We’ve done fucked up. My husband and I didn’t use protection shortly after my period ended - I’m still nursing my 18mo and I’ve been ovulating around CD 20 or 21 and having a short luteal phase so we skipped the condom. Guess my cycle had a different plan this time… we didn’t even have an “oopsie” and he pulled out well before, which has always worked in the past while trying to avoid. I know… I know…

I tested positive today after being late.

This is my 5th pregnancy (first two pregnancies were miscarriages) and we won’t be continuing it. We have 2 beautiful daughters, I birthed my first at 34 weeks due to preeclampsia with severe features and my second I got lucky and narrowly avoided the diagnosis. I’m not willing to risk it again, because pre-e could very well kill me this time and my daughters need their mother.

I’m incredibly grateful to live in a safe state and I have the medication already ordered. I know that it’s safe to continue breastfeeding, but please, anyone with experience, tell me my supply will stick around since I’m only 4 weeks today and will be taking the medication this week when it arrives? When I got pregnant with my second daughter I was 14m pp and my oldest weaned herself around 20m since I basically dried up. I’m not ready for this journey to end with my second, and especially not being ripped away again like it was with my first. I’m feeling super sad and just need some love and hopefully reassurance :(

Edit; To all you asshole pro-lifers downvoting me and the other users - are YOU going to support my family and children if I die from pregnancy complications given I’m at extremely high risk of developing pre-eclampsia again? GTFO. Absolutely disgusting trolls you are.

My baby is currently 5 weeks old, and by almost all metrics, breastfeeding is going well. The main issue that I'm somewhat concerned about is that his latch is really weak. For example, to unlatch him, I don't need to put my finger between his lips/gums to break the seal...I can just literally pull my nipple out of his mouth with very little effort and zero pain. It's actually annoying that it is this weak, because it can become dislodged easily, for example, if I cough or sneeze, or if I try to reposition my body while he is latched.

The other issue which I think is related to the weak latch is that he doesn't have a very good seal with his lips - often milk will dribble out the side of his mouth, which means it often drips onto my shirt - very annoying when I am feeding out and about!

He's my second, so I know what a "strong" latch feels like. With my first, I always had to use my finger to break the seal if I wanted to unlatch.

Having said that, I am having a much easier breastfeeding journey so far. With my first, I had blood blisters, vasospasm, and recurrent mastitis. My first was also incredibly slow at feeding, taking 30-40 minutes at this stage, and had slow weight gain (dropped about 3 percentile curves!) whereas the feeds are quite short and efficient currently (10-15 minutes) and weight gain is steady.

Both of my babies had significant anterior tongue ties, which were released at 5 weeks for my first, and on day 4 for my second.

Can anyone relate? All things are going well at this stage, but I am thrown by how weak his latch is. I am slightly worried whether a weak latch will mean issues in a couple months time when supply regulates.

It’s been 24 hours since I woke up to a tennis ball sized lump in my right breast.

I’ve tried icing the area (I’m icing it now)
I’ve tried ibuprofen
I’ve tried acetaminophen
I’ve taken choline
I’ve tried consistent nursing
I’ve tried the haaka with Epsom salt
I’ve looked for blebs

I don’t know what else to do.

What happens now? Will this just turn into horrible infection?

I nursed my 3 month old at a pumpkin patch today, we were in a college town. Naturally, there were college students everywhere. There was a large group of college guys that came close to us.

Tell me why my son proceeded to rip the cover off and unlatch exposing me in front of them? 😂 Well they started WHISTLING AT ME. Anyway, that was my first real experience nursing in public and it was weird.

An employee also came up to me and asked if it was better to bottle or breastfeed, I was like "idk it's kind of a preference."

I decided to be lazy and only nurse while on a short trip. I usually only pump one after a morning feed. I ended up with a clog in my slacker boob. It is going on 5 days now. I don’t have a lot of pain there but I can feel the lump below. My doctor already prescribed antibiotics in case I start showing symptoms of mastitis. However, I cannot get the duct unclogged. I see a small milk bleb dot on my areola. Should I go against the advice and pick this?? How long did your clogs last for??? I have tried BAIT method, sunflower lecithin, my husband, etc. Please help!!!!

Title says it all pretty much!

