How to Ease the Burden of Breastfeeding

Deciding to breastfeed your baby is a very important and personal decision. Breastfeeding takes an enormous amount of dedication on your part, but there are things that you can do to ease the burden.

If you have just given birth or you are still pregnant, there is an easy way to get ahead of the game with a pumped milk supply. Your milk will come in and begin to flow by about the third day after you give birth. Shortly after that you will experience something called engorgement. Engorgement is when the breasts fill up with so much milk that they become sore and hard. For women who are not breastfeeding, this can be a very painful time. But for women who are breastfeeding, this is a perfect time to pump extra milk for storage.

Storing milk in the refrigerator or freezer can be a great help to a mother. In those first months, it will give the baby's father a chance to feed and bond with his new child, while giving you a chance to rest. Later, when you are ready to use a babysitter, your stored milk will ensure that your baby drinks your milk instead of formula. Pumped milk can sit at room temperature for up to 10 hours, can be refrigerated for up to five days and can be frozen for up to three months in a regular freezer or six months in a chest freezer.

Pumping and storing your breast milk can also help you lead a more normal social life. Remember that everything you put in your body can come out through your milk. If you have a couple of drinks during a night on the town it can render your milk useless for 24 hours. If you have enough milk pumped out and stored, you can still indulge in the occasional night out.

Keep in mind that, even though you cannot use the milk you produce after a night out, you will still need to pump it out to avoid engorgement. Just discard the milk after pumping.

You will also need to pump out during your night on the town. Investing in a small manual breast pump that can fit in your purse will help you remain discreet.

Even with pumping and regular feeding, many women will experience milk leakage. This can be a very inconvenient and embarrassing problem. There are several different products on the market to help you deal with leakage. There are plastic milk catching cups, reusable breast pads, and disposable breast pads just to name a few.

The plastic cups are usually only recommended for women who have very small or inverted nipples. The cups help to draw the nipple out, making it easier for their baby to latch on. The milk that is collected in these cups can often spill out when trying to empty them, especially when a woman is trying to rush or be discreet. This milk cannot be used for feeding baby and must be discarded.

Reusable breast pads are generally cotton with a plastic backing to keep milk from leaking through. Though these pads are more ecologically friendly and can save you money because they can be washed and reused, they do not hold very much milk. If they are not changed often milk can leak out of the bottom of the pad.

The disposable breast pads are usually made from a similar material as diapers. The pads are relatively cheap and hold quite a bit of milk. Most disposable pads come individually wrapped so that they can be easily stored in a diaper bag or purse. There are many brands of disposable breast pads on the market, and it may take a few tries to find the brand that you like the best. Look for a brand that sits discreetly in the bra so that your breast pad doesn't show through your clothes.

If you do not want to wear a bra and breast pads to bed at night, you do have a few options. First, you can try self-adhesive breast pads that do not require a bra to stay on the breast. Second, you can sleep on a towel or plastic sheet to protect your bed.

For some women milk leakage is only temporary and dissipates after several weeks. For others, milk leakage is a constant problem throughout breastfeeding.

Another issue that plagues women throughout their time breastfeeding is public feedings. There are many women who feel completely comfortable breastfeeding in public, but for the rest it can be very awkward.

There are many products on the market to help women conceal themselves while breastfeeding their baby. You can buy everything from nursing shirts, which have a flap or small slit in them to expose only your nipple, to nursing covers, which look like a giant bid and hide your baby and breast under a cloth.

A far simpler and more discreet way to feed your baby in public is to excuse yourself to the ladies room and pump your breast milk in to a bottle. Pumping takes quite a bit less time than breastfeeding your baby and will get you in and out of the bathroom before anyone even realizes you are gone.

Even when you are at home, there is no reason that breastfeeding should be a pain in the neck. To avoid back, neck and arm pain from breastfeeding, invest in a good breastfeeding pillow. The pillow will raise your baby up to the level of your breast and allow you to sit up straight instead of hunching over your baby.

When you find a breastfeeding pillow that you like, do yourself a favor and buy more than one. It helps to keep a pillow in each room that you nurse in so that you are not running around looking for it in the middle of the night.

Also, your baby will come to recognize the pillow as a sign that he or she is going to be fed. This recognition can cut down on your baby's fussiness while you are preparing to feed. The pillow may also become a sort of security item for your baby.

If you travel a lot, you will want to make sure that you have an extra pillow just incase you lose one.

As you continue to breastfeed, both you and your baby will develop your own routine and you'll figure out what works best for both of you. So hang in there and, before you know it, things will start to get easier.