As you may know, August is World Breastfeeding Month and even though I haven’t been a breastfeeding mom for over 2 years now, it’s still a time in my life that I hold so dearly. I love that sharing images of breastfeeding has become more and more common and that we are all taking the time to celebrate this life changing season of life.

As much as I treasure it now, breastfeeding didn’t always come easily to me and I struggled with oversupply, cracked nipples and blisters as well as mastitis. Today, I want to share some of the things that helped me overcome those challenges and get to that sweet spot in a nursing relationship where it becomes more about the bonding and nourishing and less about the struggle.

Heal the Nipple

For sore and cracked nipples I love Earth Mama Angel Baby Natural Nipple Butter which is actually great for all sorts of things from scraped elbows and skinned knees to chapped lips and rashy bums. It’s just a really high quality organic product with healing ingredients like cocao, shea and calendula.

breastfeeding bond

Copping with Oversupply and Mastitis

When my breasts were engorged due to an oversupply of milk which eventually led to mastitis I relied on Booby Tubes. If you don’t know, mastitis is an infection of the breast tissue that results in tender and painful breasts, swelling and redness. One of the things that felt best to me when I was recovering from mastitis was standing in a hot, steamy shower and letting the water run gently over my chest but since you can’t hang out in the shower all day long, I used booby tubes to apply heat directly to my breasts by putting them in a loose fitting sleep bra. They provided so much relief that I was microwaving those suckers over and over again.

breastfeeding latch

Boosting Supply

Finally, when both of my babies started weaning around one-year-old, I was pretty devastated and did anything I could to boost my supply and try to continue our breastfeeding relationship. I used this tea with milk boosting herbs like red raspberry leaf, fenugreek, milk thistle and fennel to increase my supply and noticed an immediate difference.

breastfeeding after homebirth

Breastfeeding was never a naturally easy thing for me but with support from mama friends, birth workers, products and online support like Kelly Mom, I found my stride and am so thankful for every day spent nursing my two babies.

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