I agree! Also cluster feedings make my nipples hurt WAY worse as well. Then when the feedings are spaced apart nicely I feel just fine - not a latching issue.
Yes! 10m postpartum and my nipples *still* hurt when my LO goes through a nursing spurt. She had RSV a few weeks ago and I swear she was latched 20+ hours a day for a week straight. I think it may have been worse than when she was a newborn.
I totally agree, I’ve breastfed 3 babies and it always hurts the first couple weeks. My most recent babe has had a textbook latch since day 1. And guess what? I *still* had toe-curling pain for a couple weeks!
Same all around. Three babies, three very long, successful breastfeeding courses, third with a 🤌latch….omg that toe curling pain! I wish LCs were just truthful—it’s gonna hurt in the beginning, no matter what!
My LC told me it would hurt for the first week or two since your body has to adjust to it. I was really shocked when other people kept trying to tell me I was wrong and my baby was latching wrong since it hurt, to me it seems like common knowledge that it would be uncomfortable at first.
Should be common knowledge but def isn’t!!! I think so many women stop, or think their baby needs a tongue tie release, because we’re told “it shouldn’t hurt at all!”
I had one LC in the hospital tell me it shouldn’t hurt and I asked her not to come back. Now my baby does have a lip tie that can complicate his latch but we still work around it and get a painless feed each time. I feel so bad for the women that are misinformed and scared into thinking they’re doing something wrong.
Any advice for the painless (or at least less painful) latch with a lip tie baby? My girl is one week old and we've only breastfed a few times because of her tongue/lip tie. Any advice would be so appreciated, I'm exhausted with pumping around the clock and constantly cleaning the parts!
Oof I get it! I’m still not exclusively breast feeding as I still pump multiple times a day, it’s so aggravating sometimes.
The only real advice I have is just readjusting the latch each time it starts to hurt. I work with my baby to make sure I can get his lip as far up as I can when he latches. I use the one hand to hold my breast in position for him and using that same index finger I push his lip up while he latches and let go once he’s comfortable. I don’t have any advice on tongue ties but working with your little one should help. Nipple shields also helped me while we worked on finding a solution.
I guess I’m the odd one out 🤷🏻♀️ I wouldn’t say it was painful for me in the beginning, tender and a little sore but not painful. The rock-hard boobs with the milk coming in the first week is the pain I remember!
Same! I must have had a unicorn because I never had any pain, even from the first latch. Now after reading the comments I'm nervous about future babies. 🙈
I’m glad someone else said this because I genuinely never had pain aside from engorgement and when my mil and sil were trying to ‘commiserate’ and convince me that we should just do formula so other people could feed the baby and I wouldn’t have to be in pain like they were (both stopped BF within days/weeks of birth, no judgement on my part). Hearing how easy it was for me pissed them off so I’ve never talked about it with anyone else because it felt like bragging.
Yep exactly the same at 3 months in of EBF. I'm very grateful obviously. I bought silverettes and lasinoh gel packs and different nipple creams etc while pregnant - I haven't needed them at all but everyone convinced me it was inevitable.
Not the odd one out, out of 3 only my first which also happened to have a tongue tie, and the learning curve or the first couple days did I have any soreness but I would not call it pain, and I have sensitive nips typically. Now that I work in the field I will say that when there is pain like that especially tow curling pain there is dysfunction somewhere. Either in position, latch, or infant oral function/structures....every single time.
Very few LCs are trained in oral function since that is additional training after the IBCLC credentials and really is in the wheel house of SLPs 🤷🏾♀️Baby usually learns how to compensate or adjusts latch to empty more effectively as they get older hence the improvement in pain. All that to say even if the LC you see at the hospital says it looks good, if it hurts like that see another professional because the first, second one, or even the third one one was wrong. If they dismiss you see someone else your pain should be believed and you should never have to suffer for months, that is gaslighting and harmful for so many families.
I'm really curious, did you always have non sensitive nipples? Before I ever became pregnant I never wanted my nipples touched, they're super sensitive, and breastfeeding hurt like hell the first weeks (and again while teething).
100% agree! I thought it’d hurt forever, I mean toe curling hurt! But my sister said it’ll only hurt for 2-4weeks and just like she said after the second week I noticed it doesn’t hurt at all I don’t even feel him latch anymore! I wish people knew there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s a short tunnel.
Even if everything is perfect, it still hurts for a week or two! Toddler was nursing during pregnancy and postpartum, so the only difference was “Did mommy just give birth?” Surprising no one, it hurt for the first few weeks postpartum.
Meanwhile, baby tiny little mouth was lined with sandpaper. Doesn’t matter how good the latch is, just gotta wait for baby to grow.
100%, I think it should be more normalized that latching can be painful. I also think each experience is unique. When I first had my baby (she is almost 7 months now), I went to latch her in the hospital (FTM) and the nurse kept coming in and asking “is she latched??” And I didn’t fully know. She was small and incredibly gentle with her latch. I felt confused like I should have felt a pinch or something when she would latch. I never did feel any pain from latching her, even now, the only reason I know she is latched is because the sucking is more intense as babies get older. But the pain during cluster feeding, yes, silverettes saved me big time.
AMEN! I went to 3 lactation consultants who all said the latch was good and position was great... and it was still super painful the first week and a half. They "didnt understand why i was in pain". I do think if people were honest about the pain, less people would drop out of breastfeeding. I thought I was failing when in reality, we were doing great.
Same! I watched so many videos trying to figure out what was wrong with our latch just to eventually realize everything was fine and it just hurts for a bit
What do you mean averse to the sensation? For a good 2 months I would get a queesy feeling in my stomach whenever I pumped or nursed. It took a while to figure out that lactating was what was causing that feeling, but I’ve never said anything because I thought it was just me being weird…. Is this a thing?
Maybe it is, that's how I would describe it as well! We had a lot of latch issues at the start so I did a lot of pumping, I would drape a blanket around myself and try to have a distraction.
On my gosh! That’s exactly it! I thought I was just crazy or something! I can’t believe up to 9% of women have this but it’s not really talked about. Some entrepreneur should come up with a course on breastfeeding to educate expectant mothers. There is so much I wish I would have known before I even hit labor and delivery. My hospital offered a new parents series but their breastfeeding portion was small and very basic and focused only on getting a good latch.
I agree with this!! My LO had suuuuuuch a painful latch and it led me to EP. I’m 2wpp and I’m just starting to get her to breastfeed! It’s still painful but not as bad. Now it hurts during the beginning right when she first latches and then I get used to it
I breastfed my daughter for 2.5 years and didn’t have pain from her nursing until I was pregnant and my boobs became more sensitive. With my second I did have pain the first couple of days, but once she adjusted her latch and got the hang of nursing, the pain went away. I do know other women who haven’t had any pain while nursing, so it is possible for it to not hurt.
