Over the past 6 years I gave birth to 4 babies and breastfed them for a total of 4 years (1 year each) and when I started I did not know about these 9 interesting things about breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding is one way of feeding your baby, you can also pump and feed your baby breastmilk through a bottle or use formula in a bottle. I have done all 3 ways of feeding – sometimes we would supplement in the first week of their lives with formula and then throughout the year I would pump milk so that I could be away from my baby for more than a few hours for different appointments. But my main way of feeding them was to breastfeed them and that’s something I feel like I know a lot about!
There is no superior way to feed your baby, a fed baby is best! Pumping is known to be a lot of time but a great way to get your baby breastmilk if you plan on going back to work. Then some moms choose to feed their babies formula because they can’t produce milk or they are also going back to work or they simply do not want to breastfeed.
I mentioned the different types of ways to feed your baby because I didn’t have any complications with breastfeeding – I didn’t contract mastitis or have mixed emotions while feeding or have physical breastfeeding problems. Having a super smooth breastfeeding journey is not the norm, it is perfectly okay to have questions and concerns around it. If you ever feel like something is off or not working ask your doctor or lactation consultant! Trust your gut.
This past week was the last time I breastfed my last baby, but my heart was prepared. I treasure the memories of breastfeeding my babies, and I am excited for this new chapter of our lives. We are out of the baby phase! It’s bittersweet.
I remember when I was a 20 year old with my first baby, literally knew nothing about breastfeeding. I would wake up covered in sticky milk, completely overwhelmed by how much my baby needed me. I was her source of food. It was a bizarre contrast to how other 20 year olds were living. But I would not have traded it for anything in the world, it was the beginning of our family.
Here are the 9 interesting things about breastfeeding I wish I knew when I started:
- Take a shower everyday: It will help you feel human again. It doesn’t matter if your baby is crying or if you don’t feel like it. Put your baby in their crib safely (no toys, no stuffies, no blankets or pillows) and take a 5 minute shower.
- Where does the milk come out?: Am I the only one who thought breast milk came out of 1 hole in your breast? Because it is not like that! There are lots of tiny holes in the tissue that shoot out milk when stimulated. The best way to see this is if you have a milk pump that clear, it will show you exactly what is happening. Or YouTube it? Though you might find some weird stuff on there…
- Saliva communication: Your breast milk is constantly changing! Your baby’s saliva notifies the tissue in your breasts if they are feeling unwell or not – what do you mean? If your baby has a cold and needs more antibodies to fight it off, your body adjusts your breastmilk to accommodate that through their saliva. Their saliva sends a message to your body to make different milk for the different things their little bodies need.
- The BEST breastfeeding accessory: I know everyone claims to have the best recommendations, but this product is one I seriously wish I had known about with my first baby! The Haaka pump. It is amazing. By the time my last baby was 2 months old I had a huge supply of extra breast milk in my freezer for when my husband or family would take care of the baby while I was out. I did not need to use the Haaka pump for pumping, but I would use it to catch all the let down on the other breast when nursing so I wasn’t losing that liquid gold. Which leads us into the next point…
- The milk let down: You can’t control your milk let down so when it happens it happens on both breasts when your baby is only attached to one. Especially when I was a new mom I didn’t understand why other women wore breast pads, they seemed like a hassle. But they are essentially creating another fabric barrier to soak up your let down milk to keep your bra and other clothes dry. Trust me, I have had so many wet t-shirt spots from leaking through my shirt. It’s embarrassing but it happens to everyone!
- Breastfeeding can be uncomfortable, but it shouldn’t hurt: I remember my first night in the hospital with my brand new baby as a first time mom, I thought I had her latched correctly but it was just a little off. I now know it was off because it hurt and when I pulled her off there was a little blood blister. It hurt so badly, but the only way to correct it was to make sure her latch was proper and to do 5 minutes on each side until she was full. My point is the engorged breasts from your milk coming in, the raw nipples, clogged milk ducts are uncomfortable parts of breastfeeding – but if it hurts please call your doctor to talk to them.
- Clogged milk ducts: I shared a little more about clogged milk ducts in this blog post, but if you start to feel like you have flu-ish symptoms (ie aches, chills, plus pain in your breast) you may have a clogged milk duct! It’s when the milk is not fully drained and the tissue becomes clogged, it can lead to a scary infection called mastitis that will require you to go to the hospital for treatment. So being proactive about not dismissing symptoms is important!
- Invest in good nursing bras: It wasn’t until I found Knix that I finally found a good nursing bra, and technically these bras are not “nursing bras”. I had the worst experience with nursing bras with no support and with nursing bras that had lacey details on the side (ouch, the chaff!). It’s honestly trial and error until you find ones you like and then buy 4-5 of them!
- You can over produce milk: In the first few days of your milk coming in after you give birth it can be tempting to try to pump to get it started. But your body replies on supply and demand, so if you start telling your body it needs to make more, more, more it will go into hyperdrive to make it. And then when it comes in it will be more than you need if you don’t have any production issues. I didn’t know about this so I went to town thinking my milk wasn’t coming in and then it came in! The engorged was unreal and not fun at all, more than normal.
And those are the 9 interesting things about breastfeeding I wish I knew before I started! These have been my experiences, and your breastfeeding journey may not look anything like mine. It’s difficult to navigate but you and your baby will be pros at it by the end!
What are your breastfeeding questions? Or what interesting thing about breastfeeding do you wish you knew when you started? Let me know in a comment below!
If you like this post, check out my Ultimate Secret To Making Any Outfit Breastfeeding Friendly post before you go!
Make sure you pin this post on Pinterest so you can come back to it later!
