I have to share this with my Lactnet friends because this mom's reasoning made
me think twice about my approach to education.
4th baby, severe sore nipples, she put up with it before and then quit in 2-3
weeks. But this time was worse. I helped her with latch on and thankfully
the latch was pain free. Then she said something like this:
---- You know, I figured after Lamaze lied to me about labor being painless, I
wasn't going to believe that breastfeeding was painless. All my friends said
labor was painful and they were right. So when they told me breastfeeding
was painful I never thought that it could be anything but painful.----
Given that
1. Pain and the severity thereof is subjective
2. Pain thresholds differ for every mom
Do you think
a. This mom's perspective is one reason why we can't get the message out that
breastfeeding is not supposed to be painful?
b. Are setting moms up when we say things like *mild tenderness
in the first few days is normal?*
c. Should we re- think our descriptions of pain?
d. What should we say?
Marie Davis