- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Natural Birth
ilovehouses
member
Those of you with natural child-births under your belt - breastfeeding question..
ilovehouses
member
Did you find breastfeeding pretty easy, or did you have the issues that seem to be the norm?
It just seems so odd to me that with breastfeeding being the obvious natural way to feed your child, that nature would make it so difficult.
I'm referring to latching issues, nipple soreness, cracked/bleeding nipples, etc.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Those of you with natural child-births under your belt - breastfeeding question..
Breastfeeding has been really simple for me, thank goodness. I've been nursing a total of 39 months out of the last five years and have never once had a clogged duct or thrush or any of the other common problems. ::knocks on wood::
With #1 latching was pretty excruciating for the first week or so, but only because my nipples needed to be "toughened up". I never experienced that pain with my subsequent children. The pain came from blisters mainly, but once they were gone everything went well.
Nursing just feels normal to me. I'm still nursing DD once a day in the morning right now. It's just such an easy way to calm a baby (no pacifier needed) and you get to feed them without any mess to clean-up afterwards.
The only annoying part of nursing is the leaking. I have a lot of milk, so I tend to leak often and when I nurse on one side the milk just pours on the other side. Nursing pads are my best friend for the first six months.
Friends tell me I'm a freak of nature because I enjoy breastfeeding and haven't had any issues. Most have had to deal with thrush or mastitis at least once. I don't wear underwires, change my nursing pads and bras faithfully, and take probiotics to avoid thrush. I guess I'm just lucky.
big brother 5/30/10 * cp 4/27/12 * little sister 2/25/13
I had some pain on latching for the first 3 weeks, but no nipple damage and it improved on its own with time. Overall, we've had a really easy time breastfeeding. My birth was med-free and pretty smooth as well.
A lot of the problems with breastfeeding are caused by the death of breastfeeding in our culture. People haven't seen it their whole life. They aren't surrounded by people that know how to fix common issues and help. They don't have access to generations of knowledge. Instead... they have formula marketing and people telling them to just quit. Nature didn't get difficult, we dropped the ball when formula was said to be "better".
Natural Birth Board FAQs
Cloth Diaper Review Sheet
Amen sister friend.
I had an awful time with DD1 and a bad latch, and I entirely blame the midwife at the birth centre who when I complained of pain said, "well it will hurt, you just need to toughen up." So I pushed through for a day and a half.
By the time I spoke to another midwife about the pain my nipples were shredded and it took about 3 weeks to consistently get a good latch (it was hard to tell if the pain was a bad latch or just injured nipples) and for my nips to heal.
With DD2 it was easy. I knew the importance of a good latch, and I asked everyone I saw (honestly I would have asked the maintenance man if I'd had half the chance) to watch LO latch and for tips and pointers on positioning etc. I got some good advice and different tips from different perspectives.
My nips were a bit tender for a day or two and then we were golden.
If you get the latch right it's a doddle!
Elizabeth 5yrs old Jane 3yrs old
It was easy at first, but it became really physically and mentally draining during the first couple weeks. I was already in a lot of pain when we discovered that I had and oversupply and that was making DD pinch my nipple to slow the flow down.
That created more pain for me and bruised my nipples. I thought I had thrush because of the purple nipples and I was having a lot of pain from my breast to armpit and down to my arm. Turns out it wasn't thrush. I have a form of vasospasm caused by the pinching.
Now 10 weeks in, BF has gotten so much better and the pain is going away.
I've had 3 natural births now, and various experiences with BFing.
With DS1: he would simply scream when I tried to feed him. Sounds weird but it's true. The MWs and nurses all said my breasts/nipples/hold/etc were fine, but DS wouldnt even try to latch. When we were in the birth center I had to hand express colostrum and feed it to him with a dropper, and we had to buy a pump before we were released, b/c by that time DS1 had still not latched. I kept trying to BF, including with a nipple shield, and only had mild success and a LOT of stress and worry. In the end I switched to formula as pumping wasn't going well enough to do full time.
With DD: thankfully, BFing went really well right from the start. I actually had zero latching issues, pain, infection, etc. It was great! But then, at her 6 month check up I learned that she had actually lost weight between 4 and 6 months. She was so small she was off that charts, so clearly my supply wasn't great. After a few weeks of trying to increase my supply with meds and frequent electric pumping, it wasn't improving. So we switched to formula.
WithDS2: BFing so far is going really well. He has a great latch and my supply seems good so far. I did have latching pain in the first couple of weeks that was quite painful but eased as he nursed. I also had a small bout of mastitis in the first couple weeks, but that passed quickly too. Since then it's been good!
BFing is natural, yes. But remember that 'natural' isn't synonymous with 'easy'.
I agree with token that a lot of breastfeeding difficulties are sociocultural, not biological, in origin. When formula became the norm, a lot of breastfeeding knowledge was lost. The chains of women pssing down experiential knowledge were broken. It is hard to make a living while breastfeeding in our society--through most of human history, women made a living through gathering and horticulture, which were much more compatible with breastfeeding. Traditionally, women were able to rest and have other village women help them during the postpartum period, but now most new mothers are either mostly alone or going back to work, and we have no paid maternity leave policy in the US. Etc.
Also, nature didn't have to make breastfeeding easy. It just had to make it workmost of the time. Before the invention of formula and modern sanitation, there were no other options (wealthy women with wet nurses nonwithstanding). So even if you had cracked nipples, what could you do? Not breastfeeding was basically a death sentence for infants so I'm guessing a lot of women had to suck it up and deal with it if they wanted their baby to live. Thankfully we have more options now.
