Welcome to my birth and postpartum guide, item #3. Congrats on the upcoming addition to your family! Please take care of yourself and best of luck with your preparations. This is one piece of a 10-part guide. Feel free to explore the other pieces from the introduction page.

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If you are planning to breastfeed, and you can swing it financially in any way, I STRONGLY recommend finding a lactation consultant in your area who specializes in home visits. I recommend interviewing at least two of them and going with the one that you like best. This does sometimes require scheduling a first home consult for the interview. Arrange for your lactation consultant to be on call and ready to visit you in the day or two after you return home from the hospital to check-in and offer any tips. This will likely be expensive. Insurance companies are required to cover breastfeeding support under the Affordable Care Act, but they often make you jump through a TON of hoops, use their preferred provider (of which there is often only one in a metro area) and may not cover home visits (and you DO NOT want to be traveling ANYWHERE the first two weeks after birth, when you most need lactation support). If you cannot afford one out of pocket, I strongly recommend asking for this as a baby shower gift — even if your friends and family pool together to support the roughly $250 that it might cost to have a prenatal and two postnatal consults in the comfort of your home. If you cannot find a way to have someone visit you at home, then figure out where you will go if you need help before you need it (you will not be thinking clearly in the week after your baby is born). Look for hospitals and practices that specialize in lactation support. Insurance is more likely to cover a visit at a hospital. Alternatively, find a neighborhood support group at a store that specializes in maternity services, which will be less expensive.

Also, once you arrive at the hospital for your birth (if delivering in a hospital), ask about the lactation consultants, and the folks who keep donor breast milk around. The lactation consultants at the hospital are often very helpful. If the hospital has donor milk on hand, definitely scout out options for getting some, if you think your baby is hungrier than you can manage in the days after birth or losing weight too quickly (which is common). Using a bit of supplemental food in the days after birth is unlikely to impact long-term breastfeeding success. And donor milk has the added benefit of conferring a mixed microbiome onto your little babe. 

Also, read everything on McSweeney’s about breastfeeding — it’s everything you need to know 🙂 Good places to start — 

HOW TO LATCH YOUR BABY TO YOUR LEFT BREAST IN A CROSS CRADLE HOLD IN 33 EASY-TO-MASTER STEPS 

TEN MEETINGS WITH LACTATION CONSULTANTS

WELCOME TO BREASTFEEDING CLASS, SURRENDER ALL HOPE

MY BREASTS’ LIST OF GRIEVANCES AGAINST THE BABY

Lastly, remember that millions of women around the world are trying and struggling and failing and succeeding at nursing their little dictators at 3AM too — you are not alone.