Breastfeeding- what helped you?

[LouJ85]

Hi all.

I'm currently 33 weeks pregnant and very much hoping I can breastfeed my baby as I personally really want to.

Can anyone share any useful tips of things that helped to make their breastfeeding journey more of a success?

Thank you

Just accept you’re going to be spending a lot of time sat on the sofa with a baby attached to your boob. Get your box sets lined up.

Irritated the hell out of me with my first, I was so bored. But with DC2 I just accepted that was my life for a few weeks until they grew out of the cluster feeding stage and it didn’t bother me nearly so much.

Silicone nipple shields. Without them I would have given up, it was so painful at first.

Lansinoh! After every feed. It will be really hard at the start but things will improve within weeks. Once you have a good handle on it, it will be great and much much less hassle than bottles. I had a rigid type breastfeeding pillow that strapped around my waist - it looked ludicrous but was an absolute godsend (I have a bad back and had an emergency c section).

Confidence to feed outside at any time
Breastfeeding cushion
Feeding friendly clothes
Plenty of water bottles
Set up stations around your house with everything you need: muslin cloths, snacks, water bottles, ipad or kindle, headphones etc.

The best feeding is once they get past 3 or 4 months when their digestive system is a bit more mature. You can lie them next to you, lie next to them and feed... and it is lush!

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. The first couple of months were so painful for me and I put way too much pressure on myself to persevere. I did manage to in the end and my daughter is almost 1.5yrs and still going but I look back at those first few months and can only really remember how hard it all felt and I wish I could have been easier on myself. Know that it’s ok if it doesn’t work out.

Thank you so much everyone for your replies, they're are all so helpful. I'm hearing nipple shields come up a few times so I'll be investing in them! I already have the Lansinoh cream packed in my hospital bag. I probably need to invest in a comfortable pillow too for support by the sounds of it.

In terms of partner support, he's been fantastic through the whole pregnancy so I'm sure he'll be really supportive. He's also keen for me to be successful with BF so that helps.

Only having to focus on breastfeeding to begin with. It feels like a full time job! Husband does nappies, burps and housework - all you focus on is establishing feeding.

I also found it so helpful to have lots of meals in the freezer which could be heated up and then eaten with one hand. I basically ate all of my meals on the sofa to begin with and was starving all the time.

Don’t wait for your nips to hurt to use balm - use it after every feed so they don’t have the chance to get sore.

My best piece of advice is read read read. I recommend The Positive Breastfeeding Book. The more you know and understand the more successful I believe women will be at breastfeeding as they will worry less and be more confident knowing what is 'normal'. Like you, I was keen to make it work and my first dc is now 5 months and breastfeeding has been wonderful.

I read on here to buy lansinoh cream and I put it in my hospital bag. I put it on after every feed for the first few days and then at night for the first few weeks and my nipples were fine.

Babies feed a lot at first and I found that I'd feed my dd three or four times in an hour sometimes. It's normal in the early days and don't let anyone worry you by saying they're not getting enough.

Know that it is typical for breastfed babies to lose a little more of their birthweight than formula fed babies in the early days and that this is ok.

Learn all about colostrum and your milk coming in.

I used reusable breast pads to stop me leaking everywhere and wore a strappy top to keep them in place and I didn't wear a bra for ages (I mean, where can you go in lockdown anyway to need one) and it made it easier to learn how to feed with different tops on.

Have a bottle of water to hand and buy a few extra long charging cables for your phone (another tip I read on here) as once the baby starts you could be in that position for an hour or two (save some good box sets for the early days).

@LouJ85 Good that you already have the Lansinoh 😊 use it religiously!! Also, IF you do get cracked/chapped nipples (😬😅) then I highly recommend the Multi-MAM Compresses - I’m sure I got them from Boots. Quite pricey but they’re big enough to cut one in half 😊 like face masks for your nips lol.
I would just add about the nipple shields...have them to hand but personally I would only use them if you really need them. Baby doesn’t get as much through the shield. I had to use one on one side as I ended up badly blistered on one nipple and it ruined my milk supply on one side 😓
Large water bottle with a straw was a god send for me! BF makes you really thirsty 😅

@liquoricecravings

My partner found that book you mention on Amazon last night actually! I thought it looked good.

@LouJ85 Also...personally I get really cold in the night so I bought some nice long sleeved “traditional” button down jammies that were a godsend for BF as I could stay cosy even when sat up in bed all night 😊😅

@Squish3

Thank you! Gosh that sounds painful 😫
I'll have a look at the compress things you mentioned too. ☺️

I found expressing colostrum before birth really helpful. I didn’t have any particular medical reason to (think it’s recommended for gestational diabetes, for eg) but I thought I’d give it a go as the midwife gave me a leaflet and it was great! It helped me get to know my body, and feel confident in my milk production. I think it primed my body to make more, more quickly, as at first I expressed just a few drops and after a couple of weeks I could do 5-10ml in one go. And it meant I had a stash to top up baby with so I could be sure she was getting enough - though so BF as much as possible in those first days and weeks to build supply. Ask your midwife for little syringes if you’re interested.

