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Post partum

Breastfeeding difficulties

For all its health benefits, breastfeeding does have some disadvantages. In the early weeks, it can be painful. A woman's nipples may become sore or cracked. She may experience engorgement more than a bottle-feeding mother, when the breasts become so full of milk, they're hard and painful. Some nursing women also develop clogged milk ducts, which can lead to mastitis, a painful infection of the breast. While most nursing problems can be solved with home remedies, mastitis requires prompt medical care.

Another possible disadvantage of nursing is that it affects a woman's entire lifestyle. A nursing mother with baby-in-tow must wear clothes that enable her to nurse anywhere. She should eat a balanced diet and she might need to avoid foods that irritate the baby. She also shouldn't smoke, which can cause vomiting, diarrhea and restlessness in the baby, as well as decreased milk production.

As well, with breastfeeding, mom and baby don’t “get a break.” Dads and other friends and family members can’t participate in the feedings to bond and just to help out.

Women who plan to go back to work soon after birth will have to plan carefully if they want to breast-feed. If her job allows, a new mother can pump her breast milk several times during the day and refrigerate or freeze it for the baby to take in a bottle later. Or, some women alternate nursing at night and on weekends with daytime bottles of formula.

Although not very common, a few women have nipples that are drawn inward, or are inverted. When nipples are inverted, a baby may not be able to grasp the areola (the darkened area of and around the nipple) properly to get milk.

The problem of inverted nipples usually clears up on its own during pregnancy as breasts get larger. If this does not happen, inverted nipples can be treated late in pregnancy or soon after the baby is born.

While breastfeeding has many advantages, there are some women who cannot breastfeed because they take chronic medications, have viral infections like hepatitis, or the anatomy of their breast and nipple is such that breastfeeding is impractical or impossible. We are fortunate to have formulas that approximate breast milk as closely as possible and certainly will provide adequate infant nutrition. If you cannot breastfeed, you should by no means feel that your child will suffer any harm – they will grow and thrive, like all healthy babies.