Top 3 reasons why women end up supplementing (but don’t need to)

◆ Exhaustion. Delivering a baby is an exhausting experience. After many hours of labor, you’ll just want someone to tuck you in for a long night’s sleep. No such luck for a breastfeeding mom. You might get about four to five hours of sleep after delivery (the “honeymoon” period while your exhausted newborn sleeps too). Then, the party is over. You’ll need to feed your baby EIGHT times every 24 hours—yes, that’s every three hours on average.

To get your milk production up to speed, you shouldn’t go any longer than four hours between feedings. With that pace, it’s no wonder women ask to let their baby camp out in the nursery and get a bottle of formula while mom gets some shut-eye. If this is the deal breaker for whether or not you will continue breastfeeding, okay, take a break. But we don’t recommend it. Once5 you start on this road, you’re more likely to give up nursing altogether. If you can get through these early days, we promise it gets easier!

◆ Pain. If you start off with poor technique, each breastfeeding session is incredibly painful. The thought of bringing the baby to the breast can bring some women to tears. Hopefully, our tips will prevent this situation from happening. But if you find yourself in this place and need to take a break from nursing for a few feedings or 24 hours until your nipples can heal, so be it. You need to continue removing milk from your breasts for every feeding, though. pump and offer that expressed milk to your little one. You can also temporarily use nipple shields while nursing. You are more likely to continue nursing if you can forge ahead (with proper technique going forward, of course).

◆ Fear. Women mistakenly fear that their baby is not getting enough to eat when they are producing early milk (colostrum). They see their baby losing weight and get worried. Don’t worry! If your baby has no medical issues and your pediatrician does not feel you need to supplement with formula, you don’t need to supplement with formula! If you start supplementing when you don’t need to, your baby will fill up. You need his hunger drive to get your breast milk production going. Don’t mess with Mother Nature.