General

Nursing my baby was hard at first. There was pain and bleeding. At first I had blocked ducts and when they burst it was bloody raw. Newborns latch on hard and suck hard. It hurts even more when there's an injury. Baby needed bottle feeding from expressed milk for four days, against the advise of the home visiting nurse who said baby wouldn't breast feed again after. Thankfully, she was wrong. By day four baby rejected the bottle and went back to breast feeding. There was more pain and discomfort for a few days or more. It was a long time ago and I forget the exact period of days. It's that way with small babies, one day blends into the next in a tired blur. But after that it was easy and pleasurable. There are feel-good hormones that happen on nursing, it's almost as good as getting a massage! Baby fed and got fatter, mamma lost pregnancy pounds by sitting on the couch, all was good. Feeding baby in public took a little getting used to. I didn't cover with a cloth as many do. Baby would have removed it anyway, they do have preferences of their own. I was lucky that it all worked out for me and I was glad I persevered. There are some I knew who had to move on to bottle feeding for good reasons and their babies did very well too.

General

The let down reflex is powerful. There were times baby would only snuffle, not even asking for milk, and there would be milk running from both nipples, drenching pads, nursing bra and clothing. There were times milk squited right across the room before baby could latch on. There were times that so much milk filled baby's mouth that baby release the nipple and, again, milk squirted everywhere like some shower head. Nursing a baby is not an exact science and there is mess, but this is how young humans eat. A little more societal acceptance of these challenges would be appreciated.