Pregnant mommas who want to BF

A lot of FTMs don't know about bf (breastfeed) and before you do bf it feels like a very simple thing. Yank out a boob, baby drinks. Then you give birth and whole world crashes when you find out it's not that simple and there is whole science behind it.

I was in prodormal labor for 3 days, traumatic birth (9-10 hour active labor), epidural stopped working on one side, child born in trauma and rushed to NICU before I could even hold him, side effect of epidural - urine retention so had to stay at hospital for 4 more days. Episiotomy, stitches hurt like hell couldn't sit for a month.

All this then I had awful breastfeeding experience despite being at hospital for 9 days. I wish someone would have guided me abit for breastfeeding. All my midwife did was tell me how to hand express, what is cluster feeding and that baby's day 2 and day 3 will be hell. But there is so much more.

So sharing some tips and hope it helps all FTMs and they have a better BF journey than mine.

1- Milk leaks: buy milk collection cups and take em with you to the hospital, they will collect all milk you leak in early days which is important. In start the nipples feel very raw too you don't even want the breast pads to touch them so the cups help in that too.

( My baby was in NICU, had severe jaundice, I had low supply but I leaked a lot, wish someone would have told me this and I'd have given all that early milk to my baby)

2- Latch Latch Latch: download a video on what perfect latch looks like, watch it day and night. don't settle for anything less.

( When midwives were with me they helped baby latch so ofc it was a good latch but I thought baby's lips on nipple and sucking is called latch, resulted in cracked nipples which resulted in infection which made me want to stop bf, I cried a lot)

3- Supply: Breastfeeding is supply and demand. The more your baby drinks the more milk your body creates. Sometimes baby cries on boob if they're sleepy and want your help to put them to sleep or if they're gassy or simple want pacifier, don't gaslight yourself into thinking you have low supply and baby is crying cuz milk isn't coming.

(I triple fed my baby, which means drink from breast, then feed formula bottle to baby and then pump to increase supply - it was hell and I am thankful to be over that stage)

4- Don't throw in the towel before week 8: because of feeling like shit due to birth injuries and unable to sleep or sit, extreme pain in left breast after feeding I wanted to quit at week 4, was supported by my family too as my mental health and healing was more important. I used to pump 4-6 times a day to avoid engorgement and gave that pumped milk to baby along with formula. Slept few hours, episiotomy healed, could sit. Then I had motivation to BF as I loved and missed the face baby made while BF and I used to see my baby cry for milk while bottle was made I used to think if baby was BF he won't have to cry long. Things and BF journey got better after it, the pain in left breast was because of poor latch and the mistakes from before. 8 weeks into BF journey and things are great now. Baby is exclusively BF sleeps 3-4 hours at night wakes up feeds then sleeps again for 3-4 hours.

5- if you're giving bottles due to some issues then make sure they are very slow flow: babies have to work hard at breast, bottles are easy so babies develop preference for bottles, by using slow flow teat baby has to work hard in bottle too and helps them not get a preference.

So glad I didn't quit and I hope by sharing this, new mommas don't have to suffer like I did.

Do search and read about engorgement, let down, paced feeding, mastitis, nursing positionsyou can just peruse r/breastfeeding too, reading about people's experience helps to know about things too rather than a paid article or blog.