When I was pregnant with my first child, I lay awake at night, worrying about pretty much everything, but especially breastfeeding. Everything I read seemed to point to how breastfeeding was going to be impossible?story after story about the pain, bleeding nipples, low-milk supply, tongue-ties, lip-ties and inevitable bad latch. I binge-watched videos about getting the right latch on YouTube. I looked at my own nipples with suspicion, convinced that this couldn?t possibly work.
Well, I?m here from the other side, four years and two breastfed babies later, with the message that I wish I had read back then: Chill out. It?s not all that bad.
My drug-free birth plan went off the rails when my daughter popped out. My placenta didn?t deliver, and I needed emergency spinal anaesthesia for the doctors to remove it. I bled a lot, and my blood pressure got dangerously low for a short time. I felt light-headed from blood loss and still numb, from my breasts down, when my doula helped me hold my seven-pound baby near my nipple. She immediately opened her mouth and latched, sucking away. ?That?s it"? I asked in disbelief, convinced that it should be harder. ?Am I doing it right"?
A nurse came in. I repeated my question, and she assured me that everything was working just fine.
?You have great nipples for this,? the nurse said, giving me one of the strangest compliments I?ve ever received.
In those early days of motherhood, I didn?t believe my doula or the nurse. I wasn?t ready...