As you step into the world of motherhood, you come across a multitude of experiences. One of these experiences is breastfeeding. While people talk about breastfeeding as a beautiful interaction between a mother and her newborn, it doesn’t always come easy. Most of the time, mothers experience different kinds of problems as they start to breastfeed. To help you understand better, here are some common breastfeeding problems that mothers face.
Non-Latching Baby
The worst thing that can happen is that your baby doesn’t latch on. Even though this is extremely common, but mothers easily get distressed over this. So, if you’re struggling with this, then you should implement an easy way to make your baby latch on.
Try skin-to-skin contact to get your baby to breastfeed. This proves to be a successful method to get your baby to latch on quicker to your breasts. In the meanwhile, make use of a breast pumping bra or a hands free pump bra to help you in feeding your baby.
Dealing With A Sleepy Baby
Many times, you will find that your baby is too sleepy all the time to feed properly. This can be quite stressful as you get concerned about whether the baby is getting enough food or not. A baby that doesn’t nurse on your breast and keeps sleeping while you try to breastfeed them can put you in a difficult position.
To overcome this, try to make the best out of the feeding time. If your baby isn’t sucking on your breast when you try to feed them, then you should force the action yourself. Squeeze your breast with your index finger and thumb enough to encourage your milk flow. This, in turn, will make your baby respond by sucking and swallowing the milk you’re producing.
Breast Sensitivity
Breastfeeding can become uncomfortable for mothers. Sometimes, breasts become sensitive or tender throughout the entire process. This isn’t a serious issue but does create uncomfortableness for the mother. If you’re experiencing too much pain, however, then that is a sign related to a different issue. This means that your baby isn’t latching on to your breast properly.
You want to make sure that you’re in the right position when you’re feeding your baby. It’s up to you to ensure that your baby is opening their mouth wide enough when they latch on your breast. This means that their chin should be pressed into your breast and the head tilted back to that their nose is unblocked. Try not to secure their head with your hand as that is often a cause of a bad latch.
Leaking Breasts
During the first few weeks, you will surely experience your breasts leaking. This will take some time to get used to as you will be dealing with for a while after delivery. Even just thinking about your baby can cause this. But how do you stop this from happening?
Well, you could try to make use of a hands free pump bra and pump away the milk for your newborn. Other than that, you can also wear a nursing pad and wear dark color tops to ensure that no one else can see you leak. Keep some extra nursing pads on you so that you can replace the ones that have been destroyed.
Poor Milk Supply
It is common to experience that your breasts aren’t producing enough milk. This can be a result of you using bottles more than the breast for feeding. Since breastmilk is produced based on the demand, you won’t be producing much if you have shifted to using a bottle.
To make sure that your child gets enough milk, you should try your best to stimulate your breasts and feed your baby as much as possible. If that’s not doable, then you can pump milk for your child and feed them with a bottle. Use a breast pumping bra to help you with this and you will be good to go.
Inverted Or Flat Nipples
Inverted or flat nipples don’t have anything to do with the production of your milk supply. So, you shouldn’t be worrying if you see that your nipples don’t protrude outwards as they do for others; you can work around this. The only problem that arises with flat or inverted nipples is the difficulty in latching. Your baby will find it difficult to latch on to your breast if your nipples are flat or inverted.
The best thing for you to do in such a situation is to press your areola while you go about breastfeeding your baby. It’ll make it easier for your baby to latch on to your breast.
Plugged Milk Ducts
At times, you might have to deal with plugged milk ducts. This means that your milk ducts have become clogged with the production of milk. When this happens, you will find that you’re experiencing lumps in your breast. But, stay calm and start doing warm compresses to your breasts before you breastfeed. This will help ensure that you can feed your baby.
As you go about feeding your baby, make sure to drain your entire breast to avoid any further issues. Once you’re done feeding your baby, massage your breasts to help alleviate the issues of the lump. Make sure that you’re not wearing tight bras and applying warm compresses regularly to help with this.
Excessive Production Of Milk
Just like you can produce little milk, you can produce too much milk as well. This excessive production of milk might result in too much force on your baby during feeding time. Make sure to use breast pumps secured by a hands free pump bra to help make sure that this milk isn’t getting wasted. Moreover, if you wish to breastfeed your baby, then you can easily just express a small amount of milk by your hand to reduce the force of your let down.
If you feel like there is something completely out of the blue going on, then it is best to consult your doctor. While breastfeeding does come with its issues, you need to make sure that you and the baby, both are healthy and happy throughout.
