Breastfeeding shouldn’t be painful. Many women experience pain in the first days after birth, but if you’re experiencing exceptional pain while nursing, there could be an issue with the way your baby is latching at the breast.
Improper latching results in a myriad of problems to the new mother, including sore, cracked, and bleeding nipples, and Thrush, a fungal infection. If you are too sore to nurse, your milk supply will suffer and your baby won’t get enough to eat. Ensuring that your baby is probably latched from day one, or correcting the problem soon thereafter, will prevent you from having to continually treat uncomfortable symptoms.
Get Started ASAP
The sooner you start breastfeeding your baby postpartum, the less likely you will experience latching challenges.
Tease Your Baby
To get your baby to grasp the entire nipple surrounding the areola, you need her to open his/her mouth wide, and you can do this by stimulating the rooting reflex. Choose from the following ways: “tease” your baby’s lips with your nipple or finger and the child should respond by opening up. You can also softly stroke your baby’s cheek and s/he should automatically turn his/her face toward you and open wide in anticipation of feeding.
Open Wide
Once your baby has her mouth open wide as if s/he were yawning, gently and swiftly move his/her head toward the breast and allow her to latch on, grasping as much of your breast into his/her mouth as possible. Your baby's lips should be turned inside out and should be positioned on the areola, not on the nipple itself. (The areola is the dark circular area surrounding the nipple.) Most of the areola should be covered by the baby’s mouth. When properly latched, the baby initiates suckling; the milk ducts are compressed and the milk is released. If your baby is instead latched on to the nipple, s/he is going to have a harder time drawing out the milk, which will frustrate your child. In turn s/he will suck harder, making things more painful for you.
Break Suction
If the baby is latched on properly you should not feel any pain. If you experience pain or the baby is not sucking correctly, break the suction by placing your finger inside the corner of the baby’s mouth near the gum line and the baby will release the breast. Reposition yourself, take a deep breath, tease the baby to open wide and start over.
Take Your Time
What we eat goes directly into the milk, and so do our thoughts and feelings. If we’re stressed out or upset, we send hormones into the bloodstream and subsequently the milk. This “sour milk” can upset the baby. We must take the time to make ourselves comfortable and relax into feeding time. Try to set aside a space for your feeding ritual, and treat it as your precious bonding time with your baby.
Recuperate
Remember that when baby is resting, you should rest. Also be sure to stay well hydrated and eat foods that fortify your milk.