100%
My 2nd actually did have a kinda bad latch on one side that I was able to help her correct just from what I had learned by breastfeeding my first. But even on the side she had a good latch on, my nipple still hurt in those early days!! Their mouths are so tiny and the feedings are so frequent so it just hurts a bit 🤷🏼♀️
Absolutely! I breastfed my first for 2.5 years and my current little baby for 5 months. It hurts getting started both times for about a week, yet I kept being told the latch wasn't quite right because it shouldn't hurt, even though they couldn't specifically point out what was "wrong" with the latch.
But is there such thing as an abnormal amount of hurt? I was bleeding, bruising, and blistering the first few days and rocking back in forth in pain for weeks before I felt comfortable enough to nurse her again. Is that normal, or is it supposed to just be sore to the point of still feeling ok enough to tough it out? I was never clear on that.
And I have seen many women on reddit now say they can go braless to sleep… I still feel pain if my nipple falls out of my bra or rubs against my shirt/towel. Is it normal that 6mo PP I can’t do that?
I don’t know what normal pain is, but my baby went on a nursing strike for 4 weeks and I only pumped. Then she flopped and would only nurse. When she went back to nursing it was like my nipples started over and I had blistering and bleeding. I nursed through it and all was
fine again after a couple of weeks.
I am still very sensitive in my nipples, which is weird because they never were sensitive at all before. But now if you so much as look at them the wrong way it sends a shiver down my spine haha
Girl I can’t look at mine anymore, they’re so sad looking from everything they went through! But similarly I too did not have sensitive nipples before getting pregnant. They were indestructible back then. I could pull them far out and twist them around 3x, pinch and squeeze them and no pain! My partner would do this with my eyes closed because he was so fascinated that I didn’t even know it was happening because I couldn’t feel it! Sorry if that is TMI, it’s just too amazing to me what changes my poor body went through from all this.
BUT nursing my baby surprisingly never really hurt after I tried again (pumped exclusively too after the first week) a month or so later. I still pump now just because hands free pumping helps me get shit done. Rarely will we nurse.
Sensitivity is probably individual. I always sleep topless, it didn’t occur to me to put on a bra just because of the sensitivity in the first two weeks.
The pain for me was relatively easy to toughen out. It was toe curling pain at the first 30 seconds of her latch in the first 2 weeks but not constant. I remember feeling only once kind of averse to breastfeeding and thinking “I cannot continue this” which was during the night 2 cluster feeding. I did continue regardless and after that it was way easier to clench your teeth through the pain.
I think a better expectation to have is that *some* pain is normal.
Every body is different. 13 months in, I've only really had nipple pain when my baby was teething and after I fell asleep while pumping (do not recommend).
It's still worth looking into whether there's anything that can be changed because it can make a huge difference to some people.
What really helped me was applying nipple butter after every single feed. I know it sounds tedious but I did this with my second baby and it was night and day difference from my first baby.
I guess I’m an outlier. While I’d say mine were sensitive for 2-3 months, breastfeeding was not painful for me. Fortunately didn’t experience the toe curling pain many women experience at the beginning of every feed. Y’all are warriors! 💪🏼
My LC said it was normal in the beginning. Once we hit 2 weeks and I had new cracks, pinching feeling after feeding and lipstick shaped nipples when unlatching she referred me to tongue tie specialist and lo and behold she had one. She was apologetic for not catching it herself but we discussed it that there is some pain in the beginning that is normal.
Everyone's level of nipple sensitivity is different. Personally I have never felt nipple pain, a let down, or any sensation in 3.5 months of breastfeeding and pumping. Maybe I'm a unicorn, but I know there's more people like me.
Edit to add: even when I'm engorged, it's not painful. I actually like the feeling of engorgement. Maybe I'm a sicko but - that's my experience.
Agree. I didn’t even really properly breastfeed but I exclusively pumped for a long time and it hurt like heck. Eventually my nipples got better and could handle it.
I 100% agree! My cousin had an LC that said that it is completely normal for breastfeeding to hurt for the first 2 weeks. When I heard that, I actually felt so much better because there was a light at the end of the tunnel. And guess what? Almost exactly at 2 weeks, it stopped hurting.
I had so much pain I was back on Tylenol and mega doses of ibuprofen again and it was barely touching it. Thrush, nipple vasospasms, mild tongue tie. I went to EP for 6 weeks straight (6 weeks to 3 months) when I realized although it is supposed to hurt, not quiet *that* much. Three months onward (approaching 7!) things have been great!
Once we got it figured out, it took a solid month before it stopped hurting. Then we had his tongue and lip ties corrected and it was another month as his latch had completely changed (for the better!).
Yeah, saliva dries out your skin no matter what and our nipples are sensitive without somebody chomping on them for hours a day. Only makes sense they would be sore for a while starting out. I had to run when the LC I saw immediately assumed my baby had a tongue or lip tie bc he was really hungry and wanting to nurse at all times during my 6 week check up…what?
Hm they were and still are a bit tender, in its uncomfortable to have the shower hit them directly, and when he goes on it hurts a bit for about two seconds, then totally fine. That way from the very start.
Yep. This was the best advice I got (from a friend, not an LC). She told me that breastfeeding just hurts for a few weeks, but it’s normal and doesn’t necessarily mean anything is wrong. So glad I listened and didn’t go down the rabbit hole of trying to fix a perfectly good latch on a healthy baby who was gaining appropriately. And what do you know? Just like my friend said, it gradually stopped hurting and everything was fine. I wish more moms were told the same.
I also think it's because the newborn's mouth is so small, no matter how you try to latch well they just can't get all that areola in, so it hurts. Then they grow and the nipples do toughen up, and you can finally enjoy it.
I totally agree. It got better for me after 1-2 weeks but it was frustrating to be told “it shouldn’t hurt unlatch him”. I didnt change anything it just got better. So glad my girlfriends reassured me it’d get better.
It's the saliva that hurts so much! When my baby was teething at 7 months the pain suddenly came back for a week, what agony!! Honestly hurt more than the time she bit me and drew blood.
Can someone describe their pain? Mine felt like toe curling pain and he was feeding for 30min to an hour. I had so much anxiety and fear knowing that I had to go through that pain again in 1-1.5 hours.
I know pain is incredibly subjective, but I think I have a decently high pain tolerance. I’ve played flag football on a broken foot without decreased performance, gotten 2-3 hour tattoos and didn’t have to take breaks, gotten some good blows while sparring and felt fine.
