My breastfeeding story

I had always thought breastfeeding was something I wanted to try. From a very early stage I had read and heard how difficult it would be. I had read the horror stories of babies not latching on, sore and cracked nipples, engorgement and mastitis (some people love to tell a good horror story) so I had fully prepared myself for a hard time. However I had convinced myself that I would try. Even if it was only for the first 6 weeks, I would give it a go and if it worked for us: great! And if it didn't then at least we had tried.

The NHS, as every mother-to-be will find out, is very big on breastfeeding. Even as someone who chose to breastfeed I found them very pressuring. I had admitted to my midwife that I wanted to try breastfeeding, and I stress the word try because I was fully prepared for it not to work. However she clearly heard what she wanted to hear and never gave me any advice or even once spoke about what I would do if I couldn't breastfeed. The amount of books, leaflets and DVD's you receive on breastfeeding is overwhelming. I often wonder what I would have recieved had I decided to bottle feed. Probably nothing.

Anyway I had done my research and was fully prepared for a treacherous time with breastfeeding and from the moment Logan was born... It never came. An hour after Logan was born, as we lay in the recovery ward, the midwife asked if I wanted to try feeding him. Thankfully we were the only ones in the ward at the time because reading about it and watching DVD's about it are very different from doing it. After a lot of shuffling about (as much shuffling as you can do when you have no feeling from the waist down) and a lot of help from my partner I managed to get into a semi-comfy position and got Logan latched on.

And from then we have never looked back. I've even breastfeeding now for 15 weeks and I've yet to have any horror symptoms that come along with breastfeeding. Don't get me wrong I believe that we've been very lucky that it's happened so naturally for us. I had some slightly painful times in the beginning but it was mild pain that lasted less than 30 seconds when he would first latch on which is perfectly normal. I don't want to paint an unrealistic picture and pretend that it's all plain sailing and problem free for everyone, when I know that's not the case. However when I first looked into it I thought EVERYONE had problems with breastfeeding and I've realised it doesn't always have to be that way. So far it's coming naturally to us, and for as long as it does I will continue breastfeeding. 

Kirsty x