Breast-feeding

I would never have thought that something so natural could be so difficult. Even now, with Imogen seven weeks old, we still have some feeds that we struggle with. It's been shear stubbornness on my part, together with fantastic support from Dave and NCT breast-feeding
counsellors, that means I'm still carrying on. Oh, and the thought of the faff of sterilising & making up formula! It would have been so easy to give up on several occasions.

The antibiotics I had for a uterine infection left me prone to thrush, and sure enough it happened. It's difficult to describe the pain associated with thrush in the milk ducts, but the best I can do is that it feels like someone is sticking pins behind the nipple after a feed. Not pleasant at all! Luckily the BF counsellor and my midwife gave me some really good information (also available on the Breast feeding \network website) about what treatment was needed. So, after taking antifungal capsules, using cream on my nipples and gel for Imogen's mouth, I managed to clear it. But only for about 10days - yes, it came back last week, so we're back on all that treatment. This time my breasts are itchy as well, which just adds to the fun! Luckily Imogen hasn't caught it, so we haven't had to struggle with her having a sore mouth or horrible nappy rash as well.

The main thing about breast-feeding, or at least the bit we've struggled with, is positioning. At first it all seemed to be going OK, and I don't really know when things started to become difficult, but it has mainly been on the left side where the problems have been. We tried loads of things - feeding in the bath (really lovely at the beginning when she was only little and I needed baths to relax me), feeding in bed (still lovely and a good choice when we're having a bad night or when we don't have to get out of the house too early in the morning, 'cos I get extra sleep!) and "rugby-balling" (which is the current position of choice but might become more difficult as she
grows bigger.

But breast-feeding is back to being lovely now, rather than the tearful struggle it has been at times, and I'm enjoying it. Before she was born, I thought I'd want to express so D could share some of the night-time duties, but at the moment I'm quite happy, and don't want to do anything that might bring another complication to it.