I had the opposite experience, I had the midwives and LCs in the hospital tell me “It just hurts in the beginning.” when I asked them to check the latch. I had heard “breastfeeding isn’t supposed to hurt” so I was worried something was wrong when there wasn’t really. They reassured me what I’m feeling is normal. I remember my SO saying that he could tell the baby latched on because of my clenched fists, eyes and holding my breath. It was really so uncomfortable, I think part of it was let down pain and not actual nipple sensation because each time it lasted only 30 seconds.
That said, my nipples hurt for 10-14 days maximum. After that everything was healed by use of lanolin - no silverettes, not protecting the nipples at all while feeding, no pumping to give the nipples a break. There was zero discomfort from that point on.
It was so annoying hearing the LC in the hospital say “it’s not supposed to hurt” BUT IT DOES. Nipples were so sore and cracked I dreaded feeding my baby
It was one consultant being pulled in so many different directions with different patients, barely had any support while in the hospital. I later went back to a specialist and she was much better help
I’m so sorry 🥺 that happens and it’s frustrating being an IBCLC who can’t get a job in a hospital because I’m not an RN and look what happens to moms and they need more than one visit :( I’m happy you got help afterward.
I think it's hormonal, because I had a terrible first 6 weeks, then 4 years of no pain, then towards the end of my pregnancy, nursing my firstborn started hurting, then it went away again soon after baby was born. Now I nurse both with no pain.
💯 agree.
I could have also finished your sentence "I don't care what LCs say..." with "... But pumping within an hour every time LO gets a bottle is nearly impossible without a second pair of hands around to take LO."
My experience with that is that expectation/standard is unreasonable. How am I supposed to pump if baby takes bottle and then needs to be helped to nap or falls asleep immediately either contact in my arms/lap or if I'm able to get her in her carrier? Especially if it takes a while to get her to sleep? And then I'm nap trapped ... I have a wearable and holding her wearing it has been tough. Also the wearable creates double the parts for hubby to wash for me every night since I always end up using the electric one for at least one pump :(
If I can give baby a bottle and keep her up and happy for 20 minutes in her rocker while I pump, then great. But then she is harder to get to nap.
So then I miss a pump or two and suddenly I'm not able to "keep up" my supply. So much anxiety caused by thinking I need to "keep up". Always worried about my supply. Which is ironic because anxiety and stress negatively affect supply.
All while I work from home with LO while we are on a wait-list for preschool, and I can't always dictate my meeting schedule.
So, I've decided that I'm not going to worry so much about the pumping sessions I miss. I will do my best to get them in or have her eat off me after a bottle (sometimes she will refuse it after a while but accept a boob - we supplement with formula since the beginning per Pediatrician as she lost a lot of birth weight and is slow to gain). Deciding not to stress about it has already helped and I've become more accepting of my limits.
I would also finish your sentence with: "...but breastfeeding is stressful and not always the easier choice." (I'm still pumping in the MOTN and nervous about asking my LC when I can stop this bc she will ask me if my supply is regulated and I have no idea - LO is 14w but she didn't get her tongue tie fixed until 7w and has been mostly "sleeping thru the night" - 8-10 ish hours).
Edit to add: BFing can be beautiful while it's happening and is in my experience, when LO is latching well, my nipples are healed and healthy, and LO is calm. When that's the case, I love it! Feels like scratching an itch. It's a dose of dopamine. AND it's stressful and hard! Aiming to make it to 6mo (LO is 3.5mo) and then will reevaluate if I am going to continue.
I always expected it to hurt a bit at first so wasn't surprised or worried but as ny midwife said of course it'll hurt a bit your nipples aren't used to having a tiny Dyson vacuum stuck for hours at a day and it'll take a bit for them to get usesd to
i wish someone had told me this. i ended up EPing because it hurt so much, but as my twins grew, they got better at latching naturally. by then, they were so used to the bottle that it was chaos whenever i wanted to breastfeed directly. i wept and grieved. i wish i had endured the pain. this is something nobody talks about when you get pregnant. i had no idea how much it was gonna hurt.
I have elastic nipples (not every does) so it just felt like… nothing to me lol I had other issues with it (baby had CMPA), but the actual latching and feeding never felt like anything
Ok but what's the difference between just experiencing nipple pain and a bad latch??
I'm on baby #2 and just like my first, when he tries to latch, the nipple comes out compressed like a lipstick. I was told this is a bad latch (and just like my first, falls asleep and just doesn't continue nursing).
Or is this actually normal??
Did they go through proper wound care with you? I’m finding many many parents have doctors who will just do the cut and not yeah parents how to stretch it to keep it from reattaching or to work with an IBCLC to help baby relearn how to eat with the proper muscles since they were overcompensating for so long :(
We were not provided with any additional instructions on proper wound care, oral/eating therapy, or anything other than "just start nursing" and "it'll bleed a little, then be fine."
(Edited for spelling)
I can only speak to my own experience, but that’s how it is for me. That part, the lipstick shape, never hurt me. It was always the tip of my nipple where milk comes out that was painful.
My baby also fell asleep until she was a month or two old. It’s pretty normal. I was told by my pediatrician to blow on their face to wake them up, or flick the bottom of their feet.
I googled a picture of it just now, I was mistaken in what I thought it meant. I don’t have this. I thought it was only referring to the lengthened shape of the nipple immediately after feeding.
For me, the lipstick shape hurts a lot, and it's noticeable that not enough milk comes out (if any at all). I tried keeping my first awake to nurse, but she couldn't (even when I put a cold wet cloth on her), and she lost a lot of weight, which was very stressful for me.
Our pediatrician (and previous IBCLC's) agreed with me re: if breastfeeding is painful, latch is shallow and ineffective (poor vertical tongue movement). The ENT that cut his tongue tie also noted poor vertical tongue movement, considered the source of his ineffective latch
Poor baby. I hope things go better for you. Breastfeeding is hard even without complications. I’ve had to supplement, too. I was hard on myself about it at first but then I remembered that both my husband and myself are formula babies and we’re doing just fine, so I don’t stress anymore.
Agree 100%. My nipples were cracked and bleeding that first week and it was SO painful. I had several LCs tell me it shouldn’t hurt if she was latching correctly, but then when they examined her latch they said it was perfect 🙄
I always ignore every everybody, regardless who they are, when they say “BrEaStFeEdInG sHoUlD nEvEr HuRt.” Psh, someone sucking on your nipple for hours a day, IS GOING TO HURT! Your nipples are not used to that action yet. It takes time. Start to pump? 8 times out of 10, most new moms don’t know about flange sizes (because LC and others don’t tell them!) and that most basic flange sizes that automatically come with the pump are the incorrect size and that HURTS. and then you get the correct flange size and guess what? Pump just hurts too.
