6 Top Breastfeeding Tips

About the author

I am a young mum to 3 beautiful daughters, originally from Sydney, Australia - now living in country NSW with my partner of over 10 years and our girls.

Tip 4. When your milk's coming in, baby is going to feed around the clock (literally) and it’s normal

I was absolutely mind-blown at just how much babies feed when I breastfed my first born. Heck even with my third I was still shocked yet again! I kept wondering if I was doing something wrong, and I had to google it and read reddit to make me feel better. But yes, babies literally feed every 1-2 hours so that means between their half an hour to hour long feeds, and then their sleeps, you might be seriously awake for 24 hours at a time just nursing your baby. WILD! It is tough, but it will not last forever. Just think of it that babies slowly slowly feed quicker and require less feeds as often. If you need to get some sleep, it isn’t a bad idea to just have some formula on hand and give baby a bottle here or there. One bottle won’t mess with your supply. It’s about safety and survival in those early days and it can be rough. If you need help with breastfeeding, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Breastfeeding Association hotline - they are always great to chat to for help and reassurance. And, please please remembers SIDS safe sleeping guidelines found here:

Tip 5. Cabbage leaves

Oh. My. Goodness. Was this vegetable literally made for women or what!? One night I had the absolute worst pain because it can be pretty messy trying to feed enough to keep baby happy while they’re bringing your milk in, and one breast became engorged while I was still working on baby’s latch. I knew I was going to be in for another big night of feeding around the clock, but it was already midnight and I knew nothing was open. Tears would literally come out of my eyes everytime I went to feed my baby on that side, so I had to do something. As if the universe knew it was going to happen, my partner happened to have cabbage in the fridge that night to make a stir fry the next day (which we hardly ever cook!) I placed some leaves in the freezer, and once cool enough, placed it on my sore breast inside my bra. Honestly it worked like legit MAGIC!!! After doing that for about half a day or so, and just feeding here and there through the pain but also giving my boob a rest, the cabbage leaves almost completely reversed the pain and engorgement. While studies might not say they do much, I remember looking at the shape of the cabbage leaf and thinking - holy moly, nature made these for us women!!

Tip 6. Wakeful feeds

When baby is super small, they’re also super sleepy. Its natural for them to be feeding, and then be half asleep while having their feed. Often times I would think okay great - baby must be full, right? I’d try to place my baby down in her bassinet, only to be woken up to a small cry just a few minutes later. So a really good trick if this happens is to feed your baby on one side, then once they’re done, try to tickle your baby on the toes or hold them up to your shoulder and give them a burp, and wake them up enough to feed them on the other side too. Because usually, if they’ve only fed on one side, they’re not actually done!

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I’m not very close to my dad (long story short, there’s a few things going on there but let’s leave that alone for now), but one thing he did say to me when I was 8 months pregnant with my first baby girl that I took on board was, “Now just remember with breastfeeding, it’s really really hard for the first 2-3 weeks, but you just have to keep going, and it gets easier”. Now, I don’t want to tell you it’s for everyone because your baby might be one of those outliers who doesn’t get enough milk from you and maybe you will have to turn to formula (zero judgement, mixed fed babies here!). But I do want to say, breastfeeding is not easy. His advice was probably some of the best I could have heard at the time. (Is it just me or is it strange that it was actually my dad who gave me that advice lol and not a woman, I suppose because he’d recently had a baby with his second wife, anyway!)

We all hear that breastfeeding is natural. But let’s not get “natural” mixed up with “easy”… just because it’s natural doesn’t mean you don’t have to try at it. Birth is natural too - but man, does it take a whole lotta mental and physical energy! I feel like when we go around saying it’s natural, that dismisses the need for important conversations around it. And then there’s textbook tips, vs real-life solutions. Whoever writes those books, I’d love to have a word with them! I’ll never forget the nurses grabbing my breasts and doing all kinds of weird things to make it happen. They were only doing their best but… my gosh did I have to learn a lot in those early days with my baby.

I don’t want you to have to do that. As a breastfeeding mum of 3, I want to help whoever I can so that you don’t have to search around like I did just to be able to feed my baby and get past the struggle ASAP.

Tip 2. If you’re in excruciating pain, baby hasn't quite latched on properly

A bit of tenderness and slight pain is normal for sure. But if baby is latching and it’s unbearable, that probably means baby isn’t getting a good latch. You’re not actually supposed to have cracked, bleeding nipped (despite how normalised that is). I’ll be honest, yes it can be very tender. And, there are definitely times of ups and downs when your breasts might be engorged and it feels more painful. But I’m talking about direct pain on the nipple. The best way to fix this is to slip your pinkie in between your baby’s lips and your nipple to break the suction, and try a couple more times until they get a good latch that doesn’t feel excruciating.

So let’s get into it.

Tip 1. If baby isn’t latching, try holding them like a football so they learn a good latch

Your baby is learning how to feed properly (literally for the first time ever in their little life), and you are too! Often this can mean baby doesn’t quite know how to suckle yet, or get a good latch. I’ll never forget when I first gave my baby a feed, it all seemed fine, but then she stopped latching properly a couple of days later. A heap of nurses visited, including a special breastfeeding nurse, but none knew how to help. I remember seeing them roll the hospital-grade breast pump into my room and telling me they’ll get it going after baby wakes from her nap. But then, another older nurse came in for a visit. She was a bit of an odd character, but I was open to her advice. She told me to hold baby under my arm and bring her up to my breast almost from the side of my body (picture below). I did it, and lo and behold, my baby latched on! That is because they have a certain way they need to bring their little mouth up to your nipple to have a good latch (see image below). The football hold is a great way for them to get the hang of it, and you can go back to the default way of feeding them once they’ve got it!

Tip 3. Use breastfeeding shields for those very early days

As I mentioned above, those early days come with a lot of tenderness while your breasts get used to being used so much for feeding. There are some really great breast shields on the market that are really thin, soft rubber - almost skin-like - that have tiny holes in them that you can place over your nipple and baby still gets to feed. You do need to allow your skin to get used to it, but trust me, with all the cluster feeding that happens, your nipples sometimes just need a break!

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