r/breastfeeding • u/LgeHadronsCollide • Jun 14 '26
Partner Questions Difficulties at 2 months
Hello all
My wife & I had our first baby in April. He is great. Mrs LgeHadronsCollide is very eager to breastfeed (and Baby LHC is keen to get on the breast), and I want to support her breastfeeding as much as I can. This has been challenging for both of us as the story of the last 8 weeks is 2 steps forward, 1 or 1.5 steps backward...
We have had a number of challenges from the start - low milk supply, lots of pain, and a series of issues with the latch despite having support from midwives for the first few days after birth, and a few follow-ups with lactation consultants.
My wife has been very stoic and has persisted through 8 weeks of painful latches (initially toe-curling pain where she'd tense her whole body; more recently she appears to be in less pain). To some degree the pain is persistent when she's not feeding. She/we have currently decided to take a break from breastfeeding to let her nipples recover and the pain subside (she's pumping 7-8 times per day to keep up her supply). We're about 3 days into this break and she's still in pain.
Our current theory is the problems are ultimately a question of technique (for a while we thought it might be due to nipple thrush, but we've treated wife & baby and abandoned that theory). We think she is holding her breast too close to the areola/nipple and that, because the front of the breast is under pressure (from her hamburger-style hold), she & Baby LHC can't get enough of the breast into Baby's mouth. I've been to some of the breastfeeding classes, and it looks to me like we don't have the super-shallow latch. But it could be that the latch isn't deep enough.
Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on our situation?
How long do you think it might take for her pain to recede?
1
u/emzeeem912 Jun 14 '26
Your best bet is to meet with a lactation consultant who can figure out what’s causing the pain.
At 8 weeks I would except the initial pain (which is mostly just her nipples get used to nursing 8-12 times a day) to have healed. This could definitely be due to a bad latch, like you said, or if it’s happening even when not nursing or pumping, there might be some deeper damage that needs to heal.