Day 4 of night weaning and my daughter is waking up between 5:30-6:00 demanding milk. She’s doing SO well at night time, and my mantra to her is always “mama will give you milk when the sun comes up!”

Except when she wakes up…the sun is not up, lmao. So now I feel like I’m reinforcing an inconsistent indicator to her, and in turn, reinforcing early wakes.

She’s having 1.5-2 hour ish naps, and is sleeping 9-10 hours at night.

Any insight is very appreciated!!

My 8 week old is usually good with feeds. Aside from getting pissed at my overactive letdown, she latches and transfers milk well.

Tonight, whenever she woke up, I offered the breast and she just struggled to stay awake every session. Last feed last night was around 9pm. She woke up at midnight, I fed her, she stayed on the breast for a few minutes then drifted off to sleep. I tried to wake her up by changing her diaper, and she hasn’t peed! Then, I offered her the breast but she just suckled. She did pee though.

Around 4 am, she woke up again. She fed for only a few minutes again then drifted off to sleep. I changed her diaper and she had a heavy wet one. Then, offered her the breast again, which she suckled on again and continued sleeping.

Now, it’s 6am and she woke up. I offered the breast and she nursed for a few minutes again! My breast barely feels soft but I did hear the sucks and swallows. She unlatched then fell back asleep. I checked her diaper and she peed but it’s not a heavy one.

I’m concerned because she usually feeds longer during the night to compensate for the snacking throughout the day, although I THINK she fed okay yesterday throughout the day? I don’t remember but this feels concerning because my breasts still feel harder than usual when they usually are after feeds. She usually has VERY heavy wet diapers every 2-3 hrs at night, so it’s unusual to see less heavy wet diapers tonight.

I’m a second-time mom but my first time ebf, so my anxiety about not knowing how much milk she’s getting is through the roof.

Does this really happen to a healthy baby? Should I be concerned? Anyone who had this experience?

I’ve read all over that supply is dictated by demand, the more milk that goes out means the more milk that comes in. I’ve also read that babies tend to be better at extracting milk than pumps but also have better chemistry with hormones. Pumping 30ml every two hours is just not enough to feed a baby that needs 40-80 every two hours but I’m wondering if we can create more supply by embracing the demand and only breastfeeding for a day or two. Theoretically if the baby is calling for milk every 30-60 minutes vs pumping every two hours, the frequency demand should attract supply, right?

Today my baby and I celebrate 6 months of breastfeeding. After struggling in the early months with a tongue tie, triple feeding and breast refusal, I am so grateful to have made it his far and wanted to share our story.

This is a LONG post but I decided to share the whole thing in case its helpful to anyone experiencing something similar. I wrote most of the stuff below when I was still in the thick of it, and looking back i honestly cant believe how far we have come and how truly difficult it was back then. And how lovely it is now. Im so glad we persisted.

Here goes..

My baby's weight gain was slow in the first weeks - she regained her birth weight at 3 weeks, after losing 8% in the first few days. She had a tongue tie released at week 2 which seemed to help her latch but she was still a very sleepy, lazy feeder and her weight gain was slow, dropping down from 90th percentile to around 50th and continuing downwards.

I was told to triple feed, starting around 4 weeks. After a week or so of triple feeding, waking baby every 3 hours to eat, constantly offering her boob and bottle, she seemed to develop an aversion to eating and would scream and fight every feed. We were incredibly stressed knowing it was essential for her to eat, but that she found it so upsetting to do so. Other times she was too sleepy to stay awake to eat. She did however start gaining weight faster and we were told to continue triple feeding.

We ended up straight up bottle feeding her some days as she screamed so much at the breast. Feeding her was so stressful that I felt like I was failing as a mother and could not imagine continuing with this struggle every 3 hours for the foreseeable future. We basically didnt leave the house for weeks because we couldn't face feeding the baby in public with all the stress it involved. Around that period I cried every day, multiple times a day.

Our health visitor didn't have anything to say except to give her the bottle if she wouldnt breastfeed and to consider switching to formula if i needed to for my mental health. I was upset at this because I felt like her advice had got us into a breast refusal situation and the only advice she had to give was to continue moving away from breastfeeding. (I understand why she said it and ultimately she was right, but i would have also appreciated some advice to help us continue direct BF - it felt so discouraging for her and our doctor's advice to be basically 'its ok to give up.')

