Breastfeeding isn't happening again!! Feel like a failure :-(...

[amybe]

My gorgeous boy was born on Thursday night, I breastfed him straight away and did so until yesterday afternoon, It went ok at first but over the 2 days in hospital, My nipples becane so sore, cracked and bleeding...again! The same thing happened with my first son and I persisted through the pain for a week with him but ended up getting mastitis in both breasts...I also felt baby was not getting much from me, I've been told it could be my aneamia that is contributing to this??, As he'd feed for ages and still not be settled, So I made the tough decision to start him on formula yesterday, after telling my midwives through this pregnancy that I strongly wanted to breastfeed etc...
Since stopping, He has been the world's happiest newborn lol, He's so content and appears well full up which is great, BUT I'm still beating myself up about giving up so quickly and I find myself really nervous to tell my midwife today that I've stopped when she does her home visit, I don't know why I struggle so much with breastfeeding!! Or maybe I gave up too soon!??...x

 

[Noelle610]

I think we do what we do and there's no "too soon". This is your experience and there's no reason to beat yourself up! Your little man sounds happy and that's what matters. You're doing great mama.

A good friend of mine gave me some advice that sounds odd, but it helped me - "Give yourself permission to be a mediocre mom". You don't have to be the best, just do YOUR best. If you're happy, relatively relaxed and well rested it will be good for both you and your baby.

 

[Chellxx]

If you really want to stop then don't let anyone tell you any different and certainly don't be afraid to tell your mw, they are there to help and support you not to make you do something you don't want to/are finding hard to do!

Having said that if you do want to carry on then try nipple shields to help with the discomfort and keep going for a while, I stopped at 4 weeks with ds and 9 weeks with dd and I still wish I'd carried on with both.