When I was in my 3rd trimester with my first child I decided to go to the breastfeeding class that was offered by the hospital. I figured breastfeeding was going to be pretty easy; just put your breast in the baby’s mouth and that’s it. The class was eye-opening. I had no idea that breastfeeding was so involved.
My sister-in-law was very instrumental in my determination to breastfeed. During my pregnancy she told me it would be very painful but to just give it 6 weeks before deciding whether or not to quit. That stayed in my head.
Right after my daughter was born she was placed on my chest for skin-to-skin contact. A very short time later the pediatrician came in to examine her and she was taken off my chest before she had a chance to nurse. By the time she was given back to me she was already asleep.
During our hospital stay she slept a lot and didn’t nurse much. She wasn’t gaining weight. The nurses said that she needed to nurse more but weren’t very helpful with helping me to breastfeed. One nurse gave me a pump to help stimulate my breasts. Another nurse just gave me a little bottle of formula since my daughter wasn’t getting any nutrition at that point. I gave her the bottle and my eyes filled with tears. I felt like such a failure. 24 hours in and I couldn’t feed my baby. By this time my nipples hurt so badly from all of the failed attempts at nursing. Since my daughter was born on a holiday weekend I never got to meet with a lactation consultant. On the morning we were supposed to go home my baby developed jaundice and was below her birthweight. They almost kept her but they said this happens sometimes with breastfed babies and instructed me to follow up with her pediatrician in a couple of days.
Once we were home I was determined to make this work. I charted her feeding times, number of wet & soiled diapers, color of soiled diapers, etc. My sister-in-law’s advice stayed in the back of my head. “Just give it 6 weeks”. I got on the internet and watched multiple videos of breastfeeding to learn the proper position and how to get a good latch. I figured out what I was doing wrong and I had an idea of how to correct it. The problem was that my nipples were now like raw hamburger meat and it felt like someone had held a blowtorch to them. The nursing pads and lanolin ointment provided little relief.
One moment that day I heard my daughter crying and I knew she was hungry. I just couldn’t bring myself to breastfeed because it was so painful. I decided to pump some milk to make a bottle for her since pumping was much less painful. My mother came upstairs and asked me how I was planning to feed my child and I quietly told her I’d give her a bottle. As I gave my daughter the bottle I just broke down and started bawling. I felt like the biggest failure and that I was a bad mother because I couldn’t nurse my child. My mom rubbed my back and comforted me.
I then called the lactation consultant and she scheduled an appointment with me for the same day. She showed me different positioning techniques and how to hold the baby’s head for an effective latch. She gave me a breast shield to assist with latching and to ease some of the pain. I left her office feeling more confident. “Just give it 6 weeks”.
I alternated between breastfeeding and pumping to give myself a break from the painful latching on process. Each day I noticed that breastfeeding became just a little bit easier and just a little less painful. I was pumping less and nursing more. By the time my daughter was 6 weeks old I had very little pain and the pain was only during the first few seconds. By 8 weeks there was no pain at all. If it wasn’t for my sister-in-law’s advice I probably would’ve have given up.