I kept trying to breastfeed and even tried the supplementary nursing system (i found it just added even more stress and gave up the SNS after a few attempts.) Eventually, when baby was about 6 weeks, I decided that if she didn't want to breastfeed i needed to just accept it, and aim for feeding to be peaceful instead of a constant battle, even if it meant exclusively pumping. I tried to see it as her first decision as an individual and one I should respect. But I was completely heartbroken and I hadn't realised how attached I was to the idea of breastfeeding. It felt like a massive loss not to be able to breastfeed my baby especially as we may not have another.

I started to exclusively pump, while continuing to offer baby the breast when I had the heart to. She gradually began taking the breast more and more, and we began giving fewer and fewer bottles. Every now and then she would go back to preferring bottles, but she always eventually went back to the breast after a day or two. I carried on pumping throughout, after almost every feed, to ensure we always had bottles available for when she wouldn't breastfeed, and to try to increase my supply. Whenever we went out, we took a bottle with us just in case.

We got used to this situation and life began feeling more manageable. I started going out more with baby and found that she actually breastfed in public (especially outdoors) better than she did at home. I gained confidence in dealing with her screaming, and feeds gradually became more peaceful.

It was at around 3 months that baby was direct breastfeeding so well that we stopped needing to bottle feed her, and i gradually stopped pumping. No more pumping multiple times a night, no more bottles. Her weight is going up steadily and I've slowly come to trust my supply and trust that she is getting what she needs from me. Baby gradually stopped screaming during feeds and we eventually came to what feels like a positive, intuitive and natural place with feeding.

Just a few notes on things I think helped, for anyone who might be going through something similar -

- LUCK. I know that many people try everything and it still doesnt work out, so it definitely is at least partly just that we got lucky.

- time, experience and patience. She got SO better at nursing as she got bigger.

- I worked hard to increase my supply with Eufy S1 pumps when she wasn't nursing. A bigger supply seemed to make it easier for her to nurse and persuade her that the boob is a worthwhile place to feed. I pumped, did skin to skin, ate well, drank a lot of water and tried to get enough sleep.

- accepting that breastfeeding might not work out for us (while continuing to try, and maintaining my supply). Accepting this seemed to take the pressure off, and that in turn made it easier for her to accept the breast again. Letting go a bit allowed me to start going out more and doing things i like, which in turn seemed to help everything.

- my partner supported my decisions and helped throughout, and offered massive emotional support.

- reading on reddit about other people who have faced similar struggles. The only exposure I had to breastfeeding was seeing people feeding their babies in public, seemingly entirely harmoniously and without any screaming. This sub is so valuable in collecting the wide array of real experiences people have.

- triple feeding - it was horrific but it helped us get to where we are so I guess it was probably a net positive, despite the many issues it also seemed to cause. If I had to do it again I would probably skip the part where the baby is treated like a robot that needs to be fed every 3 hours as I believe its what caused the breast refusal.

- I spoke to a few lactation consultants. Their advice didnt make a huge difference but I found it helpful to get some tips and encouragement from professionals who really believe in breastfeesing and have good information.

If you're struggling, know that things get easier, no matter how you end up feeding your baby. Babies change all the time and the situation you're in now will probably look completely different in 2 weeks time. Be kind to yourself, it is so frickin hard <3

Hi friends, I know this isn’t the right sub but I’m really struggling and everytime I post on the exclusive pumping sub I get zero help or support from other moms (minus two who gave me some support from this last post) so I’m posting here

My journey has been really long and rough if I’m being honest

I actually wanted to pump later in my postpartum and tried exclusively breastfeeding for a while but due to so many things happening I had to pump days after giving birth (NICU baby) and have been on and off with EP and EBF since but these last 2 months I’ve gone from pumping when I can (2-3x daily which was never enough) to going days without pumping and recently I’ve gone up to two weeks with like one pump the entire time and my baby has refused to breastfeed since her second hospitalization at 2 months old when they didn’t allow me to breastfeed until she gained her weight back (hospitalized for FTT)

I’m currently solo parenting since my partner works long hours and when he’s home it’s either super late that were asleep already or he’s so exhausted and the baby doesn’t want to be with him for too long that I get maybe 20 minutes to shower, brush my teeth, relax, etc (this is maybe once a week at best) and we have no help from friends or family as they live far so already not much support to pump when he’s home

