As a ftm I have read about and heard people talk about nearly everything you can imagine but one thing they never said was this...

When you first start breastfeeding it hurts like hell but the best way to make it stop is to let your baby latch on her own! Do the "breast crawl" or rather let your baby do it. It's really amazing how babies know instinctively how to latch on their own in such a gentle way. My baby is six weeks old now. She was born on March 3rd, 2017 and I didn't figure this out until March 27th! From the very start, every time I tried to "help" her latch she would push my hands away as if to say "no Mom, I can do it on my own". No matter who tried to help her, even if it looked correct, it hurt like hell! I thought I was doomed to be in pain until she was older. On March 27th I thought, well since she's always trying to do it on her own maybe I should see if she can. I set her on my belly, face down and she crawled with all her might right up to my boob and latched on. I was amazed at her ability and how gentle it was! I can now breast feed without pain!

I took a picture of her right after she latched that day. Her face was red from all that work but she was so happy. (and my poor boob was too!)

I shared this info with a friend who had her baby two days ago. She was not dealing with the pain very well and she started letting her baby latch on her own and she's feeling much better already. It may have taken me weeks to figure this out but it was worth it knowing that I learned something that I can share with others. (If only the nurses at the hospital would share this instead of just rushing to try to "help" babies latch.)