You’re welcome! I’m glad I can help!
One of my close friends couldn’t breastfeed very long either, and that made her upset. Not every woman can produce enough milk to keep up with baby’s eating, either. There are things you can try such as pumping frequently in between, supposedly there are lactation cookies but I never tried them.
If you latch the baby correctly, you’ll feel pressure. But if you feel pain or discomfort, they are probably not latched or sucking right. You can slide your finger inside the corner of the baby’s mouth to break the suction, and try again. Right after having the baby, especially if it’s your first one, it’s common to have sore nipples because it’s not used to the constant feeding/being exposed. Making sure the baby is latched right, along with caring for your nipples plays a big role in other pain/discomfort. And it’s extremely important to be educated properly on how to breastfeed, and have a knowledgeable nurse help you.
Lengthy story to elaborate
My daughter, my first child, was the biggest struggle with breastfeeding. I didn’t know what I was doing, and the lactation consultant “helping” me was a young woman who had no experience breastfeeding or even raising her own child. I was not taught the correct latching technique, so after a couple weeks or so of pain, it started going south very quickly.
My nipples became increasingly sore. Then they started cracking. Then they both split open and I was bleeding. No amount of rubbing them with Breastmilk, or letting them get air was helping. I sobbed during feedings. I dreaded them. I wanted to give up so badly because i just couldn’t take the pain anymore. I was probably at my lowest point in that time…I remember one night it was just me snd my dad downstairs and Chloe cried because she was hungry. I looked at my dad, picked up Chloe and started crying as I fed her. He told me to pump into a bottle and give her that, and that he would take me to the hospital to get help from a lactation consultant. So the next day I gave Chloe her first bottle. Thankfully she ate from it, because I couldn’t take another moment of that pain.
We went to the hospital where the (pretty unfriendly) woman heard my story, and gave me a nipple shield to wear to feed Chloe. It still hurt, but the amount of pain deduction just from her not being right on my nipple was a miracle in itself. Then she prescribed me an ointment to help them heal. I spent $50 on a tiny bottle that I only dipped into maybe 6 times before I miraculously healed!
Now, it wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies here. The shields came with a problem of their own. The milk would pool inside and if it shifted, that milk spilled everywhere. It would get under my daughters neck, and if I didn’t clean her well enough it would smell and make her red. I also had to make sure they were cleaned immediately after using every single time. This was a problem if we were out for the day, and I had no real way to wash other than rinse with water. And then she became dependent on the shield. I had a hard time weaning her off of it because it was much easier to access the milk with it. All in all, I just wanted to get her back off the shield ASAP bc it’s so much more convenient to put her right on the breast without worrying about where my shield was.
It took us 5 months to get through it. 5 months of pain, of crying, of struggling together. 5 months until Chloe could breastfeed on me, no shield and no pain. I learned so much during that journey, and applied it to my son, whom breastfed (way more often than Chloe) with no issues, absolutely perfectly and peacefully.
There is a term called a “let down”, which happens when baby is nursing and triggers the milk flow, so they can eat. Even when baby is on one side, both breasts will leak. The let down is pretty uncomfortable, it’s like a sensation of like a prickly feeling wrapping around the entire breast, and then the milk comes. When I’d feel that sensation, I would hold a breast pad (small cotton/fabric circle to help control leaking through clothes) to my other breast to prevent milk from coming out. What some women do is attach a pump and bottle, and save that extra milk for bottle feeding the baby at a later time, or freezing it to put in baby cereal when they’re old enough to be spoon fed.
A short story
Sometimes the let down flow comes too fast, and the baby may end up choking or becoming fussy because they can’t eat at the pace they want. Likewise, it may not be fast enough and they may also become fussy. I didn’t have that issue with my daughter, but my son would choke over the milk all the time until my flow slowed down and adjusted to his needs. I had to also help, by pulling him off my breast and waiting until the let down sensation passed and the milk slowed back down.
I would have to do this both times during 1 nursing session. When you nurse a baby, you should put them on both breasts. For example, a baby nurses on the right side, then when they’re done put them on the left side. When they’re hungry later, you put them on the left side first, then the right. The alternating helps to keep both breasts with a (somewhat) even amount of milk, and ensures that both are getting emptied correctly so that enough milk to fill the baby continues to be produced.
Sometimes there would be a let down on both sides, but if not, that’s why it’s important to prevent the milk from coming out of the other breast, so that there’s enough for the baby to eat.
Every doctor I’ve spoke to said it’s okay and not harmful to the baby. It’s such a small amount anyways that, ti my understanding, the baby doesn’t even notice or care. Plus when you’re pregnant they test you for diseases and other things in your body/bloodstream that may harm the baby.
It hurt my arm lol I never got an electric pump because I planned on exclusively breastfeeding, not bottles whatsoever, so I didn’t need one. I just used a small hand pump. The important thing was to keep the breast/nipple moisturized otherwise the pulling sensation could make the nipples more sensitive.
Applying a little bit of Breastmilk onto the nipple is enough to keep it moisturized and heal.