Can I breastfeed?

[itchyandscratchy1]

Hello,
I am 36 weeks pregnant. Apart from in the early weeks, my breasts don't seem to have changed much. They haven't ached or become tender/painful/swollen...
is this a bad sign that I may have difficulty breastfeeding or producing milk?
People talk about hand expressing colostrum from 36 weeks.. but I can't see any sign of me being able to do this.
Let me know your thoughts! Tia

Yes you can still breast feed. Some people don’t ever leak milk and it’s common to not be able to express (it requires an emotional stimulus too) and people still successfully breast feed their baby.

Absolutely.

I didn’t manage to express colostrum before birth and my 6 month old is EBF.

My boobs got a little bigger during pregnancy but not massively. Now however...

Don’t right it off. The number of women who don’t produce milk is vanishingly small.

Urgh, write it off.
Sorry just awake and DS was up 6 times last night!

My boobs got massive when I was pregnant and were extremely sore. I didn't have any milk. It didn't come in. As soon as baby arrived the pain went, and the midwifes were scratching their heads as to why I didn't have anything, but I knew it would probably happen as very few women in my family could produce any milk.

My boobs didn’t grow while I was pregnant, I tried hand expressing every time I had a shower from 36 weeks and finally managed a tiny bit two days before my LO was born (via emcs) and I am still breastfeeding 14 months later. He had a horrid tongue tie and the first week was hard until that was snipped, but it did get easier and by week 4 we were pros.
One great bit of advice I got was to give it 6 weeks and see how you feel after that, by then we were not looking back and have carried on. Oh and follow some bf pages on Facebook for advice!
Good luck, it’s worth it in my opinion.

I didn't hand express a single drop before giving birth and didn't have massive boobs either, yet here I am breastfeeding my 1 year old.

Good luck with breastfeeding op, have you tried searching 'Emily Norris breastfeeding tips' on YouTube? Lots of great advice.

I’ve never leaked.

I was able to express bits of colostrum but that required squeezing it out (don’t do this until you are term).

Even when my milk came in (and I have EBF 2 kids no problem) I’ve never needed breast pads or even to wear a bra in bed.

My breasts never grew, apart from when engorged, but that's more of a firmness than physically bigger.

I've never leaked.

I was able to express colostrum before both births and produce plenty of milk for my dc.

Expressing colostrum the first time was slow going, a tiny drop at a time, second time I was practiced as I exclusively hand expressed for ds until 6 months (I never responded to a pump so had to hand express each feed) and it was squirting out which made life easier. Basically it comes down to practice and what your body responds to.

Yes you can ! In my first pregnancy my nipples And breasts stayed completely the same, I went to 40 weeks and never once leaked anything until she was born and colostrum came straight away. However this pregnancy my nipples have been sore, they're massive and I've been leaking since 26 weeks, I'm 32 now, every woman and pregnancy is different. I'm sure you'll have no problem producing milk when your baby arrives. X

Thank you everyone, this has given me lots of peace of mind :)
@firstimemamma I'll check out that YouTube channel!