I had a vaginal child birth. I did have a few problems with latch. Think about all the things that we do that require learning. Very few of them are easy. (Gosh! You could make the same argument about labor and delivery! If this was how we were supposed to do things, why is it so difficult?) Both mama and baby have to learn how to breastfeed.
I actually think that process of learning together is somewhat of a bonding process in and of itself. The baby starts to get the picture that as long as he keeps trying, his mother will keep trying. It's honestly a scene that will be repeated over and over and over again in parenting. Something tough comes up that is difficult for baby. They fail at it. The mother does her best to help or understand but doesn't completely. They just keep working together until they can do whatever it is that baby needs to do. It happens with solid foods, with walking, with communication, with blocks, with homework, with boyfriends and girlfriends, with learning to drive... It all starts with just trying to figure out the basics with each other. Maybe I've over thought it. But the things I learned from learning to breastfeed are things I've applied to other aspects of parenting.
I had the worst time with breast feeding. LO had latch issues, didn't gain weight, lazy eater, cracked nipples, mastitis, etc. it was seriously an if it could go wrong it went wrong situation. Finally after 2 months of a nipple shield, supplementing with formula and constant help from my MW, an IBCLC, a breast feeding support group and my local LLL chapter, we got everything on track. LO is 16 months and still feeding like a champ. So, in answer to your question, no, natural birth did not make breast feeding any easier for me.
I think that in some circles there has been sort of a rush to overcorrect the cultural shift to formula and we end up with a lot of advocacy and cheerleading and too little information. I am one of the few women whose bodies did not produce milk in anywhere near the quantity that my son needed. I had a very hard time finding anyone who would take me seriously - no one offered me formula until he was 3 weeks old and back down to his birth weight. We saw 4 different lactation consultants - his latch was perfect and he was nursing for hours at a time. I was told over and over again that there is no such thing as a woman who can't produce milk. SO many of my mom friends told me that breastfeeding was easy once you get through the first few weeks. Fortunately, that's true for many women, but for those who have trouble, it can be difficult to find information and support beyond "You can do it! Hang in there!"
This is based on my own bias and experience, but I always cringe a little when I see women telling FTM's that breastfeeding is easy. I hope it IS easy for you, OP, but just in case, I would suggest that you line up your support ahead of time, give it your best shot, and keep an open mind.
TTC #2 since July 2010
March 2012 IVF (MDL Protocol) Started stims 3/3; ER 3/11 (9R, 8M, 7F) ET 3/16 (5dt of 2 blasts graded 3AB and 3BA, 3 frosties(!!) Beta 3/26 = 386; Beta 3/28 = 827; u/s 4/11 says TWINS! Boy/Girl Twins delivered at 36 weeks 6 days
Both girls were natural birth and I'd say it went well, with both of them learning to latch quickly and gaining weight well.
DD#1 had a shallow latch that corrected when her mouth grew bigger in a couple weeks/months. But I was pretty bruised until then.
DD#2 was larger and had a deep latch right away, so only a few days of mild soreness. It might have helped that I'd only weaned 6 months before as well...they were still "toughened up" maybe?
so yeah...some of it is know-how, some of it is just blind luck imo.
I've had a pretty easy go of it, BFing wise, but yeah, it hurt like hell for those first two weeks. After that it got a lot easier very quickly. At about day ten, I was ready to quit but I stuck with it and I'm glad I did.
extremely difficult w/ds (didnt realize I had flat nips../)
very easy w/dd
I agree with this. BFing isn't necessarily intuitive. If you've never seen someone BF before or don't know anyone IRL to ask what the heck to do about a painful latch or clogged duct, it can be easy to doubt you're "doing it right" and give up. I credit the fact that I had a few close friends who had BFd before me with the fact that I kept going.
most people I know had some issue or another, varying degrees of difficulty.
BF has not been easy for us but my daughter is a late term preemie and my supply sucks donkey balls. TBD whether it is going to work out or not but we are still working at it, but have to supplement with formula
Gretchen Evie, born 7/8/2012 at 35w5d
We had a med free birth and were able to breastfeed immediately. I actually got some "Ooohs and Ahhhhhs" from the nurses working because we started side nursing that first night. (Apparently, that's like 400 level) I will say that my DD was born at 41 weeks, so she was well equipped to feed.
That being said, I had a colicky kid with dairy and soy allergies. I was also a working mom, so nursing still wasn't without its challenges. I had to totally change my diet, pump several times a day, and cluster feeding is enough to make you pull your hair out.
I nursed for 15 months. It was hard work, but totally worth it.
We had latch issues in the beginning. At times we gave her drops of breastmilk from a spoon to get her to calm down. DH would put milk on his finger to try and get her sucking properly. It was all extremely frusting. DD was born at 38w 4d, so that might have been part of the reason why she had latching issues. We got it eventually, but I was sore for weeks and there were numerous visits with a LC.
I admit there was at least one time where I thought trying to breastfeed was harder than giving birth without pain meds. Much more frustrating at times because at least with labor/delivery there is a definite end point. With breastfeeding there might be a small break, but LO will always need to eat.
I knew breastfeeding could be difficult, but I did not really expect it to be that difficult. DH was completely unprepared for how hard it would be. I am surprised at how much patience I had though.
If we have another I hope it goes more smoothly.