Unconventional Tips for Breastfeeding Success

0

Congratulations on the birth of your baby and kudos to you for deciding to breastfeed! Breastfeeding isn’t always easy, but it can be a wise choice.

Benefits of Breastfeeding

Breastfed infants have reduced incidence or severity of:

  • Lower respiratory infections
  • Ear infections
  • Gastroenteritis
  • Necrotizing enterocolitis
  • SIDS
  • Allergy and eczema
  • Celiac Disease
  • Inflammatory Bowel Disease
  • Obesity
  • Diabetes
  • Leukemia and Lymphoma

Breastfeeding also promotes the health of the breastfeeding mother. It protects against:

  • Postpartum blood loss and hemorrhage
  • Type II Diabetes
  • Hypertension
  • Hyperlipidemia
  • Cardiovascular disease
  • Breast cancer
  • Ovarian cancer

And may also help with:

  • the spacing of pregnancies
  • return to pre-pregnancy weight

Tips to Help You Succeed

Establish Your Goals

First and foremost, take a few minutes to think about YOUR breastfeeding goals, not society’s goals for you and your baby. Think about how you want breastfeeding to look and feel for you and your baby. Be realistic, but really dig down and think about your personal goals. When you are clear on what YOU want, have room for flexibility and give yourself grace, and you will be much more successful. Keep your vision close at hand at all times.

Find Your Comfort Zone

Get comfortable breastfeeding in public. Whatever comfortable is for you… Figure it out and hold true to it. If you’re out and about and your baby’s hungry, do you feel comfortable breastfeeding in public or are you worried about what other people will think? Stop worrying about other people and do what feels natural and comfortable for YOU.  

If it feels right to you, breastfeed your baby in the restaurant, not in the bathroom stall sitting on a cold, hard toilet seat (guilty).  

If you want to breastfeed your child until she’s four, do it unapologetically (also guilty). It’s your baby, your right, and it’s not weird or gross.  

If you gave it your best try and breastfeeding isn’t right for you, that’s your choice and it’s okay. Do think about researching homemade formulas. Be sure to discuss it with your pediatrician to make sure your baby is getting all the vital nutrients he needs for growth and development. Although much less convenient, it is so much more nutritious. Have you ever wondered why the only options given to new moms are breast milk or formula?  Surely, we can make a nutritious formula from real food ingredients and not rely on formula companies to feed our babies. How did the population even survive before formula?!

Learn to breastfeed laying down. This can be a total game-changer for tired, stressed moms who don’t think they can keep up much longer.  

Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable

You will not always be able to predict when your baby will be hungry and you won’t have a lot of time before she goes ballistic because she’s ready to eat NOW. Even when you think you’ve got it figured out, she’ll throw a curveball at you.

Learn to be ultra-flexible and ready to feed on demand. This can be very hard for many organized, detail-oriented people who thrive on routine and schedules.  

Learn to get comfortable with that ever-present anxiety of not knowing when your baby will get hungry and where you’ll be or what you’ll be doing at that exact moment.   

Let go of any resentment toward your husband if he is able to sleep through the night. If you are exclusively breastfeeding and avoiding bottles, he isn’t going to be able to help much anyway. Let him sleep and you cherish the special time you have with your baby in the middle of the night. There will come a time when you think of those moments fondly. It might be a while, but it will come. ?

Learn to appreciate being a sticky mess. Breastfeeding is messy and sticky. In the beginning, you won’t have a lot of extra time for extravaganzas like showering and brushing your hair. Get comfortable with looking like a real new mom, not like the ones you see on Instagram. Regardless of how you look or feel, you ARE beautiful for loving your baby completely with your mind, body, and soul.  

Be Prepared  

Have a cover-up available, but understand your baby may not want to be kept in the dark, warm, stuffy underneath of a cover-up.  She may rip that thing off every time you get it situated. You will spend more time frustrated with the cover-up and less time focusing on your sweet baby. Your baby WILL feel your frustration and respond in kind. Learn to keep your expectations low and go with the flow.

Don’t expect to adhere to a tight, rigid schedule for you or your baby. Watch your baby not the clock to know when to feed him. Feed the baby when he’s hungry and feed yourself when you’re hungry. Make this a non-negotiable! That will probably mean learning to eat one-handed with your baby attached to your breast while you eat. For some reason, babies ALWAYS get hungry the minute their moms sit down to eat. ?‍♀️

Offer a “dream feed” right before you go to bed. I would never ever suggest waking a sleeping baby, except for a dream feed. If you gently get your baby out of bed for a breastfeeding session right before you go to bed, your baby will likely latch on easily and fill her belly right before you hit the sack. This could buy you a few extra hours of precious sleep (and possibly some sweet dreams).  

Have something to drink close by, especially in the beginning. Breastfeeding stimulates your uterus to contract to help it get back to its normal size. Those contractions hurt! Just like they did when they were pushing your baby out. During the contraction, drink lots of water. I don’t know why, but it helps with the discomfort. And it helps keep you hydrated which you need to make lots of milk.  

Seek Help

If you’re struggling, seek the guidance of a knowledgeable Lactation Consultant. Like stop reading this blog and contact one NOW.  They are game-changers and can help you stay on track to meet your breastfeeding goals.  

Columbus Lactation Resources

Nurture Columbus

Milk Maid LC

Baby’s Best Beginning

Ohio Health

Embrace This Special Time

Last but not least, learn to love, embrace, and cherish this time. It’s hard! But like all things related to raising kids, it is fleeting. It is a time and experience you will never get to do-over. Trust the process, trust your baby, trust yourself.  You got this, mama!