I have moved on again and joined a family two weeks after the birth of their daughter, Ellie. Mum had a terrible time of it and the worst start establishing breastfeeding for a first time mother.
Totally the wrong advice in hospital. Here you can see the painful consequences of leaving a baby on the breast for too long before the milk had come in. Ellie was latched on to the breast and left to comfort suck for hours on empty breasts. Long feeding sessions before the milk has come in will only wreck your nipples, cause pain, soreness, cuts and bleeding. Once the milk comes in the pain and sensitivity will increase. Having already damaged nipples, the midwife's advice was to push on through the pain and keep going.
Amazingly, Ellie's mum did keep going but by expressing and giving the milk via a bottle. When I arrived she was using nipple shields but poor Ellie was struggling to suck through the shield and reach the milk; not effective at all. After a day of latching Ellie on to the breast without nipple shields, mum was so fearful of damaging her nipples and dreading every feed that it just wasn't worth the on-going pain. With expressing and some formula Ellie is now on the bottle and mum is relieved and pain free again.
There is so much pressure on women to breast feed these days but not enough sensible and practical advice on how to do it so, coming up next time…….Establishing Breast Feeding - The Right Advice
Since this post was written Mum has successfully breastfed her second baby using my advise and is now pregnant with Number 3!
Pages that may be useful
Lactation & Breastfeeding Expert
Establishing Breastfeeding and Lactation
My 5 Top Tips For Helping your Newborn Cope with Fast Let Down and Milk Flow
