Why Aren't Moms Warned About How Painful Early Breastfeeding Can Be?

Before she gave birth to her first baby four years ago, Carolyn Hulla-Meyer was excited to breastfeed, but she was quickly surprised by how painful it was—a stinging, burning feeling the nurses reassured her would lessen with practice. It did not. By the time Hulla-Meyer, 32, got home from the hospital, her nipples were cracked and bloody. She saw a lactation consultant who helped with her baby’s latch and suggested nipple shields. They helped some, but not enough for Hulla-Meyer to continue breastfeeding past three months. “I was kind of like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. I thought this was supposed to be a special time,’” she recalled. “This hurts.” Data certainly suggests that early breastfeeding pain, like Hulla-Meyer’s, is common. One survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that while 26 percent of moms had no pain on their first day breastfeeding, 3 percent were basically in agony. One week in, only 3 percent of moms said they were pain-free whereas 5 percent described it as the “worst possible pain”—and the rest fell somewhere in the middle. Surveys also show that general pain and cracked, bleeding nipples are among the top reasons women stop breastfeeding in the first few months—trailing only behind fears about not having enough milk and latch problems.  When my own son was born two years ago, I struggled enormously at the start. Despite seeing two different lactatio...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news