Nursing Pads

Prior to giving birth to Little Bear, I thought I had prepared for everything! I had cloth diapers, clothes, burp clothes, swaddling blankets ... all ready for the big day when our family of two would suddenly become a family of three. Little Bear was born on a Saturday morning. By Tuesday, my milk had started to come in and I was painfully engorged. I remember sitting at my midwife's office with my shirt complete soaked in breastmilk. It was streaming out so hard and fast that I was soon drenched from chest to waist. I suddenly realized that I hadn't prepared for everything: I didn't have any nursing pads!

There are always going to be things during pregnancy and motherhood that take us completely by surprise. Maybe I skipped the chapters on nursing pads in all the pregnancy books I read ... or maybe leaking breasts  just didn't seem that exciting to write about. Whatever the reason, I completely neglected to realized exactly how much breasts can leak those first few months!

I was able to find disposable nursing pads at our local drug store. They were made by Lansinoh and worked great. You simply slip a pad between your bra and breast and forget they are even there. I haven't used them for a while, but I believe you put the purple side toward your breast (there were not instructions on the box so I had to figure it out by trial and error). You could use one pair for quite a while (a day usually); it was easy to tell when it was time to toss them because they would feel "crispy" from soaking up the milk. I ordered a pair of washable, plastic pads but never used them. I wasn't sure how they worked when I ordered them, but when I got them in I realized that they put pressure on your nipples and actually stopped the flow of milk. This seemed like a very bad idea (mastitis and clogged milk ducts can occur from this) so I never tried them out.

My midwife said that using nursing pads at times, especially when out and about, is not an issue. However, she did say that the breasts DO need to leak freely and that sleeping without nursing pads and a loose shirt was a good idea. This meant many nights of waking up with a soaking wet shirt AND sheets, but I heeded her advice. I eventually started sleeping with a towel under me so I didn't have to change our sheets every other day.

I eventually found washable nursing pads made from organic cotton which I liked A LOT. I bought 3 pairs so that I'd always have a clean pair available.

I noticed that after 4 months my breasts stopped leaking so much - both in the day time and night time. The exception is when "let-down" occurs while nursing Little Bear. Milk begins flowing out of BOTH breasts (not just the one they are nursing on), so I still will stick a nursing pad or burp cloth on the opposite side I'm nursing on. This is usually worse in the mornings, or after going several hours without nursing (when the breasts are more full). Everyone, I'm sure, is different. The amount of milk produced will vary from woman to woman ... and the amount a baby demands will vary from baby to baby. Women may also notice engorgement and leaking more when their baby begins to sleep through the night (I noticed this immediately), or their baby begins eating solids and skipping one or more nursing sessions. That is the beauty of the human body: it adapts and varies to best meets the needs of each individual mother and child. Wonderful, isn't it?