The breastfeeding relationship can either be the easiest thing in the world (Look at this! Milk! Right here in bed! Pre-made and pre-warmed!) or can be the most frustrating thing ever (This is supposed to be natural! And it feels like the most unnatural thing ever!).
For moms who want some help at their fingertips to navigate those first few days, and then later help them pump if desired, this printable is for you.  Print it out, it’s just one page if you print double sided, and keep it in your hospital bag. Some hospitals have fantastic lactation consultants, some just have a RN that happened to breastfeed for a few weeks as their ‘consultant’ that may give out poor advice.
This printable goes over the following issues, with a few different things to try to solve them:
* Problem: Baby won’t latch
* Problem: Nursing hurts
* Problem: Baby isn’t gaining well
* Problem: Baby is fussy
* Problem: I don’t think I’m making enough milk
* Problem: I can’t get anything out when I pump
Click here to get the free printable emailed to you right now!
This is also part of my Empowered Mother Ebook it’ll be in the back as a bonus section. Learn more about the book here.  It’s coming along quickly right now, I’m getting more and more excited as it progresses!
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I love your blog and have found it very useful. I am way..way past breastfeed as my babies (twin boys) turn 40 this years but I breastfed all my babies and worked with La Leche League for about 10 years as a volunteer leader. Are you open to some feedback? (if not you can ignore what follows)
In your troubleshooting you talk about helping baby to latch on by holding your nipple between your fingers and holding baby at the back of the head. I agree. One small point I would make is that you want to tip the nipple up so that as baby takes it in, it touches the hard pallet at the top of the mouth. This seems to help baby take it in further and grasp it properly.
The other point I would make is that when you answer the question “I don’t seem to be making enough milk” you seem to be assuming it is an actual problem. Many mothers give up breastfeeding around 6 – 9 weeks. It seems that everything was going smoothly when “suddenly” they didn’t make enough milk. Not So! Babies go through growth spurts when they suddenly want to nurse around the clock. This is normal and should usually abate after about 72 hours. Mothers just need to go with the flow (no pun intended).
Glad you are writing your book and offering the information on your blog. There is recent statistical information suggesting that lack of breastfeeding (or rather the inclusion of formula) in the first 6 months contributes to Type 1 Diabetes. It was normal in the ‘old days’ for mothers to nurse babies 2-3 even more years. I fed my daughter for 15 months when she naturally weaned because I was pregnant with my twins. They nursed for 4 years! I kept expecting them to want to stop and after a while I decided that I would just let them decide. Nursing a toddler is very different than nursing a baby but nonetheless an amazing experience. There were several toddler experiences that went much smoother because we had that to fall back on. For the last year they probably only nursed 1 or 2 times a week and then they stopped. First one, and then the other. I can honestly say that nursing my children was the only time in my life when I absolutely knew that my body was doing exactly what it was intended to do.
I’m a bit of a fanatic about it even after all these years as you can see. Keep up the good work.
This is great! I was just getting a few quick things down – it’s not comprehensive at all :) I”ll be sure to link to what you describe in my resources section.
I am unable to find the free printable of breastfeeding troubleshooting. I clicked on the link to have it emailed but it was 4 sections of your book, I was unable to locate the breastfeeding portion.