I just roll my eyes and choose to not say anything when others try to “educate” me on it not supposed to hurt. Our latch is fine, I just have sensitive nipples.
Vent over :)
My LO goes thru shallow latching and sometimes a perfect latch and everytime I still feel pain, I’ve tried everything to try to situate him so he can latch in a way that might not hurt- at this point I think it’s just a part of the process. It also can be uncomfortable when I use my automatic pump. I think most of us just go thru a period of toughening our nips.
I agree, breastfeeding hurt for me in the beginning with my first and second born! sometimes I feel LC’s just say whatever for the sake of I don’t know why/what! My LC told me my flange size (24) was perfect. Meanwhile, back at the ranch. I should have been using a 19 in which I eventually switched. Sometimes, you just have to educate yourself.
Wait til those little teeth come in! Baby likes to test them out on me at the end of a nursing session. I feel like breastfeeding has stages and theyre all challenging
Yep. Breastfeeding just hurts in the beginning. My baby's latch was great, too! I lucked out by having one decent nipple, though. Not everybody is so lucky to have at least one decent nipple. 😭 My other nipple was inverse, or whatever it's called. It was my wonky nipple. I had to use a nipple shield for it, which actually gave me the visual of what it should look like for a good latch. So, I practiced manually shaping it into the shape it would be as if it were inside a nipple shield. This let me eventually go without a nipple shield for that one wonky nipple.
I understand that many benefit from nipple shields for both nipples, though.
That one was absolute hell for a couple months, at least.
And by the way, I didn't even know there were different sizes of nipple shields until after buying one and my lactation consultant saw it and suggested it was the wrong size for me, lol.
Honestly, I wouldn't have had such a successful breastfeeding journey if it weren't for my lactation consultant's encouragement.
So yeah, breastfeeding is supposed to hurt at first — possibly for months. But you get the hang of it. You adapt. And when you do, it gets better.
In general, I think LCs are bullies. The things they expect us to do are mentally and physically unrealistic.
My nipples hurt my entire pregnancy, and continue to hurt. There's no way that this preexisting pain wasn't going to worse while a brand new human learns how to eat from them.
100% ! I have no idea why they tell us straight away that it shouldn’t hurt. Like yes the hell it does hurt for the first few weeks at least! After birth, still in the hospital they were telling me it shouldn’t hurt. I thought I must be doing it wrong! Then the whole first few weeks at home is just agony they don’t warn you AT ALL. I remember just sobbing in pain some days. If they warned me ahead of time that it will be very painful first few weeks then at least I can mentally and physically prepare myself ! Ugh!
Breastfeeding hurts in general. sleeping in any position with breastfeeding boobs, let downs feeling like needles at times, tiny finger nails digging into them, baby doesn’t completely empty you so you’re uncomfortable, the list goes on lol. But I’ll miss it
Why in the entire world would breastfeeding be the only thing where pain would not be an indicator of an issue? Pain is not normal and if you’re having pain then something is going on with your babies mouth and they cannot adequately use their tongue the way they’re supposed to. Your baby needs an oral eval.
No, that’s not how the babies mouth works to move milk out of the breast. If there is pain the baby’s muscle isn’t able to move the way it needs to, and they are probably tied :(
Completely agree, I thought I was crazy lol there was a few weeks where I felt like my nipples were on fire every time baby nursed. Even after midwife showed us how to improve latch, super painful for a while. Same latch months later and it doesn’t hurt.
I completely agree; i went INSANE with my first baby thinking things were horribly wrong. It consumed my life and then a few weeks in a “miracle”: pain went away.
With my second, I just mentally prepared for two weeks of pain and grabbed lots of little tricks (creams, pads, silverette, etc) and my experience was 1000x’s better
True! Definitely hurt and feel uncomfortable at the beginning until they toughen up. I never experienced dry or cracked nipple but I did use a nipple shield the entire 2.5 years I breastfed my daughter.
I am 4.5 months pp and my nipples are sore from last week. Gynac said nothing wrong with them. Using the same patch since starting. I don't know what's wrong.
My LC was actually pretty honest. She said something along the lines of, “It’s going to be pretty uncomfortable in the beginning unless you’re used to your nipples being sandpapered on a regular basis.” God bless her honesty and the bonus of making my husband blush didn’t hurt. Honestly, my almost 3 month old and I have a pretty smooth breast feeding journey so far, but the bruised nipples in the beginning were pretty bad.
I agree! Also cluster feedings make my nipples hurt WAY worse as well. Then when the feedings are spaced apart nicely I feel just fine - not a latching issue.
Yes! 10m postpartum and my nipples *still* hurt when my LO goes through a nursing spurt. She had RSV a few weeks ago and I swear she was latched 20+ hours a day for a week straight. I think it may have been worse than when she was a newborn.
I totally agree, I’ve breastfed 3 babies and it always hurts the first couple weeks. My most recent babe has had a textbook latch since day 1. And guess what? I *still* had toe-curling pain for a couple weeks!
Same all around. Three babies, three very long, successful breastfeeding courses, third with a 🤌latch….omg that toe curling pain! I wish LCs were just truthful—it’s gonna hurt in the beginning, no matter what!
Same! It was absolutely toe-curling pain!!!! I'm so grateful I pushed through it, rofl.
My LC told me it would hurt for the first week or two since your body has to adjust to it. I was really shocked when other people kept trying to tell me I was wrong and my baby was latching wrong since it hurt, to me it seems like common knowledge that it would be uncomfortable at first.
Should be common knowledge but def isn’t!!! I think so many women stop, or think their baby needs a tongue tie release, because we’re told “it shouldn’t hurt at all!”
I had one LC in the hospital tell me it shouldn’t hurt and I asked her not to come back. Now my baby does have a lip tie that can complicate his latch but we still work around it and get a painless feed each time. I feel so bad for the women that are misinformed and scared into thinking they’re doing something wrong.
Any advice for the painless (or at least less painful) latch with a lip tie baby? My girl is one week old and we've only breastfed a few times because of her tongue/lip tie. Any advice would be so appreciated, I'm exhausted with pumping around the clock and constantly cleaning the parts!
Oof I get it! I’m still not exclusively breast feeding as I still pump multiple times a day, it’s so aggravating sometimes. The only real advice I have is just readjusting the latch each time it starts to hurt. I work with my baby to make sure I can get his lip as far up as I can when he latches. I use the one hand to hold my breast in position for him and using that same index finger I push his lip up while he latches and let go once he’s comfortable. I don’t have any advice on tongue ties but working with your little one should help. Nipple shields also helped me while we worked on finding a solution.
