My Best Breast Feeding Tips

Hi moms and moms-to-be! I see a lot of posts with questions on breast feeding and latching. I thought I would write a little post with some of my best tips. As you know, I breast fed Sophia for 2 years and have experienced many of the pitfalls. As soon as she was born they placed her on my chest and she latched on right away. At first the feeding went very well. But then my milk began to come in the day I was discharged. My breasts became two large hard boulders overnight! 

Engorgement: The engorgement from my milk coming in made them hot and hard. Every time I went to nurse Sophia the milk would squirt out like a fire hydrant and she would get milk all over her. I was leaking literally 24/7 and I thought it would never end. Because they were so full and hard it made latching so difficult. My nipples just seemed so large for her tiny mouth. In those early days the only way she would open wide enough was when she was crying. And thanks to the latching difficulty my nipples were getting so much abuse. 

Breastfeeding should NOT hurt and you should re-latch if it hurts after the first 20 seconds (before 20 seconds this is residual pain from damage done in a previous bad latch). I was re-latching several times every session. Also, expressing a little by hand before feeding (just to make the boob pliable) made latching a lot easier since I could compress my areola better than when they were hard and full of milk. Thankfully, as the books promised, the engorgement only lasted a max of 2-3 days and latching gradually got easier as my milk supply evened out.

Some Common Breast Feeding Positions. My favorite was the Sidelying.
Very easy on back and for sleeping while feeding!

  

Example of a good latch. Note: You don't need all of your
areola in baby's mouth if you have large areola's. Just get
enough areola in to force the nipple far back in baby's
mouth to prevent pain and nipple damage.

Latching: Try many different positions but always bring baby to your breast and not the other way around. You should never be hunched over baby. Instead use pillows to support your baby in the position. In order to latch well I used the "hamburger" method. Basically, squeeze your areola and nipple together and begin by inserting the bottom areola first, then the nipple, and finally the top areola. It takes lots of practice to get good at doing this quickly. Eventually you won't need to do this when baby gets big enough and learns how to latch on their own. It's easier for them when their mouths get bigger.  

Example of start of "hamburger" squeeze.

"Hamburger": Start with bottom areola.

Lansinoh Soothies Gel Pads

Helping Nipple Pain and Healing: Using vitamin e oil (I bought the gel pills and broke them open to use the oil inside) and Lansinoh’s Soothies Breast Gel Pads helped tremendously. I tried lanolin cream too,

Medela Breast Shells

but didn't like it as much. I also had plastic Breast Shell cups from Medela to put in my bra to keep the fabric off my sensitive nipples. I rubbed breast milk on my nipples after every feed and let them air dry for at least a few minutes. The breast milk trick is probably the best one of all of these. There are antibacterial properties in breast milk which aid the healing process and also lower your chances of getting an infection like thrush or mastitis. You should never wash your nipples with soap. Washing with water when you normally shower is all that is necessary. Washing your nipples after every feed is not recommended either as it can damage your nipples and wash away the natural substances excreted by the glands on the nipple which keep them clean and moist (this is why soap is especially bad).

Breast feeding and Uterine Contractions: You will experience uterine contractions while breast feeding for the first week or so, they will start out strong and get weaker with each feed as your uterus slowly shrinks back down to its original size. This is obviously ideal as it will help you return to your pre-pregnancy size sooner and also reduces postpartum bleeding. Some ibuprofen is a good way to ease the pain.

Supplementation: It is fine but not until after your milk supply is established. If you supplement before that time your body will not know how much milk to make for your baby and this can sabotage your breast feeding ability. This is because breast feeding is a supply and demand system. The more your baby demands, the more your body will produce.

Is My Baby Getting Enough?: It's hard for first time mom's to know if their baby is getting enough from the breast. Here are the main signs to look for; 4-6 wet diapers a day (starting from the 4th day of breast feeding), baby is nursing frequently (8-12+ times in 24 hours), hearing baby swallowing while nursing, baby is allowed to nurse as long as they want from one breast (this is especially important so the baby can get the rich fatty hind-milk - let baby nurse until they "pop" off on their own. This can be anywhere from 20-45 mins during a growth spurt), baby is gaining weight. 

The more you have baby at your breast the better for your supply.

Which Breast Do I Use? How do I alternate?: What worked for me was 1 breast per feeding (alternating each breast at each feed) unless my dd was going through a growth spurt and then I would offer the 2nd breast and start with that same breast at the next feeding. This allows maximum hind milk. Also, it is normal for one breast to produce more than another. For me, it was my left breast. This didn't change the way I fed my dd though. And yes, you might look slightly lopsided but it won't stay that way. ;)

Bottle Feeding: Starting bottle feeding too early can also interfere with breast feeding because it can make your baby a lazy nurser since breast feeding requires more work to get milk out than bottle feeding. Yes, there are bottles on the market that claim to work more like breast feeding. However, it's not true. There are no bottles like breast feeding. It's the special tongue movement on the nipple that can't be duplicated with a bottle. A good rule of thumb is not to introduce a bottle until after the 3 week mark. Of course, there are some babies that don't have a problem going between breast and bottle from day 1. But you never know what you will get so, in my opinion, it's better to wait the 3 weeks until breast feeding is established so you don't have any possibility of sabotaging your breast feeding ability.

  

Growth Spurts: Your baby will nurse even more frequently and for longer (and can be irritable) while going through a growth spurt. In my experience this can last anywhere from 3-7 days. It can make you feel like baby isn't getting enough when they suddenly want to nurse more but this is actually a good thing. It's natures way of increasing your milk supply to accommodate your growing baby. The typical growth spurts are 7-10 days, 2-3 weeks, 4-6 weeks, 3 months, 4 months, 6 months and 9 months (there are some after that but less frequent). The best thing you can do is nurse nurse nurse during a growth spurt!

Will It Get Easier? When?: I’d say breastfeeding for me significantly improved after 2 weeks and then became completely second nature around 2 months. 

A great resource for your breast feeding questions is Kellymom.com I cannot tell you how much I used that site when I first started breast feeding! It was a lifesaver. 

I really fell in love with breast feeding so I wanted to share my experience to help other moms be successful breast feeders too.