Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Breastfeeding Carnival

Welcome to the sixth Carnival of Breastfeeding, April 19 2007, sponsored by the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog! My post is about April's theme: "What I didn't expect when I was expecting." See links below for other Carnival posts.


My story doesn't have a sensational ending or plot twist. I didn't struggle with painful, bleeding nipples or low supply or any of the other horror stories you often hear about. Nursing was the wonderful, pleasurable experience I had imagined it to be. I attribute this mostly to the education and preparation I did while I was pregnant. And to a baby who learned well and quickly!

I bought a copy of Jack Newman's The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers and read it cover-to-cover twice before I had my baby. I spent a lot of time poring over chapters about how to get a good latch, since it is the culprit in so many breastfeeding issues. I also watched several of Dr. Newman's online videos about good & poor latches and how to do breast compression. I highly recommend this, as seeing successful breastfeeding in action is different than just reading about it.

I found the number of my local LLL leader in case I needed help. When I had a series of painful plugged ducts a few months postpartum, her advice helped me clear them up fairly quickly.

I planned for a completely uninterrupted labor, birth, and bonding period. For me, that meant choosing an unassisted home birth. I also found a local Baby Friendly hospital in case I needed to transfer, so I wouldn't be separated from my newborn. My labor and birth went perfectly, and I was snuggled in bed nursing my beautiful daughter within 5 minutes after she was born. She nursed for two hours straight.

For the first month, I nursed her in a cross-cradle hold day and night. It was tiring at times, but it was the best position for ensuring a proper asymmetrical latch and for doing breast compression. After a month, we transitioned to the cradle hold during the day and figured out how to nurse lying down at night. I was in heaven!

Co-sleeping has also made night nursing a pleasurable experience. I wake up when my daughter starts to stir, and she's usually nursing within 15 seconds. All I have to do is roll onto my side, scoot her closer, and put my nipple close to her mouth. We often drift off to sleep together. When she's done, I simply scoot her back between me and my husband, just an arm's reach away. She hardly ever cries at night because I can respond immediately to her needs before she becomes distressed.

I firmly believe that doing my homework before the birth helped me have a seamless transition into motherhood and nursing.

Links to other Carnival posts:

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the information about Jack Newman, and all these post links. Once I do get pregnant again, I'm going to read as much as I can and I will save these links for future... I failed miserably with bf'ing my son and I vow to not fall into same traps with the next baby! Before I gave birth to him, I knew nothing about bf'ing and just thought it would come "naturally"... oh my gosh was I wrong, neither of us knew what we were doing and I was so sick that I couldn't emotionally handle the struggle of it.

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  2. I have to agree with you about Dr. Newman -- his writings about breastfeeding are excellent. Thank you for adding to the stories of how wonderful breastfeeding is. I am making a link to your post in my RSS feed today, Breastfeeding Daily Tip and News. It will run for two weeks.

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  3. I'm going back though and reading all your posts from start to finish :) I too enjoyed the same success with breastfeeding my son and I do also attribute it to education and preparedness before delivery. I repeated all what I had to do like a mantra and many a crazy pregnancy dream had to do with not being able to breastfeed him within that first hour. Too funny! Another book I highly recommend to everyone is "So That's What They're For"

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