There are ways to prepare and become educated and familiar with proper latch techniques, feeding/hungry cues, the benefits of on demand feeding, and what signs to look for that signal a problem.
Breast milk is optimal, standard nutrition, for all mammals. There's no way around that scientific fact. It's optimal nutrition. It is still a practice that requires patience and a learning period for both mom and baby.
I dealt with significant pain for a week due to poor latch with my first. The first four to five days were the worst of it, and it slowly got better as we both became familiar with proper latching techniques. For the most part, breastfeeding was easy peasy after the first week. She nursed for 16 months. I did deal with a few clogged ducts here and there, but nothing major.
With my second, I don't recall any latch problems, but I did deal with recurring thrush for, gosh, 10 weeks? It was horrible, and made me really dislike breastfeeding because of the pain. It hurt every time she nursed, but I stuck it out, and the thrush ended up going away after treating it with GV. She also nursed for 16 months.
Now, my third, since I wasn't at all new to breastfeeding, I hoped and thought it would be a simple process with him, but we had serious issues from the start. He had both an anterior and posterior (very easy to miss and often goes undiagnosed) tongue-tie and labial lip tie. He lost nearly a pound within the first few days due to insufficient milk transfer caused by the tongue-tie issues. He was almost at the point of needing to be admitted for dehydration. He also got a mild case of jaundice due to this very issue. This is when I began pumping. I had true low supply because he was unable to stimulate milk production due to the tongue ties.
So I had to work on building a supply on top of seeking one of the leading LCs in my area who specializes in tongue ties. She was sure he had both anterior and posterior tongue tie, and a lot of doctors and LCs are not familiar with posterior tongue tie. It's very easy to miss, and it contributes to a lot of breastfeeding and latch problems. I took a host of supplements and pumped with a hospital grade pump to build my supply. I pumped the bulk of his feedings, and nursed occasionally until his anterior tongue tie was clipped. We hadn't found an ENT to clip his posterior tongue tie, and there were only three known doctors on the East Coast (USA) who were even familiar with them. One of them happened to have a practice in my city. Even after it was clipped it was still a struggle because he had a disorganized suck.
I wasn't able to return him to the breast full time because he wasn't transferring milk sufficiently. At times he'd nurse 17 times a day, and still struggled to gain weight. So I was forced to basically pump full time, and only nurse him in the evenings. I had a great supply, but a horrible time pumping. My right breast, while never suffers from lack of supply, it doesn't letdown very well. I have what is termed dysfunctional letdown. So it takes a long time for milk to let down, and it often required the highest and fasting setting on the pump. This meant bruised and sore nipples for both breasts. It also meant having to pump for 45 minutes each time to get enough milk from my right breast. I liked pumping because I was able to make a lot of milk (I yielded 48-52 oz a day) and he put on a lot of weight, but it was a long and painful process for 5 months.
My LC was surprised I didn't stop breastfeeding because we had so many hurdles and challenges, but I was determined to make it work. At 5.5 months I stopped pumping and completely weaned my right breast and began supplementing a little to make up for what he wasn't getting from that breast. He rejected it due to the dysfunctional letdown. Things were much, much better after I stopped pumping and decided to wean that side. He went back to the breast (left) easily, and nursed until 21 months.
I know what struggling with breastfeeding is like. I've been through months and months of tears, break downs, worried doctor's appointments, and a lot of pain. I had a lot of support and tried to stay positive and optimistic. Those experiences gave me insight, and valuable information on various matters of breastfeeding. I know what to look for in the event of such problems, and how to remedy them. Those experiences gave me even more confidence than I had before, and I was pretty well versed and knowledgeable on breastfeeding literature and data beforehand.
So, yes, there are ways you can prepare, but having patience, being familiar with the common struggles, and having a support system in place, is a good place to start.
