Lately I've found myself talking to lots of moms-to-be about breastfeeding. And that conversation goes a little like this...
1) Breastfeeding is wonderful!
2) But- just so you're not caught off guard- it can be extremely painful in the beginning. Like, being-stabbed-by-1000-tiny-needles-painful. {After about a week of this with my firstborn and coming to a place of terrible dread at the mere thought of the next feeding, it got 100% better the very next day. Praise God, He must have known my limits.} So hang in there!
3) Don't worry when it
takes a few days for your actual milk supply to come in. Lots of
hospital workers don't seem to tell you this, but that's how it's
supposed to happen!
4) The first few days are all about getting your baby as much colostrum as you can. If you have any initial problems such as a bad latch or a baby who's too sleepy to feed, hand-express small amounts of your colostrum onto a spoon at least every couple of hours and spoon-feed your baby instead. My first midwife taught me this trick and I used it for both boys. {Asher was a slow latcher, and Silas was too sleepy to nurse much.}
4) The first few days are all about getting your baby as much colostrum as you can. If you have any initial problems such as a bad latch or a baby who's too sleepy to feed, hand-express small amounts of your colostrum onto a spoon at least every couple of hours and spoon-feed your baby instead. My first midwife taught me this trick and I used it for both boys. {Asher was a slow latcher, and Silas was too sleepy to nurse much.}
5) Always take advantage of a lactation consultant if one is available to you, they can be very very helpful!
6) Lanolin cream- the Medela brand is my personal favorite- as well as a nursing pillow with good back support- I highly recommend this one- will be your BEST FRIENDS those first few weeks. You'll find you don't need these forever...but they're great coping tools for right in the beginning.
7) If you find yourself extremely full and uncomfortable once your milk supply comes in, pumping out the excess is a good thing. I used to think that pumping would only increase demand and cause my body to make even more, so better to just tough it out the first week. But the 'no pump' method gave me a lovely case of mastitis with my second baby, that- according to my midwife- probably could have been avoided had I just pumped. {Not to mention that it gives you lots to freeze for the option of some bottle feeding later.}
8) If your baby gets very very fussy and even stops nursing in order to let out screams, eliminating dairy or other gassy foods from your diet {like broccoli} may solve this. It takes about three to five days to see a change if the food was in fact the culprit. I had to do this for both of my boys, and it helped tremendously. It wasn't easy to make the sacrifice, but happier babies were well worth it and I was able to have dairy again once they were about four to five months of age.
9) My experience might be very different from your experience, so take everything I say with a grain of salt {ha! Maybe this should have been at top of the list...}
10) God made our bodies to successfully nurture our children, so be confident and trust yours to do just that. But- with all things related to having a new baby- when things don't go as planned, He's also blessed us with modern medicine. So use whatever resources available that seem best and necessary for your baby. Life with an infant can be very unpredictable, and it's your love for them that matters more than many of the other details!
What about you guys- what would you add {or take away!} from the list?
P.S. Since we're talking about babies... Asher's birth story is here and Silas' birth story is here.
What about you guys- what would you add {or take away!} from the list?
P.S. Since we're talking about babies... Asher's birth story is here and Silas' birth story is here.
