breastfeeding

[barbben]

anyone did any preparation for it? i really want to breastfeed after my birth and i'm not sure if i need to do anything from now...
thanks

[MrsHoarder]

That's a bf bra. I meant avoid the likes of hot milk and get the very stretchy one.

[SuffolkNYoni]

Oh you can you use any kind of baby petroleum jelly or aqueous cream instead of the vastly over priced nipple creams. The main thing is keeping the nipple area soft, supple and, if damaged, moist to aid healing.

[MarianaTrench]

Bravado Body Silk bras are fabulously comfy in my experience. Far better than Hot Milk.

It really hurt me for about 4 weeks as my DD had a small mouth. I persevered with the help of Lansinoh (nothing else worked so I thought it worth the cash) and after that it was easy and I did it for a year.

[MrsJLS85]

I would have given up breastfeeding my newborn if it weren't for 2 things: 1) Excellent support from Mw's and HV's, and 2) Lansinoh lanolin cream.
So I would find out now what kind of support you'll be getting after the birth ie will you be getting regular visits from the midwives or health visitors who can watch your latch and answer all your questions? And get yourself a bottle of that nipple cream, it will save you when you start getting dry cracked nipples.

[DaveMccave]

I highly recommend watching some videos on YouTube on how to latch baby on. It didn't occur to me with my first that you didn't just hold them to your breast willy nilly, and I wish I'd known. I ended up with very cracked bleeding nipples in the early weeks, and even though I went on to feed for over a year I've still been watching videos this time just to remind myself.

It would also be helpful to get a list of resources you canrefer to, eg phone numbers for breast feeding peer supporters or breast feeding councilmen, note the times and addresses for breast feeding drop in groups, and websites such as kellymom.com.

Do some reading on kellymom.com now, or get a book out the library too. There's so much to learn about Breastfeeding and unfortunately a lot learn too late simple things like your milk can take a week to come in (but baby won't need supplementing, they have colostrum) that giving expressed bottles can cause them to refuse the breast, that feeds can take forever, cluster feeding, growth spurt times etc. kellymom is great for all this.

[barbben]

thank you so much. so much useful info.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

I know lanisoh cream works for many people as do bfing pillows but please don't feel you need to buy either to successfully bf. I've bf 2 without either. I'm in the get it when you need it camp