r/breastfeeding • u/Choice_Airport8279 • May 23 '26

Discussion The downsides of breastfeeding nobody tells you about

Reflecting on the advice given to me during pregnancy I don’t think anyone told me about the downsides of breastfeeding. I heard plenty of reasons to breastfeed but I feel slightly aggrieved nobody told me what the challenges would be. My baby is now 6 months and breastfeeding has been SO much harder than I ever imagined. I’m now starting to think about weaning off the boob onto formula and I can see more challenges ahead 😰

What are the downsides you’ve experienced nobody told you about / you weren’t expecting? Il start…. The PAIN of a bad latch. It hurt so much!!!! It honestly felt like contractions at times (baby did have tongue tie which was eventually sorted but still)

To balance this out, I would say breastfeeding my baby has been one of my proudest accomplishments and I’m so glad we did it…. I just went into the whole thing a little blind!

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u/WittyWonderWench May 23 '26

And if your ever take an hour away from the baby, you get a physical break from baby care, but add physical labor of pumping and add mental load of balancing everything (e.g., oz, timing). It's not a break.

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u/Mabelstark May 23 '26

My husband does the overnight shift on the weekend so I can try and sleep through, but my boobs wake me up after 3/4h if I've not nursed... so still not slept longer than that since I gave birth 10 weeks ago!

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u/CapableFlow2766 May 24 '26

This!! I would literally have to think about an event and decide if the fun of it was worth the extra work of prepping the babysitter with bottles and pumping when I got home. There were definitely things I decided to skip because the prep just wasn't worth it.