Looking after your breasts and nipples will help your breastfeeding experience get off on the right foot. Here are some quick tips, to assist you avoid breast and nipple pain:

1. Practise good attachment - a poorly attached baby, means breastfeeding will hurt, and can result in irreparable damage to your nipples. If you need assistance, consultalt a Lactation consultant (sooner rather than later) if the problem lies with your baby, consider gentle corrective techniques, such as chiropractic
2. Invest in a good fitting bra. Breastfeeding boobs, need support. Update your bra as your breasts grow or shrink.
3. Allow your nipples to air dry after each feed. You can express a little milk onto them to assist healing any forming blisters or cracks. (Good attachment ought to help you avoid these to begin with)
4. Hydrolised Lanolin (ie. Lansinoh) is a good cream for soothing, and helping nipples become supple. (it also makes a great nappy barrier cream, and lipbalm…)
5. Sunshine helps any minor cracks heal.
6. Keep a good watch for blocked ducts. If you notice any tenderness, or lumps, massage GENTLY under a hot shower, and if you can’t move the lump along - speak with a lactation consultant (sooner rather than later)
7. Don’t wear a tight bra to bed. If you need the support, invest in a crop top, or special sleeping bra. (Tight bras, constrict milk ducts, and can cause blockages)

Remember, if it doesn’t feel right - it probably isn’t. Seek support and help from a professional, and keep asking until you get an answer that helps you.

Many mothers that I’ve chatted to about breastfeeding, initally express some concern about not being able to guage how much breastmilk their baby is recieving.

Inaccrurate advice, has them attempting to measure their supply by expressing - which is foolish, because a baby is much more efficient at extracting breastmilk from you, and your supply will fluctuate dependent on a never endling list of factors.

An effective way to put your mind at ease, that your child is getting enough breastmilk, is to check for 6 to 8 wet nappies a day. Clear urine (not smelly yellow urine) is a good indicator.

The only trouble with this is, that disposable diapers (I call the disgustables…) tend to be so absorbant, it’s hard to tell how much wee is in them.

Cloth nappies come to the party to solve this problem, as it’s super easy to guage just how much liquid is in them.  If you don’t want to invest in a fulltime cloth nappy venture, perhaps running a few cheap prefolds up for those first few days, so you can put your mind at ease, and reassure yourself you’re giving your baby enough. (Which, if you’re feeding on demand, allowing the baby to drain the breast, and not restricting it’s access to feeds is highly likely)

Cloth prefolds are super easy to sew, and with practise you can knock one up in about 15 minutes.  A set of 6 or so will cost you less than $20 if you use nappy flanellette, and if you don’t end up using cloth diapers, they make good all purpose mop up cloths or burpies!

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Allowing our child to lead us, and teach us when they are ready to undertake a developmental task, can ease the pressure and stress for both Parents and baby. Some exampes might be - baby-led weaning, baby led-attachment, toddler led toilet training…

“Baby-led attachment is the term given to the process where your baby follows a pattern of instinctive behaviours to get to the breast. This can be for the first breastfeed or at any time when the attachment is not correct and your nipples are damaged.”

For the first breastfeed, this involves the baby instinctively “crawling” up the mother’s abdomen, to the breast, where the rooting reflex allows her to locate, and attach to the nipple.  A step by step, diagrammed guide to Baby Led attachment is available here.

“If the baby is placed on the abdomen or with the head on the lower portion of the sternum, the baby will rest for a period of about 30 minutes and will tend to look up at its mother on and off. In this period, the baby is in what is called the quiet-alert state. In this state, the baby is unusually exciting. It’s very interested in faces. It will look directly at the father’s and mother’s eyes. It’s important that the mother and the obstetrical group, midwives, nurse and obstetrician not disturb the baby, not bathe the baby or give Vitamin K or eye ointment, but delay these for an hour until the time for the mother and baby is over with. The baby will have a whole set of behaviors that are very exciting and very valuable for the mother and father to view and to understand. At the end of about 30 minutes, the baby begins lip-smacking movements. After a short period of time, the baby begins to move forward, mainly by pushing with its back legs. As it starts towards the mother’s chest, the baby will often move its head from side to side, sometimes extending its chin all the way to the shoulder. As the baby moves forward, if the right breast is washed, the baby will go to the left breast. If the left breast is washed, the baby will go to the right breast. If both breasts are washed and amniotic fluid is placed on the right breast, the baby will go to where the mother’s amniotic fluid is placed.”

Baby Led attachment, is an awe inspiring, and beautiful relic from nature that we’ve been left with, and can help facilitate a good breastfeeding relationship.

References:

Marshall Klaus MD, What do we know about birth, http://www.birthcenters.org/generations-library/what-do-we-know/klaus.php.

Australian Breastfeeding Association, Baby Led-attachment http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/bla.html