Breastfeeding

My cousin and I gave birth two months apart and we both agreed that everyone lies about breastfeeding. They say if it hurts you are doing it wrong. But it will hurt the first few days. If it's still hurting after a week or so then get hold of a lactation consultant. I was sore the first few days cause Beth was sucking hard to get the collostrum out cause its thick. Once my normal milk came in after two or three days it is more runny so she didn't have to suck as hard and it wasn't sore. If they get cracked you can put nipple cream on or coconut oil.

The next thing no one really emphasises is how sore it can be when "your milk comes in". Literally after the first two or three days the collostrum dissapears and the proper milk starts...And your breasts become very full! So full it hurts! And you feel a bit helpless.

The easy solution would have been to use a breastpump to release the pressure but
I had been reading a lot of natural baby literature that said you shouldn't use a breast pump before 6 weeks cause it can mess up your milk supply. You should rather wait for your milk supply to become established.

I have since realised this is nonsense cause milk supply can be so random anyway (affected by sleep and whether you took your vitamin supplement or not etc), and secondly who cares if you have too much milk (becaused by pumping), that is a blessing! You can just freeze the excess.

So I was left standing in a shower self expressing (as shown on YouTube) because I was convinced that wouldn't mess up my milk supply), storing cabbage leaves in the fridge in case I got mastitis (from a blocked milk duct).

I should have just pumped and then would have realised what I realised 6 weeks later...that I didn't have enough milk anyway! But thankfully there was brewers yeast for that!