hospital who had not helped me in this way before this wonderful midwife sorted out my initial problems.

Oh and If you have kindle (or some other device that requires only one hand) get some really good exciting books on it. I ended up not minding those long night feeds so much as you’re looking forward to the next chapter. That was my reading time and now I look back on it with fondness. The thought of being able to sit and read for hours now...

Hi OP, lots of good advice from pps. I found watching a video of how baby’s lactch before ds arrived really helpful. There’s a good nhs one, it shows you how to align their nose with your nipple so they have to tilt their head back to latch. This means that your nipple is back on their soft palate so doesn’t rub (and therefore doesn’t hurt).

Other than that try not to worry about it too much. If you can do skin to skin after baby is born then that helps your milk supply kick in.

I’d also second get your baby checked for tongue tie early. Both of mine had it and feeding got so much easier once it had been snipped.

I found some bfing groups better than others. Some were a bit judgemental and too extreme for me. But there was one run by a midwife which was lovely. She was absolutely amazing. I was struggling to feed and went to see her. She took one look at how I was feeding, rearranged how I was holding dd and I never looked back!

Really hope it goes well for you. I bf ds until he was 20mths and am still bfing my dd who is 16mths. I love it!

Make everyone bring everything to you - it’s a great excuse to be selfish and lazy for a while

Having a supportive partner really helps, my DH was there to do the washing, hold my hand during the first week when I thought I was terrible at it, take baby when I needed 10 minutes of not being touched.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. For me formula wasn’t an option I would have considered but definitely think about it if you are struggling.

Have snacks and drinks wherever you're going to be sitting, and make sure you have a phone/tablet charger there too.

Lansinoh after every feed, and don't worry about wiping it off, it's safe for baby.

Have lots of breast pads. In the first few weeks I couldn't bear anything fabric touching my nipples, so I put a dot of lansinoh on the pad and that went into the bra.

It was toe curlingly painful for me for the first few weeks, every time he latched on. It wasn't so much the latch, but the letdown. Keep going, I got to week six and all of a sudden it was easy.

Cluster feeding is really hard, we ended up giving a bottle because I was totally exhausted after one all night feeding marathon. He now combo feeds, but if I was ever going to give up it would have been that night. Support from my dp kept me going, I could not have done it without him.

Breastfed babies still need to be winded (I say this because I didn't know, I thought they didn't need burping!)

Enjoy it, and try not to get frustrated by being at the beck and call of a tiny hungry person. Accept that you're not going to get much done for a while, and relax with it.

I BF mine for about a year each (it was the current advice at the time). I stopped feeding them at this time quite abruptly and was amazed that it only took them a very short while not to ask for milk again. It was a total non issue. So my advice is to not worry about stopping when you want to (according to current advice).

Also watch out for mastitis. I had it several times when I started feeding. It's painful.

Lastly, don't worry about all the bad stories on this thread. I found BF to be ok. ( not perfect but generally ok) I don't know if I can take the credit 😊 or whether it was my kids but it seemed easy. It was a bit boring though.

On day 5 your mum brain will go insane with hormones and your boobs will go silly massive with milk. Try not to freak out if baby can’t feed. Let off some milk or pump a bit if they are mountains and keep trying. It felt like we had to start from scratch again and relearn

Don't time feeds/time between feeds - it's just loads @ first and then reduces; stick with it - it gets easier; don't feel guilty/worry about not doing much else but breast feed for the first 6 weeks; if you don't already have it subscribe to Netflix or amazon prime - you can watch a lot of tv while feeding (I seriously don't know how mothers did it before subscription tv or smart phones, you are pinned to one spot a lot at first and watching tv makes it soooooo much more bearable); check out support groups and go to one you like (I found one way to 'natural parenting / AP' but one was just fab and I loved it); get the book 'the food of love' by Kate Evans (has all the facts plus funny, really helped me); enjoy it: I bf my 2 kids til toddler hood so was pregnant or breastfeeding for over 5 years straight. As it was so long I'm mainly glad it's now over but it was also a special and amazing experience, so when I see people feeding Small babies I'm sometimes jealous. It feels long but when you look back it'll be over in a moment!

Currently breastfeeding a 10 week old so my memory of the newborn days is fresh. Get a big sports bottle for water (so you can pull up the spout thingy with your teeth and drink one-handed) and always have it with you. In fact get two and keep the other one in the fridge so you can easily get another big bottle of cold water when you can't put baby down to fill it up. Take at least two bottles of water up to bed with you during those first weeks (the thirst is the worst in the first month, after that I didn't drink so much at night but still need a 750ml bottle now and drink most of it in the night)

Lots of snacks that you can eat one handed. I made/make granola bars as oats are good for your supply and they are very tasty. Make a comfy spot in front of the telly with remote, your phone, snacks, water, muslin cloths etc. all within reach. Lots and lots of muslin cloths in case you have a baby that spits up a lot (and if they do, holding them upright after feeds helps and don't burp straight away - I very rarely burp my baby and he doesn't get gassy but not all babies are like that, some need to be burped every time)

Cluster feeding is normal, and it can come back during growth spurts so don't be worried if baby suddenly starts wanting to feed all the time after they've been in a routine for a while. So long as they are wetting nappies and gaining weight then they are getting enough. They will lose weight at the beginning, more so than formula fed babies, so don't worry so long as it starts coming back after the first week. If you do get told to supplement because of weight loss always breastfeed on both sides first before you give the extra milk.

