Breastfeeding advice

Lots of midwives will tell you that you basically need to ram your whole breast into baby’s mouth to avoid the dreaded “shallow latch”. This is not true! If you get the positioning right, he’ll just latch on naturally (see video). https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1qQWyx0LI28 Prepare to spend a lot of time breastfeeding in the beginning. Those early days are the hardest so make sure you get comfy, have your water and snacks handy and find a good show to watch. Also, if you are having trouble, go see a board certified lactation consultant. Most midwives and health visitors are not fully trained in this. Don’t do what I did and wait ten weeks and until my baby had dropped to the 9th weight percentile to get help. One in ten babies has a tongue tie and it’s a very quick and easy procedure to have it corrected. My little man’s weight shot up after we got seen. He is now on the 91st percentile and will soon be bigger than me - he’s seven months. 😂

You need to go into it knowing that it’s going to be hard and it’s going to hurt. It will cause cramps at first. Your nipples will be so sore you’ll want to give up. Push through and ALWAYS apply nipple cream. Using silver nipple shields is also a must. Definitely talk to a lactation consultant if you can because it can be trickier than it looks

I agree with Sharon - if you're struggling get advice as soon as possible. There are normally a few breastfeeding support groups you can try, or your midwife/health visitor can help. A piece of advice I wish I had been given is to get a breast pump so if you struggle in the early days, you can use the pump to help with draining your breasts and set up your milk supply. With the breast pump, make sure you get a flange for your nipple size (look at Amazon for kits if your pump doesn't come with multiple sizes) - this will help prevent you getting sore!

Make sure you ask for help and don’t stop asking/asking question until you get help ! I was lucky as on my last day at hospital I got an old school midwife who helped me with my little ones latch and positions etc. I didn’t get on well breastfeeding my first son, she also showed me I did have plenty of milk and he just wasn’t latching on right. I was so ready to give up she even put him on my sore side as my nipples were ripped to shreds and when she helped me it didn’t hurt as bad! We’re now 2 weeks into our journey and he’s put on plenty of weight but If it wasn’t for that one good midwife who had lots of experience plus the support of my partner I would have just give up and just bottle fed (which there’s nothing wrong with that). There’s the national breastfeeding help line who also helped with questions etc that are really great they’re open 24/7. Plenty nipple cream to get you through the first week too!

Im on day 9 and it gets easier every day, first few days were so hard, I wanted to give up but it gets easier and so does their latch and your positioning and confidence. It HURTS that first week but after that is great and such a beautiful way to bond with your baby too! I’ve found the silver nipple shields amazing, doing massage and hand expressing every day in the shower helps too and watched many a YouTube video! Keep going that first week or so and see how you go x

If your nipples get sore, definitely try and fix it ASAP before it gets too bad. I definitely let mine get too bad before making corrections and it's been a struggle continuing through the pain. I was using nipple cream consistently but my issue was the latch wasn't deep enough, and I was letting baby keep nursing even when she had passed out (so 45mins per nipple ish). Now I have been unlatching her when her feeding turns passive, and using silverettes I am starting to heal and it makes everything so much better

It’s all been said! As soon as you can post birth get yourself to a local breastfeeding support session, ask for a tongue tie assessment/referral if it’s suspected (don’t wait, if a midwife looks and says there isn’t one…unless they’re a trained practitioner they do not know! To assess someone will put gloved hands inside baby’s mouth) and keep going to sessions to perfect your technique/latch. Also manage your expectations, in the first few days the cluster feeding is going to be brutal and exhausting but it’s not forever! Watch baby as you feed, get oxytocin going. Be prepared for milk coming in to be VERY emotional, this is also a phase. Get other half to make sure your big water bottle is always full and keep chugging. We had a very obvious anterior tongue tie which was divided last week on the NHS at 4 weeks old. Had we not gone to our local support session weekly from birth we wouldn’t have had such a speedy referral and would have struggled longer.

Google your local NCT xxx