There are stories of women whose babies crawl directly to their breasts, latch on beautifully and that never experience nipple pain at all. Their babies don’t bite them when their teeth come in, and they nurse nurse nurse while making lots of milk! (But not enough to cause engorgement or mastitis)
Then there are stories of women whose babies pop out of the uterus, take one look at the nipple and sink vampire-like teeth into the breast causing it to look like ground hamburger.
The truth is somewhere inbetween.
To those that say “if the baby is latched on right there is no pain”. Bullshit. There are a number of things that can cause pain in the early weeks. The important thing here is that the pain PASSES when handled properly and there are things that can be done that minimize the pain.
To those that say “Breastfeeding is the most painful thing I’ve ever done and I quit after 2 days because my nipples were hamburger and blah blah”. I’m sorry you gave up. Your lactation consultant could have provided better support and information on how to heal your nipples and prevent them from becoming damaged more.
If you haven’t heard of soothies, if you haven’t heard of loosening up your breast tissue before nursing, if you haven’t heard of weaning the baby back onto the breast, if you haven’t heard of breast shields, if you haven’t heard of lanolin, if you haven’t heard of vitamin E, if you haven’t heard of air-drying, if you haven’t heard about the proper types of bra to wear and about breast shells that can keep your bra from chafing your nipples.. If you didn’t learn how to properly wash your breasts (hint: no soap or hot water!) if you didn’t learn different latch-on techniques and if you didn’t learn about rotating breastfeeding positions to minimize repeated irritation to certain areas of the breast…. If you didn’t learn about nursing up-hill to correct hyper-supply that makes your baby bite down.. If you didn’t learn about nipple confusion…If you didn’t learn about personal fit shields, if you didn’t learn about the symptoms of tongue tied babies, if you didn’t learn about proper fit of breast pump flanges….
Then you didn’t try it all, and you didn’t hear it all, and chances are there were several things that could have been done to help you through your early days of breastfeeding that quite simply were not passed on to you.
I’m not saying you have to try it all. I’m simply saying that you should think twice about sharing your horror stories with women that are trying to learn to breastfeed.
The majority of women will feel some pain in the first few weeks of breastfeeding while her baby learns to latch, while her nipples accustom themselves to being stretched out, and while her baby’s mouth grows larger.
But the pain passes, and there are many things that you can do to help your nipples heal faster, or to prevent them from getting to the point of being bloody and bitten.
Unfortunately breastfeeding is largely a lost art in this country. Breastfeeding moms today are charged with the responsibility of rediscovering techniques and practices that should be part of our heritage.
My hope is that the woman that my son marries someday will have been breastfed herself and will have a rich environment of supportive people that can help her overcome the hurdles.
Yup, totally agree with this, especially what you said about the whole, “If you’re doing it right, it won’t hurt.” comment. GRR! It hurt for me for 14-15 weeks. I almost gave up SO many times. I relied on pain meds to get me through most of it, ibuprofen was my BEST friend and I was on it all the time and probably shouldn’t have been but that’s a lot of what got me through it. And I still don’t know what it was, really. Something she was doing was obviously causing me horrendous pain. I probably did have an overactive let down that I probably made worse using fenugreek because I thought my supply was low (no idea why I thought that). And then I pumped and Natalie got a bottle here and there just to help give me a break from the horrendous pain so that probably didn’t help. My lactation consultant definitely wasn’t helpful as she finally looked at me and said that maybe I should look into formula. I told her that wasn’t an option. And it wasn’t. I guess that’s why I made it. I made sure that formula wasn’t an option and my husband DEFINITELY made sure it was never an option. I finally met someone online who said, “Oh yeah, I had pain like that too but once I got past the 15 week point, it went away!” I was about to that point by then. Knowing there was an end to the pain made it easier for me to continue. Just having that little bit of support that wasn’t, “Oh, just give the baby some formula anyway!” helped FAR MORE than anything else. And I made it. I was even finally able to lay down and nurse Natalie instead of having to sit up to nurse her at night. And now, at almost three years old (three in 15 days!), she’s still nursing at least twice a day. It hasn’t always been easy (she’s gotten lazy with latching and is leaving teeth marks on me) but I’m glad we’ve gotten this far.
Oh, and for the record, soothies do not help at all with blanching nipples. Soothies are cool and with blanching nipples, anything that causing the nipples to get chilled is NOT a good idea. Oh, I can STILL remember the pain from that, just this really bad burning sensation and then the nipple going white. Not fun.
