Have a boob sandwich!

I’ve always wondered why there are many breastfeeding techniques, guides and professional online assistance or programs. What I don’t understand is that these programs talk about helping mothers where they never had, but they want to charge a premium to “help” other mothers in need.

Maybe it’s just me and whatever attitude I may have on this subject, but if your goal is to help mothers, or to help anyone for that matter, why would you charge a premium for the help? I’d rather you not call it something that will “help” where the “help” is not given freely without compensation. This to me is not okay especially when so many mothers out there need the help and cannot afford to pay for it. If I look at some of these programs which cost GBP50 or some even going as high as over GBP100 for guidelines or “help”, this cost seems to be disproportionate to what is being offered. Normally I’d expect that at the cost of this premium, I should get exclusive video tutorials on how to latch the baby properly, positioning and perhaps even a 1 to 1 video call or physical visit with the professional, or one of their employees to provide this help. Unfortunately another part of the premium package is a mountain of pdf books, which are not originals and cannot be used other than on the site you paid a premium for. The content cannot be shared, so even if you paid this premium and would like to share it with a friend, you either get a limited time to the content or cannot share it with another.

I understand that some of these professionals spent hours researching, years researching (I’ve seen one promoting this) but so too have the rest of us when it comes to providing the best for our children and given the current cost of living, paying for this premium which doesn’t give but basic guidelines to a technique which may or may not be correct because it’s not a guided program, I don’t think is a reasonable cost to pay for it, regardless of who you are, I don’t think it’s worth it.

I’m not a professional but what I have learnt in the few days of breastfeeding is to offer my son a breast sandwich. What this means is the manner in which you hold your breast to “plop” it into the mouth when it’s opened wide enough, which should catch the entire areola preventing the latch being only on the nipple. How you hold a sandwich on one hand, probably one which you try to squash a little, is how you’d be holding your breast before angling it (nipple to underside of the nose) to drop into the baby’s mouth. My son sometimes gets it right and other times not so much but I try over and over again until he’s holding on to more than the nipple.

The reason I looked into this is from day 2 of breastfeeding, the way I was advised, instructed to do for breastfeeding was causing nipple pain that could twinge into the night even when I wasn’t breastfeeding. I asked her midwives for help and asked for alternatives but they are about as helpful as people telling me “breast is best”. They did not want to hear that it hurts because according to their perspective it seems the baby is latching properly. Of course he is latching, he is latching on to the nipple and the pain is excruciating especially when 2 hours later I’m expected to offer this same meal vessel to my baby. I felt completely unheard and ignored when I continued to say that I feel the pain and it was almost as if the midwife was saying well I must just deal because she cannot see an issue so there is no issue. Way to step forward for supporting women there. Thanks!

This then lead me to the so called premium programs who claim they can help you achieve a better latch and have no nipple pain or trauma, which sounds amazing if you were truly there to help and not to make a profit off the pain and discomfort of mothers. Incredibly disappointing but let me move on from this as wallowing in this won’t change anything in the world of breastfeeding.

For first time moms who don’t have an extended support system or a deep pocket to pay for the premium deal, please hang in there. You will find the perfect solution that works for you when you do your research and find the mechanism or technique that will work for you. Every boob sandwich is different because no 2 breasts are the same and we are all unique individuals when it comes to shapes, sizes and mindset. If we put our minds to it, we can achieve great things, including overcoming breastfeeding trauma.

Sincerely yours The Milk Cow.