to BF or not to BF

[BabyMamma93]

wow i didnt know in America you dont have mat leave, and ive been worried that returning to work after 4 months is too early! aw thats bad, feel for them ladies!!
im not concerned about my body at all, and yeah id rather my child have the benefits of BM than my boobs stay the same, its all in the package, i get that, it was just a question!
i did know BFing burns calories but didnt know that meant it helped you slim back down!!

yeah i do work certain hours, im looking at reducing my hours either working 2 less hours per day or having one day off a week, but either way my hours are the same every day 5 days a week.
i still may return to work before 4 months, thats just my max i think, it all depends how i feel in my self, i may even just return on lower hours and gradually increase them, who knows

 

[mia_leacey]

Definitely try it. I for one have never had any pain at all. I had a tiny bit of pain for a couple of days before af came back and that's all. I wasn't sure how I felt about it before I got pg. I always knew I'd give it a try but imagined I might stop very quickly but I just loved it and have never ever looked back!

 

[New2Bumps]

Oh my gosh!
My advice is give it a go and see how you feel. Not so many questions or else you'll put yourself under so much pressure. If you don't bf, baby will be fine. If you bf for a week, brilliant as baby will have colostrum which is like superfood. If you bf then decide to do some formula, then bf might suffer but if you're not bothered about bf too much then that's not an issue for you: after bf is established lots of moms give a couple bottles of expressed milk or formula with no problem. Some moms don't like to/find it difficult to express so give formula when they are away from baby. Some babies will go for 4 hours or more without a bf and then make up for it when they're home and amazingly the boobs learn! At 6m I returned to work. Initially my boy went from 8 - 1 with one bottle ebm (only 3oz as that's all I expressed, had a carton of formula on hand just incase) and he was fine, then from about 8m went from 8 to 1 with no milk - has snacks and water and then a big feed in the afternoon.

The more stress you put into bf the harder it can make it is what I found.

Painful - it's not painful but trouble is if baby latches wrongly once then you get a sore nipple from that which hangs around for a while! Nipples have to get used to it in my opinion.
Relax, give it a go, don't pressure yourself.
If you decide to give it a go, promise yourself you'll take it day by day, don't make the decision to quit on the back of a negative experience, and find a brilliant bf support group which is like a baby group for breastfeeders - loads of support and you can chat about anything and everything! Maybe a friend or family member has bf? Find a buddy on here who is bf a baby of similar age!? Support is key!

It's amazingly rewarding if you do decide to go for it!
Good luck with your new baby x
xxx