After the first few weeks consider getting a pump (just pumping once a day during baby's longest nap can build a decent supply, I've filled a freezer drawer already) to build up a freezer stash (but check that your milk doesn't get a soapy taste after being frozen as some people's milk does that - it's not harmful to baby at all but they might not drink it because of the taste) in case of supply issues later (supply can drop when you are ill for instance) and so that you can get a break (having some pumped milk in the fridge on weekend mornings means I can get a lie in while OH gets up with baby and feeds him a bottle - but don't skip feeds like that until 6 weeks when your supply will be more settled)

It is likely to hurt in the beginning (some people are lucky and it doesn't hurt at all - I was lucky this time but last time it hurt for the first two months, but the worst pain was the first two weeks) so lansinoh for your nipples is a god-send, and paracetemol if it hurts very bad (and if it hurts very bad get latch checked and check for tongue tie - probably good idea to get those checked regardless of pain). It will get better, and when it does breastfeeding will become so so simple and you will be glad you stuck with it.

Get partner and family on board; explain how important it is to you and that, whilst it might come from concern, could they please not try and encourage you to give up. My DH came back one day and said his colleague told him it was really difficult, so not to put pressure on to continue and make me feel bad if I gave up. I persevered and fed all three DC, but if it hadn’t been really important in those early days & weeks I could have easily felt I’d had ‘permission’ to give up. You don’t want people making you feel bad if it doesn’t work, but well-meaning friends and relatives often like to tell you how well you’ve done to get this far, and there’s no harm giving a bottle if it makes you less tired etc. If you’re like me you need gentle encouragement and praise, not people making it easier for you to give up.

In the same vein I never kept a spare carton of formula in the house. Typically none of us is more than an hour (at most) from being able to get hold of formula, but I didn’t want it to be a knee jerk decision in the middle of the night; I worried i’d ‘cave’ if the formula was there, whereas I wanted it to be a conscious decision to give formula if I needed to.

Just power through those first few days, mind over matter! (It's bloody hard, but just know that it passes.)
And don't be hard on yourself if it doesn't work out the way you wanted it.

Surround yourself with supportive people and don't give up!
I've been breastfeeding my first baby for 6 months now and in those first few days I never thought I'd have got this far!
The first 2 weeks are hard but once you've got past those it's amazing! (And much easier than formula)
My tips are: lanolin.. lots and lots of it! , I used a little footstool as well to help with positioning, if the latch is hurting use nipple shields and the thing that really helped me was to use my finger to help pull out his bottom lip in to the correct position, eventually he then just did it himself!
Take each day at a time and if you have to use a bottle for one feed to give your boobs a rest then do it! They say don't introduce a bottle until 6 weeks old but i did it a couple of times and he was fine! Didn't get confused and we didn't have to go through the stress of getting him used to one later down the line

Enjoy it!

Good ideas about getting a partner on board here! If they’re really keen to “help by giving a bottle” then I’d recommend they do this online course abm.me.uk/partnermodule/

My top tips would be:

• drink a lot of water. Lots lots lots.
• eat lots. Have cereal bars / chocolate etc on you for night feeds.
• Kellymom website is your bible. This website helped me with so many issues. I’d probably have given up without it.
• read up before hand. Someone gave me a dvd called breastfeeding without tears. I found that helpful.
• know where to get help - la leche, nct, bf counsellors at children’s centres etc

And lastly, just be prepared that the first few weeks are fucking hard. Cluster feeding had me in tears. Ideally you need a partner to be wonderfully supportive and encouraging and to bring you food, water etc and mainly moral support.

But then it gets easy and it is a bloody godsend. See it as an investment - you put loads in at the start but then you (as well as baby) get loads of benefits.

And also, if it doesn’t work out don’t beat yourself up at all.

Good luck with everything!

The first six weeks are quite overwhelming and hard- but then it's the best thing ever !
Things like what Alpineflowers and others were debating - you are supposed to always offer both sides to keep the milk supply up- all settle down after six weeks as your supply should be well up and running and you really won't need to think about it then but initially there is a lot to learn
It's like any new skill- learning to drive or bake- you will need practise, knowledge and perseverance but it's so rewarding once you know what you're doing.
First 24 hours babies often aren't that hungry so do loads of skin to skin. This will help with milk supply.
Don't worry about expressing until you know what you're doing with the breastfeeding.