Breastfeeding – Nothing prepared me for this

I can say that breastfeeding is much more painful than the labour pain.

In my view the labour will end, you will have a bundle of joy in your hands and you will easily forget all the pain. Now you can start enjoying motherhood, but wait… nobody talked about how hard and painful breastfeeding is.

I can only talk about my experience but I did hear the same from other mums about this too. From the first day the pain of the baby latching was unbearable, it was like someone was needling my teats, a strong burn pain that would only go away around 15 minutes after she started feeding because the teat would become numb. But as soon as I would take her out the pain would be back irradiating all the way to my shoulder and back sometimes.

No, I am not trying to scare anyone but to alert that you should also have a Breastfeeding plan and have some tools from the beginning. I added some “supporting tools” slowly so I think I suffered much more than necessary. I am on week 7 of my baby and now I can start to feel some relief so here are somethings you can prepare and do:

-        Use the lactation consultant from the beginning. As I had one in the hospital she helped me to learn more about the “art of breastfeeding”, specially how to correct latch. Which I used the techniques later when I was able to handle the pain in a better way

-        Start from the first day trying to feed, some people even recommended me to start expressing on week 38 so I could already get a hang of it and my milk would be ready for the baby (this I didn’t try but will try with the second baby for sure).

-        Prepare lanolin cream, gel pads and soft bras and take them to the hospital, this way you can start using those props from the first feed, not letting your teats become too hurt.

-        You can also use a silicon teat, but that is for a bit later when you milk flow is good, I wouldn’t use in the beginning as it may be hard for the baby

-        Invest on a good quality breast pump. I have the medela swing which is hands free (has a top that I can wear the machine) and I can take milk from both breasts at once. I tried the Avent for the first 2 weeks and I wouldn’t barely take any milk out. The Medela gives me 90ml in 15 min. The hospital can also rent the Medela medical grade which was great in the hospital.

-        Have some formula ready in case you need to use. (I am still giving around 30% of formula as I don’t have enough milk, which is another issue I had because you can only have enough milk if the baby stimulate it (and because of the pain I wouldn’t let her do it for too long), but slowly my milk is coming back as now let her feed for longer.

My tip is to be mentally ready that the first month as it will hurt, our skin is sensitive and not ready for this, so it needs to be damaged and heal again, this is the only way for breastfeeding to become less painful. But don’t put too much pressure on you, if you can’t do it formulas are very good at the moment and your baby will not be hungry if you can’t breastfeed, just don’t give up while you can as it will for sure be rewarding later.

A sore Mom After 30

#momafter30 #breastfeeding #medela #lactationconsultant #pain