What I wish someone would have told me about breastfeeding

When I was pregnant I was 100% focused on preparing for labor, breastfeeding was something I more or less thought was going to happen naturally without much help. The things I had read and listen to about breastfeeding was mainly to let the baby crawl to the breast by herself and attach on her own. I had friends who kindly told me to be prepared that breastfeeding could be hard and painful. I listened to that but didn’t truly take it in, because I was way too busy thinking about labor. Looking back now, I wish I had known a thing or two about breastfeeding, because my breastfeeding journey was way more painful than labor. 

I want to share a few things with you, to hopefully help you avoid all the issues and infections I had during my breastfeeding journey;

Once Lea landed on my chest, all I had in mind regarding breastfeeding was “let her do her thing, she knows how to do this”, because that was what I had taken with me from the little I had read about breastfeeding. ‘Trust the baby’. So I did. Only, nothing happened. She did wave her little head around, and searched for the boob etc, but she didn’t latch at all. And the “latch”, was a concept I wasn’t at all familiar with. So the first thing I wish I had done different; I wish I had googled, watched videos of and really tried to understand how to help baby get a good latch, before birth. Getting a good latch is all. And having the littlest cue of what you’re trying to do is absolutely helpful.

While you are in the hospital, there are lactation consultants there that can give you time one on one. This is SO helpful. If they don’t come to you, ask for them. Use them. They are experts, pick their brains, tell them that you don’t know what you are doing. They are there for you. 

Once your milk comes in (around day 2-4 after birth), your boobs become huge, round and extremely hard for baby to latch onto if you haven’t already figured that part out (and even if you have, now it gets harder). This is where my nipples cracked and started to bleed. At this point I should have headed straight to a lactation consultant for a one on one session to get help with the latch. If I would have done that, maybe I wouldn’t have ended up in the hospital 2 weeks later. But I was stubborn and listened to “it’s normal for nipples to crack in the beginning”. When I finally went to a lactation consultant 3 days later, she told me that I was a perfect example of the worst case scenario of cracked nipples.. 

However, my lactation consultant was my life saver. She showed me that it was possible to get a latch that didn’t hurt me and destroyed my nipples completely. And I would recommend her to anyone and everyone. She was a huge part of my healing. If you are wondering where you can find a great lactation consultant in Los Angeles, look for The pump station. They are all angels without wings.

So if I can leave you with two suggestions; while you are still pregnant – read, listen and watch everything you get your hands on about a good latch. I know this is the last thing you want to focus on right now, but believe me when I say that you will benefit from it. And remember that as soon as you start struggling with breastfeeding, get help right away. Don’t wait, it will save you so much suffering to fix the problem right away.