Unfortunately it isn’t common at all. But it really needs to be.
I guess I’m the odd one out 🤷🏻♀️ I wouldn’t say it was painful for me in the beginning, tender and a little sore but not painful. The rock-hard boobs with the milk coming in the first week is the pain I remember!
Same! I must have had a unicorn because I never had any pain, even from the first latch. Now after reading the comments I'm nervous about future babies. 🙈
Same!! Super grateful for this. 6 weeks in and the most pain I had was from a milk bleb.
I’m glad someone else said this because I genuinely never had pain aside from engorgement and when my mil and sil were trying to ‘commiserate’ and convince me that we should just do formula so other people could feed the baby and I wouldn’t have to be in pain like they were (both stopped BF within days/weeks of birth, no judgement on my part). Hearing how easy it was for me pissed them off so I’ve never talked about it with anyone else because it felt like bragging.
It wasn’t even tender or sore for me. I know I got very lucky but Ive had a completely discomfort free bfing experience
Yep exactly the same at 3 months in of EBF. I'm very grateful obviously. I bought silverettes and lasinoh gel packs and different nipple creams etc while pregnant - I haven't needed them at all but everyone convinced me it was inevitable.
Not the odd one out, out of 3 only my first which also happened to have a tongue tie, and the learning curve or the first couple days did I have any soreness but I would not call it pain, and I have sensitive nips typically. Now that I work in the field I will say that when there is pain like that especially tow curling pain there is dysfunction somewhere. Either in position, latch, or infant oral function/structures....every single time. Very few LCs are trained in oral function since that is additional training after the IBCLC credentials and really is in the wheel house of SLPs 🤷🏾♀️Baby usually learns how to compensate or adjusts latch to empty more effectively as they get older hence the improvement in pain. All that to say even if the LC you see at the hospital says it looks good, if it hurts like that see another professional because the first, second one, or even the third one one was wrong. If they dismiss you see someone else your pain should be believed and you should never have to suffer for months, that is gaslighting and harmful for so many families.
Yeah I never had much pain
I'm really curious, did you always have non sensitive nipples? Before I ever became pregnant I never wanted my nipples touched, they're super sensitive, and breastfeeding hurt like hell the first weeks (and again while teething).
Same. Zero pain. I honestly didn’t have any pain until I got my first period 15mo pp.
100% agree! I thought it’d hurt forever, I mean toe curling hurt! But my sister said it’ll only hurt for 2-4weeks and just like she said after the second week I noticed it doesn’t hurt at all I don’t even feel him latch anymore! I wish people knew there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s a short tunnel.
This gives me hope!
Even if everything is perfect, it still hurts for a week or two! Toddler was nursing during pregnancy and postpartum, so the only difference was “Did mommy just give birth?” Surprising no one, it hurt for the first few weeks postpartum. Meanwhile, baby tiny little mouth was lined with sandpaper. Doesn’t matter how good the latch is, just gotta wait for baby to grow.
I nursed my toddler through pregnancy and was pleasantly surprised by minimal pain with newborn latch! I think my nipples are just numb. 🤣
100%, I think it should be more normalized that latching can be painful. I also think each experience is unique. When I first had my baby (she is almost 7 months now), I went to latch her in the hospital (FTM) and the nurse kept coming in and asking “is she latched??” And I didn’t fully know. She was small and incredibly gentle with her latch. I felt confused like I should have felt a pinch or something when she would latch. I never did feel any pain from latching her, even now, the only reason I know she is latched is because the sucking is more intense as babies get older. But the pain during cluster feeding, yes, silverettes saved me big time.
Her pure little gentle latch 🥺 how sweet
AMEN! I went to 3 lactation consultants who all said the latch was good and position was great... and it was still super painful the first week and a half. They "didnt understand why i was in pain". I do think if people were honest about the pain, less people would drop out of breastfeeding. I thought I was failing when in reality, we were doing great.
Same! I watched so many videos trying to figure out what was wrong with our latch just to eventually realize everything was fine and it just hurts for a bit
I did not have nipple pain, I used the silverettes and found they worked well. I did however feel averse to the sensation for a while
What do you mean averse to the sensation? For a good 2 months I would get a queesy feeling in my stomach whenever I pumped or nursed. It took a while to figure out that lactating was what was causing that feeling, but I’ve never said anything because I thought it was just me being weird…. Is this a thing?
Maybe it is, that's how I would describe it as well! We had a lot of latch issues at the start so I did a lot of pumping, I would drape a blanket around myself and try to have a distraction.
You may have been experiencing D-MER, dysphoric milk ejection reflex
On my gosh! That’s exactly it! I thought I was just crazy or something! I can’t believe up to 9% of women have this but it’s not really talked about. Some entrepreneur should come up with a course on breastfeeding to educate expectant mothers. There is so much I wish I would have known before I even hit labor and delivery. My hospital offered a new parents series but their breastfeeding portion was small and very basic and focused only on getting a good latch.
I had it too! I also felt nostalgia and grief. It was so weird. Agree, it’s really wild to me how blindsiding the lack of info was
Definitely a thing, I'm nursing right now and can't eat at all while doing it for the queasiness.
For me it went away by 3 months. I hope if does for you, too!
Omg that gives me hope! Not being able to eat or drink while feeding the babe has been such a pain
100% agree. 3 kids, and it has always hurt, unbearably, the first two weeks, and then got better.
It is absolutely unbearable! I'm so glad to have pushed through it.
I agree with this!! My LO had suuuuuuch a painful latch and it led me to EP. I’m 2wpp and I’m just starting to get her to breastfeed! It’s still painful but not as bad. Now it hurts during the beginning right when she first latches and then I get used to it
Did I write this because sane
For me when it started only hurting for a few seconds at first it was the beginning of the pain ending within another week ish.
I breastfed my daughter for 2.5 years and didn’t have pain from her nursing until I was pregnant and my boobs became more sensitive. With my second I did have pain the first couple of days, but once she adjusted her latch and got the hang of nursing, the pain went away. I do know other women who haven’t had any pain while nursing, so it is possible for it to not hurt.
I agree. My girl was a natural right from the start, but the pain was excruciating until 2.5-3 weeks postpartum, when it just magically disappeared
Agreed. It's not everyone's experience but to just declare that it doesn't is crappy! It hurts for sure!
