Do You Want to Quit Breastfeeding? Top Three Things that Helped Me When I Did

I have been thrust right back into the world of breastfeeding. I have to admit, there are a lot of things that I forgot, and a few things I’ve learned, since I am breastfeeding an entirely different person. My daughter, as beautiful as she is, has reminded me that there are a couple things about breastfeeding that make it hard to stick with.

This post is to offer tips to any of those mamas that feel so overwhelmed by breastfeeding. You’ve tried to do what the nurses told you to do when they showed you how to do it in the hospital, but nothing is working. Or it’s just too painful, and you can’t deal anymore. Breastfeeding is challenging at first, but it’s so worth it to stick with it. You’ll be so happy you did. So let’s get into it.

1. Co-sleep 

If this is something you’re open to, I highly recommend it. I know all of the pediatricians (well my children’s pediatrician) don’t encourage co-sleeping, but I did it with my son and am doing it with my daughter. I love it. The reason I’m offering this as a tip is because one of the many things that sucks (I mean really suuuuuucks) about early parenthood is the lack of sleep. It seems like no matter how hard you try, you can never get more than a couple of hours out of the 24 hours God gave us.

When you’re a breastfeeding mama, as much as dad wants to help, night time is all on you, sis. All that baby wants is mama and her nipple. Bottle fed babies are easier to split the burden. Dad can easily make a bottle to stay up with baby while you get some rest. If you’re breastfeeding, unless you want to sacrifice some of your precious supply of frozen breastmilk, you’re stuck with that baby all night. In my experience, my wonderful boyfriend tried many a night to get our daughter and keep her for the night. When she got hungry though, he had to bring her back to me no matter how much he wanted to keep her for my sake.

I’m saying all of this to say, if you co sleep, you get more rest. Like waaaay more rest. More rest than you would get if you bottle fed. This is one of the most slept on benefits of being a breastfeeding mama. YOU GET MORE REST SIS! All you have to do is wait about six or seven weeks (probably not even that long. I know I didn’t) until baby is big enough to nurse on his or her side, put baby to your nipple, get baby to latch, and close your eyes. You’ll be surprised in the morning when you wake up from a full night's rest.

If you’re nervous about doing this, try it for a couple nights to see how you feel. Also, added bonus, there is something immensely calming about sleeping with your sweet little creation cuddled into you. That’s a whole other level of peace right there. Tap into that magic.

2. Stay moisturized

I’m going to be real with you. Breastfeeding hurts at first, a lot. Especially if it’s your first time. You need lanolin. You need it. Your breasts depend on it. I know it’s like seven or eight bucks for a little tube of it, and this price makes you want to slap everyone involved in that decision, but you NEED it sis.

Lanolin keeps the skin on your nipple latch friendly. Your skin cracks, splits, and bleeds, if you don’t have lanolin. Lanolin allows your skin to stay moisturized while also creating slip between your skin and baby’s mouth. What I mean by slip is when your baby is nursing, he or she is pulling on your nipple. Your skin is sliding in and out of baby’s mouth while baby is nursing. When you have lanolin, your skin doesn’t dry out from the friction. The slip is there to better allow your skin to move easily while baby is pulling. It’s for your own comfort.

Also, it’s totally safe for baby. You don’t have to wipe it off before you nurse or anything. Baby can safely nurse with lanolin on your nipple.

3. Communicate with your doctor 

Breastfeeding is painful at first. It’s also difficult if it’s your first time nursing. In my experience, my son and I didn’t have a feel for each other. He didn’t know how to latch, and I didn’t know how to get him to latch. I had just about given up on breastfeeding. At that point, I was giving him a bottle just to make sure he stayed fed.

I called the nurse that gave me her card in the hospital. As it turned out, she was a lactation consultant. With her help, I was able to do it, and that made me feel incredible.

This time around, my daughter got thrush (a yeast infection in the mouth). It's a very common occurrence. The only issue was when she got thrush, she passed it on to me, specifically my nipples (also common). Thrush happens to be very contagious. Nursing her became unbearable. Like more painful than I’ve ever had to deal with.

I called my doctor and told her that my baby had thrush. She didn’t even think. Immediately, she prescribed Diflucan to get rid of the infection in my body and also, an ointment with active ingredients mupirocin, betamethasone, and miconazole. It took me a little while longer to get the ointment after I took the first medication.

Also, I wasn’t going to get it at a certain point because of the price. My insurance wouldn’t cover it. I figured since I’d taken the antibiotics, the infection would clear up, and I’d be able to nurse. That wasn’t the case. I kept trying to nurse through the pain, but I was just making it worse and worse. I finally got my hands on that ointment. I’m so glad I did. This ointment saved everything. Not only did it heal the infection, it healed my skin and made it nearly painless to nurse my daughter through that whole ordeal.

My point is both of these happenings nearly made me quit breastfeeding. At one point, my daughter was solely on the bottle because I couldn’t bear the pain of nursing her. Talk to your doctor before you quit it. See if there is anything that can be done to help you before you give up. That ointment I mentioned is mostly used for women who have trouble dealing with the initial discomfort of breastfeeding. If that’s something you’re struggling with, make sure to ask your doctor about the ointment, and its availability to you.

Those were my three biggest game changers when it boiled down to sticking with breastfeeding. I kept this post limited to only those three simply because I know there is a lot of information out there. You can google “Tips for breastfeeding” or “What I need to know about breastfeeding” and come upon an entire slew of advice.

Sometimes, though, even with all that information, we find ourselves in situations where we don’t know what to do. Try these methods and see if you still feel like giving it up.

As always, mamas, thank y’all for stopping by. Follow me on Instagram and leave a comment down below if you can think of anything that helped you through those moments when you wanted to quit breastfeeding.