first time BF question - Page 2

[darcytrue]

Originally Posted by Conifer

Definitely ask for a lactation consultant at the hospital and they will get you one. Mine gave me a card to call her if I had any questions at all, but I got better help from the LLL in my opinion. Also the hospital I had DD at had a BFing support group.

I will definitely do this. I'm also going to drill it in to DH's head when it gets closer to my EDD. Actually, I've already begun doing that. He probably gets tired of hearing me discuss BF'ing at this point. I also plan to start telling my OB about it at every single appt from here on out just so they are prepared and hopefully they make note of it. I have to contact our pediatrician too and I will make mention of it to them when I set things up with them. Hopefully, this will be enough.

We visited the hospital last week to see a family member and ofcourse DD and I had to stop by the nursery and look in at the babies. There was a baby by the window with a little sign in his crib that said "training to breastfeed." How sweet.

[murphysaangel]

Great advice so far - just wanted to add that there might be another bf-encouraging moms group near you besides LLL, if you want to try a few different groups out there and see which fits. After all, the LLL aren't necessarily all "professionals" - and each group has a different vibe and personality. Basically, the thing that helped me most was just talking to regular women who'd been through it before - so just getting acquianted with some other mommies who bf will help tremendously. Check out meetup.com and seeif there's anything near you.

[abigail_b]

I haven't had time to read all the responses, but in my expereince I had the following resources: Lactation Consultant at the hospital. She was really great, and is training to be a midwife, but at the time she was not yet a mother and so didn't have any first hand experience. But she worked with me right after birth, and then over the phone, and I also came back and saw her when my nipple pain wasn't going away and she tried to help. When that still wasn't resolving the issue she referred me to a very experienced LC who is located further away. She did a home visit and it was covered by my insurance. Later on, when my son was over a year old I had issues with milk blisters and LLL was a great resource for me. I think there really are a lot of resources out there, and it shouldn't cost you much, if any $.
My son latched on and sucked like crazy right from the beginning, but I ended up having all sorts of issues with BFing, but never for two seconds did I consider giving it up and I nursed him until he was over 2 1/2. I think if you just really get yourself into the mind set that no matter what you will stick with it, you will be amazed at how many issues you can work through. Good luck!