Advice to New Moms

New moms know that a great deal of advice comes their way, sometimes useful and sometimes ridiculous and, more often than not, unsolicited. However, occasionally you receive one great piece of advice and are able to look back and realize how beneficial it was. Today, I am passing on a great piece of advice that I received concerning breastfeeding.

When I was pregnant the first time around, I knew that I wanted to nurse my little one until the one year mark and then follow her lead when it came time to wean. I also knew that breastfeeding could be quite a challenge: I had heard many horror stories and I had met many moms who had given it up and switched to formula. I decided to be proactive and sunk my teeth into all things breastfeeding: I went to a class, I read the books, I even went to a La Leche League meeting. Eventually, I felt like I had all the pieces of the puzzle, but how would they come together when I actually tried to feed this squishy little baby for the first time? I realized that I had never seen a woman breastfeed a baby before. At all. Ever in my life. Since we live in a culture that is fairly modest when it comes to breastfeeding (especially breastfeeding in public), like many other first-time moms I wasn't sure what a good latch looked like. At this point, my midwife at the time recommended a simple YouTube search with the keywords: Jack Newman.

It literally never occurred to me to watch videos of complete strangers learning how to breastfeed! I watched and I listened to the cues that Dr. Newman would give his patients. When the big day came, I asked for some help from the nurses to get Niamh latched on for the first time. It was smooth sailing from then on. Ok, maybe not completely smooth sailing; if you're breastfeeding for the first time (or second...or third...) your nipples are going to HURT. Prepare yourself mentally and know that you and your baby are learning how to feed together and that pain will go away as you both learn the ropes. You will probably have a two week period where you might dread the thought of that little succubus latching on because it feels like her mouth has a thousand and one hidden daggers that pierce your skin and allow her to drink your soul straight out of your body along with her milk. But that will pass. Watching videos helped me learn that I needed to be forceful with a newborn to help her get as deep a latch as possible (and trust me, when you realize how much nipple they should have in their little tiny mouths, it is surprising).

Set yourself up for success and never be afraid to ask for help. If you didn't grow up with an older sister, mother, aunt, etc. who openly breastfed her children, how are you honestly expected to know what this part of life looks like? Your baby sure as shit doesn't know what she's doing on day one, so it's up to you to prep and set both of you up for as much success as possible.

Happy breastfeeding, Mommas!

Do you have one piece of advice that really helped you as a first-time Mom? What's one thing that you wished someone had told you when you were pregnant? We'd love to hear!