preparing for nursing while still pregnant - anything i can do?

[DivineMrsM]

is there anything i can do NOW to make sure that i will be able to nurse? i had no problem with my son, other than the initial nipple discomfort. but my milk production was awesome. i really had an oversupply with my first. but since nursing my first, i've become somewhat of a lactivist. so i'm kinda worried that karma will get me in the butt and make nursing difficult this time around.

so is there anything i can do to ensure a good supply?

[ChetMC]

No

No. As far as I know, there is nothing you can do to help your supply when you're pregnant. Hopefully though, genetics are on your side and things will be similar for you this time around. My experience hasn't been exactly the same with breastfeeding and pregnancy each time around, but it has been similar.

If you haven't seen the Hilary Flowers book, Adventures in Tandem Nursing you might want to take a look at it.

[KoalaMommy]

I wouldn't worry about preparing. Most of the time your body knows what to do, and your milk comes in after birth.

Just be prepared for a repeat on the nipple soreness. Hospital LCs think that's odd, but my aunt was a breastfeeding researcher and she and her colleagues found that 95% of women had just as much pain if not more with the 2nd as with the first.

[ChetMC]

Originally Posted by ChetMC

No. As far as I know, there is nothing you can do to help your supply when you're pregnant. Hopefully though, genetics are on your side and things will be similar for you this time around. My experience hasn't been exactly the same with breastfeeding and pregnancy each time around, but it has been similar.

If you haven't seen the Hilary Flowers book, Adventures in Tandem Nursing you might want to take a look at it.

Sorry. I misunderstood. I thought you wanted to improve your chances of successful nursing of an older child DURING this pregnancy... not to prepare during pregnancy for nursing new baby after delivery.

[MamaMonica]

Moved to Breastfeeding .

[MountainMamaGC]

Putting the baby to the breaast ASAP after birth can help establish your supply as well as nursing as often as possible. There is nothing you can really do before the baby is born.

[ShwarmaQueen]

I would just suggest reading too. I don't suspect I'll have any issues, since I didn't with DD, but it doesn't hurt to be proactive by knowing what to do in problematic situations.

[Heba]

Originally Posted by KoalaMommy

Hospital LCs think that's odd, but my aunt was a breastfeeding researcher and she and her colleagues found that 95% of women had just as much pain if not more with the 2nd as with the first.

I'm very interested in this, KoalaMommy. I wonder if their study considered pain which was unaddressed, tackled but unresolved, or tackled and resolved. I could certainly see that if pain was due to, say, poor positioning that it would be very likely to repeat itself if there had been no intervention at the time; or tongue tie which may run in families. Anyway, very interesting - might you have more information on this that you could share?