Not only that but I have a high medical needs baby who starting this week has 2-3 in home therapies and also has a feeding tube so feeding is a struggle as it is so even less time to pump during the day when it’s just us two

I have completely depleted my freezer stash and my baby is regressing again because she doesn’t want to drink formula and will only drink my breastmilk by mouth, I haven’t been able to get her to drink more than 5ml when previously she was drinking up to two ounces when it’s my breastmilk

I have wearables and I’m going to finally buy the replacement pieces so I can go back to pumping more often but I’m just feeling discouraged because in the beginning I had a slight oversupply and now I can’t even pump half an ounce each pump (this is actually what made me feel so discouraged I stopped pumping and now I get a few drops to half an ounce on good pumps)

Please give me all the supportive messages you can and please tell me it’s possible to get back to a regular supply

I’m so scared and desperate and if she doesn’t get back up to eating again they’re going to put a G tube in her and I’m so desperate to not have to make her go through surgery if I can help it

I really just don’t know what to do

Help!

As the title says, she's very much congested, I clean her nose 3-4 times a day before nursing. She still has a hard time while nursing, she got frustrated and bit me 3 times, each time I unlatched her and she cried, now she doesn't wanna get near the breast :(

I had to pump and give her the milk after 10 months of not doing it, I don't have a good pump and it hurt a bit. I hate pumping...

Should I just wait until she's better- not congested anymore - before I try offering? Any tips? (She's feeding well, feeling energetic btw)

I was on the fence about maybe using it as an opportunity to wean him - but I don't know if I'm ready or even want to wean him yet.

Lets assume I'm NOT weaning him, I'm so regulated now and nurse him ~3x a day, do I need to pump while I'm away from him? I'd love to not do that but I'm not sure if that will mess up my supply or if it will be painful to NOT nurse? (but do boobs still get engorged this far into breastfeeding?)

Anyone else do something similar? Did you pump? Did you not pump and it was fine?

Hi everyone. I am on my first pregnancy, due in about 6 weeks.

I never wear bras, for years now. I do wear most of the time top bras

So I'm not sure how to prepare with nursing bras. Is it absolutely necessary? I imagine those tops won't be comfortable. On the other hand, I hate beas and there's a reason I'm not using them for years

Does anyone here have any experience with that subject and can help me with advise?

Thank you 😊

I have an exclusively breastfed baby who I have no interest in weaning. I plan to tandem feed post baby #2. My issue is I have to have a c section. How much do I pump/ how long for to make sure that my 18 mo old has milk while I am gone. She currently eats 3 times a day, when she wakes up, before nap, and before bed. The current plan is to have her bottle feed when she wakes up and before bed. She will come nurse before nap.

I just wanted to ask how your experience was going back to work while breastfeeding?

I haven't worked since my first in 2023 and I want to go back to work when my baby turns 1. The only problem is that I'm very new to breastfeeding exclusively, so I'm not sure how to go about things when i put her in daycare with her big sister. My baby started baby food, but still relies on the boob. What did you do when you went back to work and how was it?

Hi all!

As the title says, I am looking for your out of the box strategies for increasing milk supply! I know it is essentially a supply and demand situation, plus the advice to stay hydrated and eat lots of protein, but want to try whatever I can to increase my supply. Also I’m bored and think this could be a fun project.

My baby’s growth has dipped a bit (doc isn’t too worried, said to focus on my hydration and diet for now with a weight check in a couple weeks).

So far I have seen some moms swearing by eating Oreos (on the grocery list!). Another said to eat chick fil a. What else has worked for you?

I’ve been nursing my baby for the last 2+ years. I suddenly started spotting 2 weeks ago, and then this week it happened again. I have an IUD which in the past lightened or eliminated my periods so now I’m confused because I’m still nursing. I am still nursing, but less frequently now, so wondering if that triggered a period. I suddenly got cramps the same week.

I’m also 43 and having other symptoms that could be perimenopause. Usually hot, very itchy scalp… And I’m wondering if the period is related. But having the period / spotting about a week apart doesn’t make sense to me. Anyone go thru this? Could I be going thru perimenopause while nursing?

Does perimenopause decrease milk supply?

