Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

1. Painful latch. For the first few days, I winced as the baby latched on. I checked for a good latch, and everything seemed okay. I could tell she was transferring milk well (jaw movement, swallowing, and subsequent wet and dirty diaper output). The pain also lessened after the initial latch, and improved when the transitional milk started coming in.

I used expressed breast milk to heal the one crack that appeared on my left nipple. I would have used Lansinoh but it never got that bad.

2. Painful letdown. Unfortunately, when the milk came in there was an overabundant supply. While I suppose I would rather deal with oversupply than low supply, it comes with its own set of complications. One of them is an intensified feeling of pins and needles as the milk lets down. It’s temporary and fleeting and I can deal with it (now being familiar with the sensation). I also recall that this feeling goes away when my milk supply regulates in a couple of months.

3. Painful engorgement. When my second child was born, I didn’t have to deal with engorgement because my first child was tandem nursing and she quite efficiently drained my breasts anytime I started to feel over-full. This time I am not tandem nursing, and I have had to hand express when I start to get engorged. Then I ice my breasts to reduce inflammation and slow milk production. I know some women swear by cold cabbage leaf compresses, but they never worked for me.

I have also been block nursing — nursing on one side per nursing session. That helps drain each breast fully, ensures that my nursling does not develop green stools, and lowers milk production overall.

4. Painful plugged ducts. When I spiked a 102.5 degree fever on day five after the birth, and I started to feel cramping and back pain much like labor, that was too much for my body to handle. In the kick-you-when-you’re-down tradition of breast infections, I developed a plugged duct that eventually became red and inflamed. I rested, got plenty of fluids, and nursed, nursed, nursed on that side. I also tried a couple of remedies that I think help — but I am not a doctor and I have no proof these work at all. File them under “can’t hurt, might help.” I took cranberry supplements (I figure if they help fight the bad bacteria that cause bladder infections, they might do the same for breast infections) and drank diluted grapefruit seed extract. All I know is, the next day the red and inflamed spot was gone.

It’s day 8 as I write this, and I feel good. Everything is under control again. Perhaps the benefit of all that breastfeeding experience is that I know that with time, any problems do resolve, and perseverance is rewarded many times over with a successful nursing relationship.

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

Did you use nipple shields? Were they helpful or a hindrance? How did you get the proper size? Did you try the Medela brand and would you use it again? Were you able to wean from the nipple shields to the breast?

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

“I knew I would breastfeed. When my oldest was born, I didn’t take any classes or even read all that much. I assumed it would come naturally to me like it had to the few friends of mine who’d already had kids. It didn’t. It was painful, I bled, I scabbed, it was awful. The help that I tried to get was not helpful. The advice was just to keep putting the baby on, no matter what, every 2-2.5 hours. I would try to feed her, then would dread and fear every minute that counted down to the next feeding time. I was starting to resent the time spent trying, and I didn’t want to start turning that resentment toward the baby. I only lasted 2 weeks. I felt guilty for 2 years. I truly felt like a failure, especially when friends who delivered after me just plopped their babies on and succeeded. Ugh.

When I got pregnant with my second, I knew I wanted to try again. I read Dr. William Sears’s The Breastfeeding Book until I had the whole process memorized. Every position, every angle, every detail, every problem shooting scenario. I also told myself that I would not feel guilty if it didn’t work. My daughter was raised on formula, and is healthy, smart, and wonderfully well. There was no reason to feel guilty.

I succeeded with both of my boys. One nursed for 7 months, the other for 6 months. To be honest, though, neither of them nursed easily. One of my closest friends had all three of her babies nurse just perfectly naturally. Mine both took lots of work and training to get it all to happen. It was worth it, but it wasn’t easy.

I often have other mothers-to-be ask me my thoughts on it all. I tell them that, if they have any touch of a desire to nurse, to give it everything they’ve got. It would be worse to be talked out of it and always wonder what the experience would have been like. So, give it your best. But if it doesn’t work for them, that there is nothing wrong with a baby raised on formula. I have one, and she’s just as awesome as the other two. And NOT to feel guilty. No one benefits from that.”

Kerri writes several blogs: My Name Is Mommy, Play Library and The 80s Club.

If you’re interested in submitting your breastfeeding story, click here.

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3