Hey there.

Since having a new baby I’ve incurred many struggles but one I didn’t expect was breast feeding. With my first it was different after trying nearly everything in the first few days of his life he would not breast feed. At all. No chance. With him being in neonatal etc it was easier to just forget about it and just put him on the bottle. With my youngest who is now 5 weeks old I did breast feed not for long. Only around 4-5 days. I breast fed him in hospital and although I realised early on that breast fed babies are constantly hungry and always want feeding I loved every second. Right up until I got thrush (yes it’s possible to get thrush in your nipples) and my new baby got thrush in his mouth. He was prescribed Daktarin to treat his mouth but unfortunately it was to late and the pain I was getting whilst feeding was horrendous and as I said earlier he was feeding none stop and I physically couldn’t cope anymore and ended up giving him a bottle.

When I told my midwife when I began getting pain while feeding she said “Is it a toe curling pain for the first few seconds” which yes it was but then every feed was starting to begin to be more painful throughout. Apparently a toe curling pain for the first few seconds is completely normal for the first few weeks up to about 6 weeks. I tried a lot of different ways to try and get through it. Including pumping milk to feed, Sheilds and expressing.

Day 4 it got to the point where I was crying throughout every feed because it was hurting me so badly. I felt like a failure a massive failure but even though midwives are normally very anti formula feeding my midwife put a lot into perspective for me with just one sentence. “You formula fed your first and look at him now, He’s thriving.” It was true he is. He’s 2 and so amazing.

My tips for breast feeding?

As much skin to skin as possible.

Nipple cream.

Patience.

Dont make plans for a while after baby is born as whilst establishing breast feeding your baby will be feeding. A lot.

Buy disposable breast pads there so much easier to use and throw.

Don’t put pressure on yourself or your baby.

In life as a mother you will come across many women who are anti formula fed and the saying “breast is best” will be thrown around a lot. My answer to this? No. Fed is best. Some times for many reasons as much as you want to breast feed it just doesn’t happen, that’s not a bad thing at all.

My biggest tip if your an expectant mother I planned to breast feed my first there wasn’t any thoughts of “what if I can’t” so I didn’t take any formula to the hospital. Big mistake. Even though hospitals are generally close to shops or even have shops inside that sell formula take some with you. Just incase.

Thanks for reading!

Emily H. Xxx