Breastfeeding is hard. I feel like that sentence could be a complete blog post and it would resonate with so many. Sure breastfeeding may come easy to some, but to many the journey to success is filled with pain, exhaustion, frustration, anger, many lactation appointments and a serious number of Amazon deliveries for needed supplies.

I have first hand, or should I say first nipple, experience of how hard breastfeeding can be, and I’m not talking “it just takes some practice.” I was not in the subset of individuals who could go through a couple lactation appointments to learn some tips and basic positions and then poof everything magically clicks into place. No, no. Instead, it took the following for breastfeeding to work for me:

• 12 lactation appointments
• A home visit by a lactation consultant
• 1 ENT visit that was a complete disaster (more on that later)
• 1 ENT visit that was helpful and resulted in a tongue tie procedure
• 4 weeks of tongue stretching exercises (for my infant)
• 4 infant chiropractic appointments
• Numerous text messages with a friend who is a lactation consultant
• A supportive husband
• A rockstar of a beast pump (and all the supplies that come with it)
• 4 different flange sizes (15,17,19,21)
• Breast warming pads
• Breast cooling pads
• A My Brest Friend pillow (bye bye boppy)
• Nipple covers (gels, silverettes, creams, you name it I tried them)
• Lactation massager
• Ibuprofen
• Prescription nipple cream
• Salt water soaks with the Hakaa
• Lots of hot baths for soaking
• Needles to the nipple to pop blisters (no joke)
• Lots and lots of tears
• A huge dose of resilience
• And a serious desire to make something work

If you just finished reading that list and thought “Wow, was it worth it to go through that?” Well, you can know I was asked that many times when I was in the throes of the breastfeeding woes. I will also tell you it’s the most unhelpful thing one can hear, especially when they have a desire to make breastfeeding work despite all the challenges.

Sometimes I cringe at thinking how many people give up because they hear “is it worth it”, and it happens to be the phrase that defeats them. We all know there are options to feeding your baby, but sometimes people have a goal and reasons to push forward with exclusively breastfeeding, and that’s ok. If the path to get there is filled with extremely low-lows, the need for a shoulder to cry on, and someone to complain to, then just listening can be the most powerful thing someone does. 

But to personally answer the “is it worth it” question, the answer is: Yes. 1000%, Yes.

More on that at another time.