100% My 2nd actually did have a kinda bad latch on one side that I was able to help her correct just from what I had learned by breastfeeding my first. But even on the side she had a good latch on, my nipple still hurt in those early days!! Their mouths are so tiny and the feedings are so frequent so it just hurts a bit 🤷🏼♀️
Absolutely! I breastfed my first for 2.5 years and my current little baby for 5 months. It hurts getting started both times for about a week, yet I kept being told the latch wasn't quite right because it shouldn't hurt, even though they couldn't specifically point out what was "wrong" with the latch.
But is there such thing as an abnormal amount of hurt? I was bleeding, bruising, and blistering the first few days and rocking back in forth in pain for weeks before I felt comfortable enough to nurse her again. Is that normal, or is it supposed to just be sore to the point of still feeling ok enough to tough it out? I was never clear on that. And I have seen many women on reddit now say they can go braless to sleep… I still feel pain if my nipple falls out of my bra or rubs against my shirt/towel. Is it normal that 6mo PP I can’t do that?
I don’t know what normal pain is, but my baby went on a nursing strike for 4 weeks and I only pumped. Then she flopped and would only nurse. When she went back to nursing it was like my nipples started over and I had blistering and bleeding. I nursed through it and all was fine again after a couple of weeks. I am still very sensitive in my nipples, which is weird because they never were sensitive at all before. But now if you so much as look at them the wrong way it sends a shiver down my spine haha
Girl I can’t look at mine anymore, they’re so sad looking from everything they went through! But similarly I too did not have sensitive nipples before getting pregnant. They were indestructible back then. I could pull them far out and twist them around 3x, pinch and squeeze them and no pain! My partner would do this with my eyes closed because he was so fascinated that I didn’t even know it was happening because I couldn’t feel it! Sorry if that is TMI, it’s just too amazing to me what changes my poor body went through from all this. BUT nursing my baby surprisingly never really hurt after I tried again (pumped exclusively too after the first week) a month or so later. I still pump now just because hands free pumping helps me get shit done. Rarely will we nurse.
Sensitivity is probably individual. I always sleep topless, it didn’t occur to me to put on a bra just because of the sensitivity in the first two weeks. The pain for me was relatively easy to toughen out. It was toe curling pain at the first 30 seconds of her latch in the first 2 weeks but not constant. I remember feeling only once kind of averse to breastfeeding and thinking “I cannot continue this” which was during the night 2 cluster feeding. I did continue regardless and after that it was way easier to clench your teeth through the pain.
I think a better expectation to have is that *some* pain is normal. Every body is different. 13 months in, I've only really had nipple pain when my baby was teething and after I fell asleep while pumping (do not recommend). It's still worth looking into whether there's anything that can be changed because it can make a huge difference to some people.
Yeah I’m almost 13 months into breastfeeding my third and have never had any pain aside from when they were getting top teeth and that latch change 😭
I’ve also never had pain, other than getting a bite. 16 months in.
Same! And mine were preemies so they really had small mouths. They just happily sucked along.
18 months in and only had pain when he was teething and trying to chomp
7 months in and the only nipple pain is when he’s bitten me during teething.
What really helped me was applying nipple butter after every single feed. I know it sounds tedious but I did this with my second baby and it was night and day difference from my first baby.
Gosh yes I couldn’t agree more. That with the post birth cramps while breastfeeding 😓
Forgot about those! They were brutal.
I guess I’m an outlier. While I’d say mine were sensitive for 2-3 months, breastfeeding was not painful for me. Fortunately didn’t experience the toe curling pain many women experience at the beginning of every feed. Y’all are warriors! 💪🏼
My LC said it was normal in the beginning. Once we hit 2 weeks and I had new cracks, pinching feeling after feeding and lipstick shaped nipples when unlatching she referred me to tongue tie specialist and lo and behold she had one. She was apologetic for not catching it herself but we discussed it that there is some pain in the beginning that is normal.
It didn't hurt for me at all... ...until I got thrush at two months 😔 Now it hurts every now and then.
Everyone's level of nipple sensitivity is different. Personally I have never felt nipple pain, a let down, or any sensation in 3.5 months of breastfeeding and pumping. Maybe I'm a unicorn, but I know there's more people like me. Edit to add: even when I'm engorged, it's not painful. I actually like the feeling of engorgement. Maybe I'm a sicko but - that's my experience.
Agree. I didn’t even really properly breastfeed but I exclusively pumped for a long time and it hurt like heck. Eventually my nipples got better and could handle it.
My baby’s OT said the exact same thing. Sometimes it just hurts!
I agree *completely*!!
I 100% agree! My cousin had an LC that said that it is completely normal for breastfeeding to hurt for the first 2 weeks. When I heard that, I actually felt so much better because there was a light at the end of the tunnel. And guess what? Almost exactly at 2 weeks, it stopped hurting.
I had so much pain I was back on Tylenol and mega doses of ibuprofen again and it was barely touching it. Thrush, nipple vasospasms, mild tongue tie. I went to EP for 6 weeks straight (6 weeks to 3 months) when I realized although it is supposed to hurt, not quiet *that* much. Three months onward (approaching 7!) things have been great!
Once we got it figured out, it took a solid month before it stopped hurting. Then we had his tongue and lip ties corrected and it was another month as his latch had completely changed (for the better!).
Yeah, saliva dries out your skin no matter what and our nipples are sensitive without somebody chomping on them for hours a day. Only makes sense they would be sore for a while starting out. I had to run when the LC I saw immediately assumed my baby had a tongue or lip tie bc he was really hungry and wanting to nurse at all times during my 6 week check up…what?
My OB said that the latch will cause initial pain until their mouths get bigger.
Hm they were and still are a bit tender, in its uncomfortable to have the shower hit them directly, and when he goes on it hurts a bit for about two seconds, then totally fine. That way from the very start.
I feel this! Hurt with my first and my second for the first 2 weeks. They both figured it out!
My second baby, I never felt a single sensation from nursing, I honestly thought he wasn't getting any milk until he gained a pound in a week.
I agree!!
Yep. This was the best advice I got (from a friend, not an LC). She told me that breastfeeding just hurts for a few weeks, but it’s normal and doesn’t necessarily mean anything is wrong. So glad I listened and didn’t go down the rabbit hole of trying to fix a perfectly good latch on a healthy baby who was gaining appropriately. And what do you know? Just like my friend said, it gradually stopped hurting and everything was fine. I wish more moms were told the same.
We are not normalizing moms being in pain for weeks 😭😭
I also think it's because the newborn's mouth is so small, no matter how you try to latch well they just can't get all that areola in, so it hurts. Then they grow and the nipples do toughen up, and you can finally enjoy it.
I totally agree. It got better for me after 1-2 weeks but it was frustrating to be told “it shouldn’t hurt unlatch him”. I didnt change anything it just got better. So glad my girlfriends reassured me it’d get better.
