Pain/Sore nipples/breasts
You shouldn’t get pins and needles, pain or discomfort when feeding your baby at the breast,
Get some support and advice from a qualified support breast feeding person. There are breast feeding clinics and then there are breastfeeding clinics! Ensure you get a good reputable clinic, perhaps one run by a breastfeeding councellor or lactation consultant, or find one at the clinic to ask about feeding, latch and position. Get them to watch you latch on and feed your baby.
A really good professional will observe/support a FULL feed offering advice and support. and often tea and cakes! They alwasy have tissues and hugs on hand and are a lovely bunch of ladies which often had problems feeding their own children. They should not touch you, massage your breast or dive in, after all, you've got to get this right on your own at home and you wont have an extra pair of hands holding your baby or your breast!
If you get home and it's just the same despite being better under the eye of the support person, go back or find more help. Reach out each time you get a problem and come 6-8 weeks breastfeeding should be easier - not long when you could be feeding your baby for at least a year. There are stories in our articles section of women who have overcome massive odds to be able to breastfeed.
Complementary therapies that might help: tongue tie specialist, breastfeeding counsellor, massage therapist.
Just to let you know: the maternity network is not pro breastfeeing - we are pro the correct support to feed your baby the way you want to. nipple shields, cups, syringes and bottles can all be stepping stones to getting baby back on the breast if you've had to stop momentarily.
Home remedies and suggestions for pain or soreness on your niples/breasts
- Go to a beastfeeding clinic or Association of Breastfeeding Mothers councellor, breastfeeding network or lactation consultant for help. That's what they're there for. I fyou dont feel you can go to a clinic, they will be able to come to you on a private fee basis(about £45 for around 2 hours)
- If the cradling position isn’t working for you, try holding your baby in a different way such as the football hold or lying down.
- Give your baby lots of time and patience.
- Cuddle them up skin-to-skin with you and encourage them to lick around the nipple to get used to it. Take your baby to bed with you and let baby latch on and lick the breast, he may bob around on the breast - this is completely natural and how they find the nipple.
- Remember it's called Breastfeeding, not nipple feeding so ensure the baby takes the whole nipple and most of the brown skin around your nipple into her mouth.
- Get a breastfeeding counsellor to show you biological nurturing to help your baby get a good latch established
- Ensure you help your baby to latch on by putting their nose to your nipple and chin to skin. They should open their mouth and lift their head to bring their mouth over the nipple, push your baby towards your breast to bring the breast to help it go into baby's mouth.
- Never hold the back of your baby's head, they will just want to pull back - you would too if some one put a hand on the back of your head and pushed you into your food! Instead suport them around their shoulders and neck.
- If you’re really struggling, ask a professional to check your son/daughter for tongue-tie because this can be a reason why your baby cannot latch on easily.
- Have you and your bay's mouth checked for thrush - it thrives on damaged nipples and causes sorness and painful feeding. Correct latch, thrush treatment and tongue tie cut could help this.
- Question anything that doesn't sound right to you or get a second opinion. Make sure you see a qualified breastfeeding person, not a health visitor, GP or midwife who hasn't had in depth breastfeeding training.
Breastfeeding - finding the right support
I breastfed, against all the odds, by Louise Prince