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Home › Articles › Breastfeeding › Is Breastfeeding Inconvenient?

Is Breastfeeding Inconvenient?

A Practical Guide to Breastfeeding

By Teri Brown

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Is breastfeeding inconvenient? Today's reality consists of mothers who have full-time careers, numerous volunteer positions and other obligations. The prospect of motherhood is daunting enough with the multiple life changes that it requires – breastfeeding may seem like the straw that broke the camel's back for a woman already facing a life altering event.

Before you believe that, you better read on. The following includes common worries answered by lactation consultants and experts, easing the mind of the most stressed-out mom-to-be and shedding light on the most common breastfeeding misconceptions.

Inconvenience: Your breasts become engorged when your milk comes in.
Truth: According to Ginger Carney, clinical nutrition manager and board certified lactation consultant for Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn., you can stay on top of engorgement by breastfeeding within the first hour of birth and continuing to breastfeed often.

"Many moms don't realize that babies need to nurse up to 12 times a day," Carney says. "As long as the baby is offered the breast whenever he or she is hungry, a mother's milk supply will match the baby's needs. If the breasts are emptied often, they won't become engorged!"

Inconvenience: Breastfed babies nurse constantly after birth, and I will be the only one who can nurse the baby, leaving me exhausted.
Truth: Having babies is exhausting and breastfeeding actually encourages relaxation by allowing the mother to rest while nursing. A hormone called prolactin is secreted in the mother's body when she breastfeeds. This hormone makes the mother calm down, relax and rest.

"If the baby were bottle-fed, the bottles would have to be made, heated, fed, cleaned, etc.," Carney says. "That is tiring! Even though someone else could do the feeding, the joy of successfully breastfeeding your child is completely worth it. Some moms are glad to be able to re-claim their infants when family members tend to take the baby from the mother to hold and rock. This is the mother's chance to cuddle her baby, nurse and relax – something only she can do!"


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