The Breast Feeding Support Thread

My boy was also a bit of a hoover. When you insert your finger into the corner of the baby's mouth, make sure it goes all the way into the mouth, separating the top gum from the bottom and fully breaking the suction before you pull your nipple out. Otherwise you can end up damaging the nipple. If there is resistance as you withdraw the nipple, the suction hasn't been broken fully - then the chin release described by Thaedydal works great.

Mu daugther was a vacuum suction baby and nurses said she has great latch, great feeder etc but after 2 weeks I was in agony. No one could see a problem and so I thought there wasn't one - just me being a wimpy new mum.

By week 4 I had been to my doctor who did not even look at me, just diagnosed me as a stressed mum and offered bottles an answer - I had both mastitis and thrush by now - another GP diagnosed and helped this but still no solutions . At week 5 I found someone who recomended the rugby ball hold! It changed literally overnight - my problem was simply the weight of my breast tissue pulling downwards with the addition of babies mouth causing suction was causing trauma.
Breastfeeding both my girls til 18 months & it wasn't all sweet and roses but glad I did it.

ebmma wrote: »

Lansinoh is great but any kind of limiting time at the breast in early days seems to be a horrible idea. both LLL and Cuidiu are also against it and I'll believe them over a single midwife..

One was telling me to do 20 min per breast. just weird.

I know, I can't imagine how it would work, but when my baby was born he basically latched on permanently for the first 4 days, even slept while latched on. I hadn't a clue about how to break a latch or anything at that point, but I will try and take a bit more control of it next time. I don't believe in any kind of strict time limits or schedules, but maybe there's no harm in putting a bit of definition between the start and end of feeds? If 24/7 is a bit extreme, 5 mins per hour is the other end of that scale. I'll be aiming for something in between.

ani_mal wrote: »

also ladies I need to ask.
Ladiesembarrassing question but need to find out. Im 5 wks after birth thru c-section. my hd and I tried to have sex but I can't.
it seems like I got tighter then I was and it is impossible for any penetration. It hurts like hell (apart from dryness).
is this normal, does this change with time?

I couldn't do the deed until about 2 weeks after I gave up brest feeding! Yes it was a long dry spell for my husband but it was just too bloody painful! I ended up going to see a gynaecologist as I was sure there had been a tear down there that hadn't healed properly, but there was nothing physically wrong in that sense. Even with lots of KY and foreplay, hanky panky was a big no no!

I don't know if its to do with hormones, or the tiredness, or just how unsexy you feel when your boobs become udders, or a combination of all of these factors!

Don't force yourself into resuming 'relations' before your body is ready, you'll only stress yourself out and start thinking there is something wrong when there probably isn't. 5 weeks after giving birth is very soon anyway, still alot of healing to do down there! And anyway, there are plenty of ways to be intimate without doing yourself a mischief

First off, they recommend not resuming sexual intercourse til after your 6-week check up. Secondly, a new mother's best friend is the old KY-jelly, or as much (good) foreplay as you can handle. Without wanting to be too explicit or crude, if you ain't wet, it WILL hurt.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=155336247828160

This event might be of interest to people in the Cork area.

Cat Melodeon wrote: »

Meant to recommend a nursing bra too. I also got one from the Anita range - very soft, stretchy but still supportive. Make sure that whatever one you buy doesn't have an underwire, especially if you are larger breasted as the wire can restrict milk flow and lead to blocked ducts. I got mine from the site below:
http://www.nursingbra-shop.co.uk

The irish midwives are very big on the old dont use an underwired bra when pregant or nursing, not such a big deal elsewhere, my sis in UK was never advised of this.
I am huge (G/H cup) and if i wear anything that is not underwired i am in pain.
I ended up wearing a soft cup nursing bra AND a secret support vest when i was attempting to go without underwire.
BUT now i have found these lovely people http://www.change.com/view.php?template=collection_view&page_id=4&menu_id=63
Have not tried their nursing bras yet, but their other ones are so comfy, I am looking forward to it! they are in santry and limerick here

Poor you - know how worrying it is. Try increasing your expressing to every 2 hours and offer her your boob too. Lie down beside her and encourgae her to latch. Best of luck

I feel for you and the difficulties you are having. I know when I started the amount of milk I was producing was very small, but you must remember that a new baby's tummy is about the size of a marble and cannot hold much anyway. As time goes by you produce more and they in turn can take in more.
I would recommend that you continue to try to get the baby to latch on as it is the easiest way.
The other point to remember is that the baby will naturally encourage your let-down reflex, this is more difficult to do when expressing. I know I hadn't expressed in nearly 2 months, and recenly started again so I would have some milk to mix with baby rice (starting to wean) and I found I could barely get anything though when she feeds herself, she'll get her full share anytime.
The books say when expressing you should look at your baby (or a pic of) and think of them while relaxing as much as possible to encourage the letdown reflex. Perhaps you should get hold of a book on the topic, I know they gave me a lot of confidence when I was starting out.
Hope that is of some help :rolleyes:

Okay, first of all yes, most of this is completely normal so take a deep breath and try to lose some of the stress. The bits that are normal for a breastfed baby are:

->10% weight loss, completely and utterly normal. Your milk doesn't come in until around day 4 or 5, there is no way your baby can put on weight before this time. 15% is more worrying, but make sure that the PHN/GP is using the correct WHO charts for breastfed babies, as the pattern of weight gain is different to that of formula fed babies.

->sometimes seeming content and sometimes not. This could be due to a number of factors, hunger being the most important one, wind being another likely one.

Hunger: Is she getting enough hindmilk? When you feed her first, you release the thirst-quenching foremilk - this is thin and kind of bluish in colour. After a few minutes, depending on your let-down and flow, this will begin to thicken. This is the much richer hindmilk and is what really sates them and fattens them up. If you are switching breasts too soon, she might not be getting enough hindmilk and this could explain why she isn't putting on enough weight and why she sometimes doesn't seem satisfied. If her dirty nappies are a bit greenish, it's a good indication that you're not leaving her on long enough before switching her. It's hard to tell when to switch, but really let her drain the first breast before moving on to the second.

Wind: Do you wind her half-way through and at the end? When she's finished, if you lay her on your tummy for a snooze and rub her back, it's very effective for getting wind up gently.

I am concerned that you are supplementing. As you probably know, this will affect your supply. I understand that you are very worried and I wouldn't want to contradict anything that any medical professional has told you (you haven't said what they advised at the second visit), but the best way to make sure a newborn breastfed baby isn't hungry is to feed for longer and more often. This will ensure you have a plentiful supply. When my lad was first born, we were feeding every hour and a half for the first three weeks. I thought it would never end, but he thrived and the feeds soon began to space themselves out.

If your PHN is telling you to supplement so early on in the game, I would be worried that s/he is not fully trained in breastfeeding support. They would do much better to refer you to a lactation consultant than taking the easy route of telling you to use formula. Contact La Leche League - they are not the crazy lactivists people make them out to be and will give you solid advice and possibly arrange to come and help you out. There is also an Irish website called the breast way - there are amazing resources on there, including a forum moderated by midwives and a GP trained as a lactation consultant.

You absolutely don't need to feel guilty, you are doing everything you can with the support you are getting. The helplessness thing is harder, I think every new mum goes through that (whether breastfeeding or not) and until you build up confidence that what you are doing is right, you will have bad days. Eventually the bad days shrink into hours and minutes until you hardly notice them at all.

The stress will affect your let down to, so try to relax as much as you can before each feed. There's no harm at all in the odd glass of beer to help loosen things up - my own personal favourite is a glass of prosecco before the bedtime feed, makes verything fuzzy and warm! Whatever about the alcohol, make sure you're getting plenty of fluids and eating well - a bowl of porridge for breakfast works wonders, as does fennel tea.

If you can access help from LLL or a consultant, get them to show you how to feed lying down, or just look it up online. It's a great way of resting while you feed and is much more comfortable than sitting if you've had 'work done' down below. I had an enormous amount of stitches and couldn't have continued breastfeeding without knowing how to do it lying down.

Here are some resources that might help you:

How to make sure your baby is getting enough hindmilk:
http://www.howcast.com/videos/356301-How-To-Make-Sure-Your-Baby-Gets-Enough-Hindmilk

The Breastway Ireland:
http://www.thebreastway.com/

La Leche League Ireland:
http://www.lalecheleagueireland.com/

Breastfeeding lying down:
http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/laydown.html

I hope these help. You're doing the right thing by going back to the clinic and getting all the tests done. Make sure though that they give you the correct support. Ask them about a consultant referral and for the contact details of the local breastfeeding support group. If there isn't one, ask them about La Leche League. If you show that you really want to breast feed, they will generally give you all the help they can. My PHN wasn't great, but said later that they are just terrified of promoting breastfeeding too much as some parents are so sensitive about it. Post-partum is a very emotional place to be, but if you don't push this a little bit now and force them to give you more support, you may find it all a bit too much. If you get over this tricky period here, you'll be flying it in no time. But if they don't help you enough, don't beat yourself up over it. You've done brilliantly this far. Good luck, let us know how it goes.