Ouch. Yes, soothies are NOT good for blanched nipples. Warm moist compresses or simply rolling the nipple gently between your fingers work best. I learned the hard way to never latch a baby onto a blanched nipple either! Restore circulation first, then once it’s pink latch ‘em on.
For one week there I was getting blanched nipples every time I let down. The tingling of the letdown combined with the burning of the nipples.. AIE!
I’m so glad that you had support through all of that. For me the pain lasted about 2 1/2-3 weeks and then got much better. But for a while there I had a lot of trouble. My son even migrated off of the nipple onto the areola and in the fraction of a second before I broke his latch he managed to give me a bloody hickey that looked like a second nipple that let down with blood instead of milk. OUCH! That moment gave me newfound respect for my nipples and the suckling that they could endure.
I adore breast feeding. Yes it is hard and sometimes it takes the baby learning. My son saw a breast and sucked as soon as he arrived for 45 mins. He was a great nurser and I could lift my shirt and he would latch on. My daughter is good but she gets excited and takes a little to latch on. But regardless, i would not have it any other way. I love this blog. Thanks so much!
Great blog Sara! I will have to read on the other posts. yeah a sara blog.
Please don’t yell at me or get mad…but I’m one of the crazy ladies who says it doesn’t hurt if you’re doing it right. (ducks her head to escape the shoe flying at her) Please just hear me out!
When my first was 3 days old, I had to go back to the hospital. I was on some serious medicines for a horrible staph infection. I couldn’t see her for 3 days and I had to pump and dump my milk. My poor sweet baby got bottle fed with formula for 3 days, while I sat at the hospital, alone, crying and staring at pictures of her while pumping every 2 hours and then pouring it down the drain.
By the time I got home, she’d got hooked on the bottle. She was willing to try the breast, but it hurt SOOOO bad. My nipples started cracking and bleeding. I was doing/using everything my mom, books, websites suggested, but nothing helped.
Finally, in complete despiration, I took her back to the hospital and we saw a lactation consultant. Not one of the nurses who really know nothing but will give you a 10 minute crash course. We saw the real deal. And she saved my breastfeeding experience.
She stripped my daughter down so she’d be chilly and more alert while we “practiced.” Then she set me up in a chair and showed me how to get more comfortable and have her positioned correctly. And then the fun began.
Over, and over, and over, and over we latched and relatched. If I wasn’t craddling her head correctly, the lady made me stop, break the seal and do it again. If her chin didn’t hit at the exact right angle, she made me stop and do it again. Even when everything looked perfect…she’d ask “can you feel it?” Not “does it hurt”…which by this point it wasn’t exactly HURTING so I was happy. But when I said yes, I could feel her nursing…she made me do it again.
She worked with me for 2 hours until me and my baby had mastered it. My daughter could latch on (with my help) and I literally couldn’t even feel it. And my nipples were still cracked at this point…so that’s saying something.
I never used lanolin again and never felt pain again. When my son was born 2 months ago, I spent the first 3 days or so perfecting our latch. It was annoying. He got mad when I’d break his seal and make him do it again. I was determined to have the same level of comfort with him as I did with my daughter. My goal wasn’t for it not to hurt…my goal was to not feel it at all. And I don’t.
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In regards to below, Knew i,t tried it, still hurt for months. The only time I’ve ever heard of this, my lc said, “you’re pretty pale. Some women, especially red heads, have more pain than others, becaue their skin is so sensitive. For some it never stops hurting.” Fantastic! Well luckily it did stop hurting, but again everyone is different. And I feel bad for those that is never stops!
If you haven’t heard of soothies, if you haven’t heard of loosening up your breast tissue before nursing, if you haven’t heard of weaning the baby back onto the breast, if you haven’t heard of breast shields, if you haven’t heard of lanolin, if you haven’t heard of vitamin E, if you haven’t heard of air-drying, if you haven’t heard about the proper types of bra to wear and about breast shells that can keep your bra from chafing your nipples.. If you didn’t learn how to properly wash your breasts (hint: no soap or hot water!) if you didn’t learn different latch-on techniques and if you didn’t learn about rotating breastfeeding positions to minimize repeated irritation to certain areas of the breast…. If you didn’t learn about nursing up-hill to correct hyper-supply that makes your baby bite down.. If you didn’t learn about nipple confusion…If you didn’t learn about personal fit shields, if you didn’t learn about the symptoms of tongue tied babies, if you didn’t learn about proper fit of breast pump flanges….