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Home › Articles › Overcoming Difficulties › Frustration and the Breastfeeding Mother

Frustration and the Breastfeeding Mother

By Deborah Boehle, IBCLC

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When living with a baby who wants to nurse frequently, Mom can learn to breastfeed lying down or while sleeping. This is also an essential skill for mothers who like to sleep late. "I remember wonderful, lazy mornings cuddling and snuggling and nursing in bed until 9 and 10 o'clock with my precious baby," recalls Kroc. "I loved those times. They are very sweet in my memory."

It is also important for mothers to realize that babies will not breastfeed as frequently when they get older. Newborns can do little more than lay there and look at the world around them. A 3-month-old can hold a rattle, a 6-month-old can crawl and a 9-month-old is usually getting into so many things around the house that moms find they miss the days when their babies were content to lie in their arms and nurse.

Weaning may not be the answer for a mom who is tired from taking care of a baby, because bottle feeding will add more chores to a mother's schedule.

When mothers have babies who are generally fussy, breastfeeding is often blamed by well-meaning friends and relatives. While breastfeeding is seldom the cause of a baby's fussiness, the best answer may be to hand the baby to another caring adult for 20 or 30 minutes while the mother takes a walk or a hot bath. Taking time to exercise or relax are invaluable tools in combating fatigue, as well as frustration.

Finding supportive friends is also important. Nursing moms often find La Leche League meetings a good source of information and support. "There is going to be at least one person at every meeting who has had the same experience as you," says Jan Friedland of Aurora, Ill., who struggled with sore nipples in the early days of breastfeeding her now 7-month-old son. "It's what got me through the really rough times and knowing that day or night there were people I could call."

Jan said it is especially important to stay away from the advice of people who have never breastfed, and keep looking for help until the problem is solved. "Even if you have to hang up the phone and call someone else and hang up the phone and call someone else," she says. "Those first couple weeks - they sure can be hard, but it's worth it."

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