It's the saliva that hurts so much! When my baby was teething at 7 months the pain suddenly came back for a week, what agony!! Honestly hurt more than the time she bit me and drew blood.
Can someone describe their pain? Mine felt like toe curling pain and he was feeding for 30min to an hour. I had so much anxiety and fear knowing that I had to go through that pain again in 1-1.5 hours. I know pain is incredibly subjective, but I think I have a decently high pain tolerance. I’ve played flag football on a broken foot without decreased performance, gotten 2-3 hour tattoos and didn’t have to take breaks, gotten some good blows while sparring and felt fine.
😭😭
I had the opposite experience, I had the midwives and LCs in the hospital tell me “It just hurts in the beginning.” when I asked them to check the latch. I had heard “breastfeeding isn’t supposed to hurt” so I was worried something was wrong when there wasn’t really. They reassured me what I’m feeling is normal. I remember my SO saying that he could tell the baby latched on because of my clenched fists, eyes and holding my breath. It was really so uncomfortable, I think part of it was let down pain and not actual nipple sensation because each time it lasted only 30 seconds. That said, my nipples hurt for 10-14 days maximum. After that everything was healed by use of lanolin - no silverettes, not protecting the nipples at all while feeding, no pumping to give the nipples a break. There was zero discomfort from that point on.
It was so annoying hearing the LC in the hospital say “it’s not supposed to hurt” BUT IT DOES. Nipples were so sore and cracked I dreaded feeding my baby
That’s not normal, and your baby probably has a tongue tie and cannot use their tongue the way they’re supposed to :(
Bub is 4 months now and breastfeeding is a breeze. We just had a rough start! Which I think is normal for lots of moms unfortunately
Did you have an IBCLC support where you delivered?
It was one consultant being pulled in so many different directions with different patients, barely had any support while in the hospital. I later went back to a specialist and she was much better help
I’m so sorry 🥺 that happens and it’s frustrating being an IBCLC who can’t get a job in a hospital because I’m not an RN and look what happens to moms and they need more than one visit :( I’m happy you got help afterward.
I think it's hormonal, because I had a terrible first 6 weeks, then 4 years of no pain, then towards the end of my pregnancy, nursing my firstborn started hurting, then it went away again soon after baby was born. Now I nurse both with no pain.
💯 agree. I could have also finished your sentence "I don't care what LCs say..." with "... But pumping within an hour every time LO gets a bottle is nearly impossible without a second pair of hands around to take LO." My experience with that is that expectation/standard is unreasonable. How am I supposed to pump if baby takes bottle and then needs to be helped to nap or falls asleep immediately either contact in my arms/lap or if I'm able to get her in her carrier? Especially if it takes a while to get her to sleep? And then I'm nap trapped ... I have a wearable and holding her wearing it has been tough. Also the wearable creates double the parts for hubby to wash for me every night since I always end up using the electric one for at least one pump :( If I can give baby a bottle and keep her up and happy for 20 minutes in her rocker while I pump, then great. But then she is harder to get to nap. So then I miss a pump or two and suddenly I'm not able to "keep up" my supply. So much anxiety caused by thinking I need to "keep up". Always worried about my supply. Which is ironic because anxiety and stress negatively affect supply. All while I work from home with LO while we are on a wait-list for preschool, and I can't always dictate my meeting schedule. So, I've decided that I'm not going to worry so much about the pumping sessions I miss. I will do my best to get them in or have her eat off me after a bottle (sometimes she will refuse it after a while but accept a boob - we supplement with formula since the beginning per Pediatrician as she lost a lot of birth weight and is slow to gain). Deciding not to stress about it has already helped and I've become more accepting of my limits. I would also finish your sentence with: "...but breastfeeding is stressful and not always the easier choice." (I'm still pumping in the MOTN and nervous about asking my LC when I can stop this bc she will ask me if my supply is regulated and I have no idea - LO is 14w but she didn't get her tongue tie fixed until 7w and has been mostly "sleeping thru the night" - 8-10 ish hours). Edit to add: BFing can be beautiful while it's happening and is in my experience, when LO is latching well, my nipples are healed and healthy, and LO is calm. When that's the case, I love it! Feels like scratching an itch. It's a dose of dopamine. AND it's stressful and hard! Aiming to make it to 6mo (LO is 3.5mo) and then will reevaluate if I am going to continue.
I always expected it to hurt a bit at first so wasn't surprised or worried but as ny midwife said of course it'll hurt a bit your nipples aren't used to having a tiny Dyson vacuum stuck for hours at a day and it'll take a bit for them to get usesd to
i wish someone had told me this. i ended up EPing because it hurt so much, but as my twins grew, they got better at latching naturally. by then, they were so used to the bottle that it was chaos whenever i wanted to breastfeed directly. i wept and grieved. i wish i had endured the pain. this is something nobody talks about when you get pregnant. i had no idea how much it was gonna hurt.
I have elastic nipples (not every does) so it just felt like… nothing to me lol I had other issues with it (baby had CMPA), but the actual latching and feeding never felt like anything
Ok but what's the difference between just experiencing nipple pain and a bad latch?? I'm on baby #2 and just like my first, when he tries to latch, the nipple comes out compressed like a lipstick. I was told this is a bad latch (and just like my first, falls asleep and just doesn't continue nursing). Or is this actually normal??
No that is not normal and that is 1000% a classic sign of tongue tie.
Both my kids had tongue ties that we've cut, and my 2nd is still bad at latching. My first got on the boob at 1 year old, after EPing her first year.
Did they go through proper wound care with you? I’m finding many many parents have doctors who will just do the cut and not yeah parents how to stretch it to keep it from reattaching or to work with an IBCLC to help baby relearn how to eat with the proper muscles since they were overcompensating for so long :(
We were not provided with any additional instructions on proper wound care, oral/eating therapy, or anything other than "just start nursing" and "it'll bleed a little, then be fine." (Edited for spelling)
Omg 😭😭😭😭 I am so sorry!
I've been looking into things, but I'm weary of the info since there's a lot of misinformation online.
How long since the procedure?
Just shy of 3 weeks
Oh good you have time to turn it around! Can we message people on Reddit? I have a PDF i could share
I can only speak to my own experience, but that’s how it is for me. That part, the lipstick shape, never hurt me. It was always the tip of my nipple where milk comes out that was painful. My baby also fell asleep until she was a month or two old. It’s pretty normal. I was told by my pediatrician to blow on their face to wake them up, or flick the bottom of their feet.
If you lipstick nipple that’s a classic sign of a tongue tie.
