Breastfeeding is not easy

Breastfeeding is not easy, or certainly not as easy as everyone makes it out to be. It’s also such a subject around which there is a lot of judgement and political noise, yet there is often very little practical advice for women.

For me, I could not believe how little I knew about how hard it can be until I was in that position. It doesn’t just happen naturally for many women. When I was breastfeeding I was in the UK and incredibly lucky to have had lactation support groups. However, even still it was hard. When baby was first born she would not latch properly, or when she did it was hugely painful. The mid-wife told me that pain was just part of breastfeeding.

After I went home I kept trying, but my nipples were bleeding and I ended up giving her some formula because I was in so much pain that no milk would come. I tried nipple shields (which are ridiculous), creams, everything. Went to see a community lactation person (thankfully for free) and they advised me that they thought she was tongue-tied and that was the difficulty with her feeding. I got to a hospital a week later for them to deal with it, but in the interim I had started pumping and supplementing with formula. It was exhausting.

Once the tongue tie was fixed, it was easier, but by then my daughter had grown used to the bottle and would only really latch properly at night when she was half asleep. So for 9 long months I pumped and fed her and tried to stock up extra in the freezer. It was frustrating, exhausting and debilitating.  ‘Believing’ in breastfeeding is not enough – breastfeeding is not easy.

AG, United Kingdom