@BerthaYoung

I do have those little syringes and a leaflet about collecting colostrum from week 37 I think it says? But the problem I have currently (not sure if it's a problem as such?) is that I'm not producing anything right now. I'm only 33 weeks though, but no leaks or anything as yet. Should I be worried about this?

No, don’t be worried! I never leaked any colostrum at all. (And I have major leakers now... 😬) I had to really work at the massage and compression, and it was literally a drop at first. Then I freaked out and left it for a few days...! But going two weeks ‘overdue’ gave me plenty of practice time 😂 And, like the leaflet says, wait till 37 weeks. It won’t work for everyone, and if it doesn’t you still shouldn’t worry - babies work very differently to hand expressing! But if it does work it’s a nice way to prep, and a confidence boost.

Also, there’s loads of good stuff on Instagram. I find Milk Making Mama particularly helpful.

Oh and No Milk Like Mamas, also on Insta

Lots of good advice.

I was so lucky, I had a lactation consultant, which was great because I was otherwise useless 😂.

To me the most critical thing was The Latch. There were times when I'd disengage DS's poor latch 6 or 7 times in order to get it right! (Little finger between his mouth and my boob to break the suction, not 'just pull!).

A good latch has a good 1/4 to 1/3 of your boob in their mouth!

Let-down is a bit odd to start with, as someone says, like a short electric tingling, but it was a great boost, knowing I was 'doing it right' in getting let-down.

DS2 was a stroll in the park, instant perfect latch, tho I also knew how to position him!

The cream sounds like a good idea. My experiences were 2 decades ago, and I don't recall specific creams, but I did use Savoy cabbage leaves, as suggested!

Don't expect it to be a stroll in the park, it does require a bit of determination; and if it doesn't work out, so what? But success means easy on demand feeding, no expense, sterile bottles or formula.

Oh, and don't drink litres of orange juice when you're feeding. Colic on a stick.

Thanks all!

Silly question but ... what are the cabbage leaves for?

Hey op, so I never produced any milk at all until day 3 when my milk came in, couldn't harvest colostrum either until she was born so don't stress about that at all! Unless you need to collect before for medical reason I wouldn't bother!

I thankfully had a relatively easy bf journey so far (currently feeding my 8m old to sleep) but there we're still challenging and painful days. But they ease off and it's worth it. And I'm a lazy wimp so if I can get through it, including 2 bouts of mastitis, you can too.

My advice;

• excited etc baby to be hungrier and feed for longer and more often than you can bare to imagine. Because they do, and despite being told about it I still wasn't mentally prepared.

Get comfy loose bf tops and bras - Hb& n were best for me, wasted a fortune on hot milk bras and seraphim a tops.

• have a little tray or station next to your main feeding areas - for me it was sofa and my bed. Fill them with sweet and savoury snacks, bottles of water, Muslins galore, lanisoh, extra long phone charging cables
• get a hakka to express if you're full and in comfy or if baby struggling with fast or slow flow
• save up box sets on telly to watch. I'd recommend shows you've seen before so you don't have to concentrate too hard.
• find out what your local breastfeeding support is like: FAB or la leche league follow on fb and insta they have great hints and tops and helplines
• don't make any decisions in the middle of the night. Everything looks worse at 3am when you're knackered, sore, baby crying and you're covered in day old milk. Make it through the night. Then make your decision.
• there is no right or wrong way to feed your baby as long as you feed them.

Skin to skin is a miracle worker

Good luck x

Never used them but cabbage leaves help reduce pain and inflammation if you get mastitis

I thought the cabbage leaves were a myth but my midwife MIL says they really help! I have mastitis right now (may it never afflict you!) so I’m sending my husband to the co-op for cabbage leaves tomorrow...

Nipple shields. I only used them for 2 weeks but they were very much needed while the cracked skin healed.

I am really glad someone told me the women produce widely varied amount of milk. I produced the perfect amount for ds1 - I never leaked, struggled to express, etc. My friend produced copious amounts. She could feed on one side and then 'collect' the milk from the other side. She had to wear loads of breast pads and change them frequently. She donated milk to the hospital without any real effort.

Both of these and everything in between is completely normal!

[quote LouJ85]@Squish3

Thank you! Gosh that sounds painful 😫
I'll have a look at the compress things you mentioned too. ☺️[/quote]
Definitely painful @LouJ85 but probably avoidable had I pushed for more support. Push for as much BF support as you can in hospital - me and DS unfortunately slipped through the cracks I think and left the hospital having not had any help whatsoever despite asking for it lots. This was during peak covid so we were pretty much just left in a room to fend for ourselves! It would have made the world of difference to us I think 😓 poor latch the first couple of weeks hence the blisters but we got there in the end 😊 sadly our BF journey came to and end at 3 months for other reasons and I’m still gutted 😢 as much as it was tiring, I loved snuggly night feeds! But he’s happy and fed and we managed 3 months so I’m trying not to give myself too much of a hard time over it 😓

I just put no pressure on myself as to how she was to be fed, if breast feeding worked for us both then we would do that, if it was bottle I would have gone with that! I really think by having no concrete expectation it really help, hope it all goes well! X