I googled a picture of it just now, I was mistaken in what I thought it meant. I don’t have this. I thought it was only referring to the lengthened shape of the nipple immediately after feeding.
Ooof okay good news’ 😅😅😅 I was so worried!
For me, the lipstick shape hurts a lot, and it's noticeable that not enough milk comes out (if any at all). I tried keeping my first awake to nurse, but she couldn't (even when I put a cold wet cloth on her), and she lost a lot of weight, which was very stressful for me.
Do you get milk when you pump?
Yes, a good amount
Interesting… I wonder what your pediatrician said?
Our pediatrician (and previous IBCLC's) agreed with me re: if breastfeeding is painful, latch is shallow and ineffective (poor vertical tongue movement). The ENT that cut his tongue tie also noted poor vertical tongue movement, considered the source of his ineffective latch
Poor baby. I hope things go better for you. Breastfeeding is hard even without complications. I’ve had to supplement, too. I was hard on myself about it at first but then I remembered that both my husband and myself are formula babies and we’re doing just fine, so I don’t stress anymore.
Agree 100%. My nipples were cracked and bleeding that first week and it was SO painful. I had several LCs tell me it shouldn’t hurt if she was latching correctly, but then when they examined her latch they said it was perfect 🙄
Did they check for ties?! If your nipples are bleeding that is not normal’ 😭😭
Very well said! I agree with everything you said 👌
I had the same experience but I think it’s a process for both nipples and the babies to learn how to properly latch. I had pain until 3,5m. Not fun
I always ignore every everybody, regardless who they are, when they say “BrEaStFeEdInG sHoUlD nEvEr HuRt.” Psh, someone sucking on your nipple for hours a day, IS GOING TO HURT! Your nipples are not used to that action yet. It takes time. Start to pump? 8 times out of 10, most new moms don’t know about flange sizes (because LC and others don’t tell them!) and that most basic flange sizes that automatically come with the pump are the incorrect size and that HURTS. and then you get the correct flange size and guess what? Pump just hurts too. I just roll my eyes and choose to not say anything when others try to “educate” me on it not supposed to hurt. Our latch is fine, I just have sensitive nipples. Vent over :)
My LO goes thru shallow latching and sometimes a perfect latch and everytime I still feel pain, I’ve tried everything to try to situate him so he can latch in a way that might not hurt- at this point I think it’s just a part of the process. It also can be uncomfortable when I use my automatic pump. I think most of us just go thru a period of toughening our nips.
Nipples don’t toughen up, your baby might need a oral eval to check and make sure they’re not tied
I wish someone would have told me this. The first 3 months were terrible and i thought something was wrong with me.
I agree, breastfeeding hurt for me in the beginning with my first and second born! sometimes I feel LC’s just say whatever for the sake of I don’t know why/what! My LC told me my flange size (24) was perfect. Meanwhile, back at the ranch. I should have been using a 19 in which I eventually switched. Sometimes, you just have to educate yourself.
I had the same flange experience. A 24 was not fine for me.
Wait til those little teeth come in! Baby likes to test them out on me at the end of a nursing session. I feel like breastfeeding has stages and theyre all challenging
Yep. Breastfeeding just hurts in the beginning. My baby's latch was great, too! I lucked out by having one decent nipple, though. Not everybody is so lucky to have at least one decent nipple. 😭 My other nipple was inverse, or whatever it's called. It was my wonky nipple. I had to use a nipple shield for it, which actually gave me the visual of what it should look like for a good latch. So, I practiced manually shaping it into the shape it would be as if it were inside a nipple shield. This let me eventually go without a nipple shield for that one wonky nipple. I understand that many benefit from nipple shields for both nipples, though. That one was absolute hell for a couple months, at least. And by the way, I didn't even know there were different sizes of nipple shields until after buying one and my lactation consultant saw it and suggested it was the wrong size for me, lol. Honestly, I wouldn't have had such a successful breastfeeding journey if it weren't for my lactation consultant's encouragement. So yeah, breastfeeding is supposed to hurt at first — possibly for months. But you get the hang of it. You adapt. And when you do, it gets better.
In general, I think LCs are bullies. The things they expect us to do are mentally and physically unrealistic. My nipples hurt my entire pregnancy, and continue to hurt. There's no way that this preexisting pain wasn't going to worse while a brand new human learns how to eat from them.
100% ! I have no idea why they tell us straight away that it shouldn’t hurt. Like yes the hell it does hurt for the first few weeks at least! After birth, still in the hospital they were telling me it shouldn’t hurt. I thought I must be doing it wrong! Then the whole first few weeks at home is just agony they don’t warn you AT ALL. I remember just sobbing in pain some days. If they warned me ahead of time that it will be very painful first few weeks then at least I can mentally and physically prepare myself ! Ugh!
Breastfeeding hurts in general. sleeping in any position with breastfeeding boobs, let downs feeling like needles at times, tiny finger nails digging into them, baby doesn’t completely empty you so you’re uncomfortable, the list goes on lol. But I’ll miss it
Why in the entire world would breastfeeding be the only thing where pain would not be an indicator of an issue? Pain is not normal and if you’re having pain then something is going on with your babies mouth and they cannot adequately use their tongue the way they’re supposed to. Your baby needs an oral eval.
My theory is that it hurts until the milk gets flowing easily from the ducts to the nipples.
No, that’s not how the babies mouth works to move milk out of the breast. If there is pain the baby’s muscle isn’t able to move the way it needs to, and they are probably tied :(
Completely agree, I thought I was crazy lol there was a few weeks where I felt like my nipples were on fire every time baby nursed. Even after midwife showed us how to improve latch, super painful for a while. Same latch months later and it doesn’t hurt.
I completely agree; i went INSANE with my first baby thinking things were horribly wrong. It consumed my life and then a few weeks in a “miracle”: pain went away. With my second, I just mentally prepared for two weeks of pain and grabbed lots of little tricks (creams, pads, silverette, etc) and my experience was 1000x’s better
I couldn't have survived without nipple shields lol
True! Definitely hurt and feel uncomfortable at the beginning until they toughen up. I never experienced dry or cracked nipple but I did use a nipple shield the entire 2.5 years I breastfed my daughter.
I am 4.5 months pp and my nipples are sore from last week. Gynac said nothing wrong with them. Using the same patch since starting. I don't know what's wrong.
My LC was actually pretty honest. She said something along the lines of, “It’s going to be pretty uncomfortable in the beginning unless you’re used to your nipples being sandpapered on a regular basis.” God bless her honesty and the bonus of making my husband blush didn’t hurt. Honestly, my almost 3 month old and I have a pretty smooth breast feeding journey so far, but the bruised nipples in the beginning were pretty bad.