You know, I experienced a fair amount of pain in the first week that I
was nursing my daughter, and we did just about everything we should.

I had gone to a midwife-run birth centre because I knew they would
support me in bf; not because I was really overly interested in a
no-meds birth to begin with (that came later on in the pregnancy).

> 1. We mess up the initial learning period by taking babies away before
> they have a chance to really learn to bf, and we drug them senseless.
I had no separation from me and my daughter until she was 4 months old. 
She slept with me the first night, and didn't have her "newborn exam"
until she was 3 hours old...and when it was done, it was done on the
foot of my bed by the midwife.  After she'd nursed several times.

I had a no-meds birth, no augmentation, no epidural, no shots, nothing. 
The only thing I got was something in tincture while the placenta was
expelling (angelica perhaps?).

The baby didn't get eye antibiotics, so was seeing clearly (as a newborn
can) to begin with, if that makes any difference.

The only thing we didn't quite do "like we should" was let her come to
the breast herself.  Not that I forced her head or little jaw in any
way.  I just put her in a nursing position near the breast and when she
rooted I helped her latch on.  But she was already there, and I was
eager to start bf right away to see what it was like!

> 2.  We prescribe scheduling feedings so that little colostrum drinker is
> starving and hangs on for dear life in case someone takes the food away
> again.
I never scheduled her feeds, even when I was in pain.  I fed her about
every 10 minutes around the clock until my milk came in (day 3) except
for the 1 hour stint in the car to get home from the birth centre.

The ONLY thing I did at the point of having pain to "interfere" with her
nursing was to try and cup-feed her at one point (on my husband's
suggestion, he who had never read about bf before, but thought of this
himself), which she hated and screamed at.  I clenched my teeth and put
her to the breast again thinking if I could get through labour, I could
get through *this* feeding.  And spent the next several thinking like
this.

Granted, I only ever had blisters on one breast and a bit of peeling
skin on them both.  No cracks, fissures, blood, etc.  I was seen by 3
LLLL's, one IBCLC, 2 midwives and my mom (who hasn't a heap of
experience, but did bf me successfully [despite my having had bottles at
birth] for 7.5 months), and all said the latch looked great.  No tongue
tie...when we tried with a finger she curled her tongue nicely around
the finger.  Her suck was very strong was all, and she even hurt our
fingers sucking away on them (in the car mainly)...but the only thing I
could think of really was that my breasts did have a bit of getting-used
to to be done.  Quite honestly, I thought that perhaps if I had gone my
whole life with my top nude and wearing no bra, I'd maybe have tough old
nipples that could stand anything, but I had sheltered them in a bra
from 13 on never giving them any "rough treatment" so they weren't used
to having as much going on on them.  :-?

For what it's worth, the pain I had at that point is not the same kind
of pain I associate with a poor latch NOW, though I realize that a
newborn's poor latch and a toddler's sloppy latch might feel quite
different (partly due to teeth!), but to begin with, the nipples just
looked and felt, for lack of a better word, "scrubbed" by her tongue.

> 3. We grow up without watching other people latch babies onto the
> breast, so we don't know how to position and latch them at first.
I know this was one thing I didn't see a lot of.  I did see a couple of
babies bf'ing, but never up close, and I never even dared to *ask* to
look at one when I had the chance.  I'd just avert my eyes for
politeness.

> we will get an idea whether there really is initial pain during
> breastfeeding.

I don't know if Sandrine's latch was less than optimal for about the
10-14 days that it took for the pain to go away in reality, but I *do*
think that it MIGHT have helped to have less "sheltered" breasts to
begin with.  No matter what the latch was like.

just my opinion...
Fio
ressource person with Allaitement Québec
Mama to Sandrine Leïlou, 13/03/00, nursling toddler.

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html