It's true what they say....

I didn't find this 'fact' out until D was about 9 weeks old but it is so very true.

The first 3 weeks of breastfeeding are the hardest.
After 6 weeks it becomes MUCH easier.
After 3 months, you start feeling sorry for bottle feeding mummies.

I think if you had told me this in week 3 I would have whipped you with a car aerial and told you to leave me alone, but on reflection this is so very true.

Everyday until week 6, there was an issue. Wether it be low supply, mastitis, cracked nipples, soreness, painful let down, worry about weight gain... you name it, I felt it. But seemingly so do most other women.

So why isn't there more support in the first 6 weeks?? SURELY if more time and energy was spent with those women that find it difficult at the start, then breastfeeding stats would be up massively!!

Throughout my pregnancy and after birth, I was bombarded with information about how breastfeeding is the best for my baby, and how doing it helps both me and her, and the longer I can do it for then the better, but as soon as I left the birth centre, I had to find my own support.

Ok so maybe when the health visitor came around when D was 13 days old she asked if everything was ok, but where was the support after that? As I keep saying, week 3 for me was simply the worst time ever, and I think if I wasn't so 'stubborn' and determined I absolutely would have given up.

I consider myself lucky. There are some fantastic breastfeeding support groups in my area, and around this area of the New Forest they have coordinated so that their is a group on every day of the week, so should I have felt the need, I could have got help on any day. But I KNOW this is not the case in many many areas of the UK..... WHY???

If we want breastfeeding statistics to be higher, then more needs to be done to help mums in those first 6 weeks. Even if it is just a phone call once a week, or a point in the right direction. I am certain that thousands of women must feel abandoned as soon as they are discharged from hospital. This cannot be right.

After 6 weeks, I felt absolutely fine about feeding. Things had settled, it felt FAR more natural and, suddenly, nothing hurt anymore..... things were they way I had envisioned at the very start. It just took a while to get there.

So, if you are reading this and haven't yet hit week 6, and are thinking of packing it in, please try and reach the 6 week mark. You'll feel so much better.

The journey continues.......