I barely fed my daughter the first 48 hours of her life.
Our first feed was amazing. I had just given birth in my lounge room, something Iâd been dreaming of my whole pregnancy!
And my sweet little girl latched on straight away.
She suckled beautifully and fed for more than an hour after the birth.
But the next day, I just couldnât get her to latch properly!
All I could bare was a few minutes of sucking before I gave up and rocked her off to sleep.
(Eventually, I came across ‘laid back nursing’ and that worked really well for us because of my strong let-down coupled with her latch issues.)
During my pregnancy, I didnât realise it could be so difficult to establish breastfeeding.
So today I want to share…
7 tips for establishing breastfeeding
tips that I learnt the hard way. Some of them are things I did, but many of them are things I wish I had done!
During Pregnancy
Tip #1: Create a list of breastfeeding contacts
One thing that surprised me was that, during those first difficult days, I didnât think to call a few of my friends.
I had two friends in particular, one who had overcome lots of breastfeeding issues, and another who had fed multiple children over the last 7 years. But I didnât think to call them.
Thatâs why I recommend creating a list of contacts during your pregnancy, because if you are facing breastfeeding difficulties itâs really hard to think clearly (particularly with all the postpartum hormones playing havoc on your emotions!)
My list includedâŚ
- The Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA), the equivalent of La Leche League in Australia
- A local International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). Technically, anyone can call themselves a lactation consultant, so itâs important you find out what qualifications they actually have!
- Any friends or family who will be particularly supportive. Like I said, a few of the people that made it on to my list were friends who had overcome breastfeeding issues, and just women who had breastfed themselves and knew how important it was to me.
Tip #2: Make sure your partnerâs on board
My husband has been my number one supporter throughout my entire breastfeeding journey.
Now, itâd be easy to just assume that he was always on board, but he wasnât.
Sure, he was happy for me to breastfeed. But as I talked to him about breastfeeding, and in particular, breastmilk, he really grew passionate about helping my daughter and I succeed.
He was absolutely amazed at whatâs in breastmilk and he was truly astonished by all the health benefits to our baby.
Weâve often joked that if breastmilk was bottled up and sold in health food stores with all the proven health benefits printed on the label, people would happily pay lots of money to buy it! The problem is⌠breastmilk comes from breasts. And apparently thereâs something disgusting about that đ
I wouldn’t recommend a lecture, but just as you read interesting things about breastfeeding and breastmilk, share them with your partner. Just one amazing fact here and there will help him understand why breastfeeding is important to you.
Tip #3: Buy a pump and some sterile syringes
Okay, so Iâm hesitant to say this is something you âmustâ do.
I was adamant that my daughter wouldnât be getting any bottles, mostly because we were relying on breastfeeding for natural child spacing.
So I didnât have a pump or any other supplies.
The problem was, because my nipples were in excruciating pain, I really wished I had a pump on hand to express a little bit of colostrum to give it to Emelia with a syringe (so we wouldnât have further latch issues by introducing a bottle!)
After the Birth
Tip #4: Lots of Skin-to-skin time
Thereâs lots of research promoting the benefits of skin-to-skin contactâŚ.
It’s good for full-term babies, it’s good for prem babies (often called Kangaroo Care) and, it’s good for mothers.
Being in direct skin-to-skin contact helps babies to regulate their heart rate, breathing and temperature.
And it also helps to calm you both down when feeding is difficult.
Tip #5: Avoid Schedules!
Breastfeeding is a supply and demand relationship. Basically, your milk supply will match how much your baby âdemandsâ.
How does your body know how much milk your baby needs? By feeding your baby. Every time your little one nurses, it stimulates your nipples and tells your body to make more milk.
So nurse your baby when theyâre hungry, not based on some culturally acceptable schedule.
Tip #6: Get the right kind of help
Youâll hear many people say, âask for help. Take whatever help you can get with the babyâ.
But I disagree⌠you need to get the right kind of help!
For me, this meant that my mum washed my clothes while I nursed my baby.
My sister vacuumed my floor while I nursed my baby.
And my sister also spent hours pacing the hallway, late into the night, settling my baby for me when all Emelia wanted was to be held and I needed to sleep.
But what help do lots of people offer?
Theyâll hold the baby while you do the washing. Or theyâll watch the baby sleep while you go to the grocery store.
Now, if you really want to get out of the house, then maybe thatâs the type of help you want!
But in the very early days, when you are trying to establish a good milk supply, you need the people around you to help out in practical ways and allow you to spend time nursing your baby.
Tip #7: Seek help!
Finally, when you need help, get it.
Some people seem to think that breastfeeding should just âcome naturallyâ to mothers.
But for many, it doesnât. Unfortunately, we live in a culture where people rarely see breastfeeding before their own child is breastfeeding, so we actually have very little experience with breastfeeding before we do it ourselves!
So donât stay quite. Donât tell yourself you should just be able to figure it out.
Give yourself permission to say that youâre struggling, and ask for the help that you need.
This might come in the form of a lactation consultant.
But it might simply mean finding the right information online.
When I faced a range of issues (mastitis, nipple thrush and oversupply), I went online to find potential solutions.
In the coming weeks, Iâll be writing about these different issues and the key âtips and tricksâ I learnt to deal with each situation.
But, I want to include a quick list of reputable websites to check out if you need specific breastfeeding advice:
- KellyMom:Â A really great website, this is my number one go to website for breastfeeding! All the articles are based on research, but written clearly for any mom to understand. They provide information for both mainstream treatments as well as natural alternatives that actually work.
- The Australian Breastfeeding Association: The ABA website is full of accurate, up-to-date information on breastfeeding.
Letâs Recap
My 7 tips for early breastfeeding success areâŚ
- Create a list of breastfeeding contacts
- Make sure your partnerâs on board with breastfeeding
- Buy a pump and sterile syringes
- Lots of skin-to-skin contact
- Avoid schedules
- Get the right kind of help
- Seek help when you need it
I hope this helps get you off to a great start with your precious little baby, and I wish you the best for the early days of feeding!
Blessings,
Lizzie
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