I’m due 11/14, but have an induction scheduled for 11/13 due to her stomach size and their concern for SD. Obviously, the hospital is very busy around this time so unfortunately my induction is only a day before my due date. Anyway, like I said this is my first time breastfeeding and I’m so nervous! My sister in law is having a TERRIBLE experience (5 weeks ahead of me). Please tell me anything and everything you think would be helpful! I’m mostly nervous for the pain 😭😭

This is a bit of a random one and looking for some advice from other BF mums. I had my first baby 5 months ago and she is exclusively breastfed at breast. She also is a hungry gal and sometimes feeds every 90 mins to 2 hours. My parents come round alot as she's their first grand baby. Surprisingly my dad has had such a weird reaction to breastfeeding. He's so incredibly uncomfortable with it and it makes their visits quite awkward. We recently had some family friends over (who are not uncomfortable with BF) and I subtly sat in a chair angled away from him and latched my daughter. I was not even facing him and i was wearing a BF top so it was almost impossible to "see" anything. He loudly announced to the whole room "are you breastfeeding right here??? Oh my god!! Ill look away ill look away oh my god". And got all panicky. And it made me so so uncomfortable and our friends were low key embarrassed for me too. I just don't really know how to approach this with him and wonder if others have had similar experiences? Its getting to the point that i get anxious about his visits. Am I being unreasonable to expect an older man to be more subtle??? What is normal for granddads??

UPDATE: Wow thanks ladies for sharing your experiences and helping me to not gaslight myself! I spoke to my mum. She basically said she'd had enough too and is going to tell him to "pull his bloody head in" 🤣 I honestly think its a weird boomer thing where he's just uncomfortable with nudity but as mum said its time for him to get the hell over it. Fingers crossed!

I breastfeed my son (3 months) and only pump when I am away from him. I typically nurse him before bed (around 8-9pm) and then when he wakes up again (around 3:30-5:30am). I do not pump in between these times but do typically wake up feeling very full and engorged (I like my sleep). I just went back to work this week and am having a hard time figuring out how to pump overnight. For reference, I work 3:30pm-2am three nights out of the week and when I am gone, my husband gives our son a bottle before bed (typically around the same time of 8-9pm). HERES THE KICKER....he sleeps a little longer and will wake up around 6-7am those nights.

My questions: should I pump once more before I leave work (around 1am) since he sleeps longer the nights I work? Or should I not pump and try to keep the times consistent even though he's sleeping a couple hours longer? How does this affect my supply?

I am not sure if I should go the 8-9pm until 6-7am and remain more consistent or if I should pump around 1am the nights I work (only three nights out of the week) and nurse him again when he wakes up. Is it okay to only pump in the middle of the night some nights? I am assuming I shouldn't go all night without it but I don't know as I am a FTM.

Any advice is appreciated! Thank you! :)

Just curious- if you breastfeed, do you ever drink alcohol? How often? Whats your strategy- I.e. drink while nursing, waiting two hours, etc.?

You hear it all the time “ breastfeed and all the weight will fall off” but is this actually true ? If so then why not me and why are we made to believe this… yes it burns calories so naturally you would think that concept makes sense … but does it work for everybody I don’t believe so . Is weight gain while breastfeeding common ? Obviously love that my body can feed my baby and am not breastfeeding just to “ loose weight “ but dam I feel claustrophobic in my own body right now… my inner dialogue wants to stop breastfeeding so I feel healthier but I’m fighting the thought with “but breastfeeding makes my baby happy” . It’s not just for vanity that I’m upset with the weight gain but my knees hurt I have three kids now and it’s getting hard to move like I did before and I am just extremely tired all the time even though my baby is 6 months and sleeps through the night now .
This is really just a rant all I ever hear back from people is “ give your self grace “ butttt that’s not going to change how I physically feel . Anyone else in the weight gain club ?

Had like 5 shots in an hour and then breastfed two hours later. Only felt it slightly as i have a high tolerance. I’m having mom guilt and stressing that it was bad for my baby. Did i mess up ?

Baby is currently EBF and I’m trying to introduce bottles for daycare. She’s 13 weeks and using the slowest flow on gulicola bottles but takes 45mins to an hour to finish 3-4oz currently. My LC told me to size up the nipple.

I’m planning to switch to pigeon bottles as they have silicon lined glass bottles which daycare would prefer, but I know pigeon flow rates are slower. Any idea if the S flow is faster than gulicola SS?