Picture the scene: you’re a new mum, holding your beautiful newborn baby in your arms, when you notice that she’s starting to stir and her fingers have briefly brushed against her cheek, causing her mouth to start searching for a nipple. Remembering your antenatal class, you recognise this as an early hunger cue, and you bring your baby close into your body, gently assisting her to latch comfortably onto your breast. With your free hand, you snap a quick photo of this loving moment and send it to your husband. "Bliss," you write. Does this sound anything like your early moments with your newborn? No? Mine neither!

You are not alone. Did you know that 92% of women with a 3-day-old baby reported having at least one breastfeeding problem? And that this is true for women around the world. Yet in some areas (notably remote villages in Namibia like Himba), 98% of women are still breastfeeding their infants when they reach their first birthday. In the UK, the comparable figure is a mere 0.5%.

So we can see that although breastfeeding is indeed natural (in fact, up to a century or so ago, humanity’s survival depended upon it), it is also a learned behaviour. At first, this may sound like a contradiction, but imagine for a moment that instead of breastfeeding, we were speaking about walking. This too is a natural behaviour, universal to humans around the world, and also very much learned. If we approached our learning curve in breastfeeding with the same attitude that we approach our baby’s learning curve in walking, we would feel totally differently about it. When our baby takes his first wobbly two steps before promptly falling on his cute little bottom, we immediately tell everyone, “He walked!” We would never dream of looking at him with disappointment in our eyes and saying dismissively “He fell over”.

Success in mastering a new skill is not marked by immediate excellence in that skill but rather through supportive instruction, perseverance, and time. In the African model mentioned above, the supportive instruction is given by the new mum’s own mother and other women in her community who instinctively share their early challenges and how they overcame them. By normalising these challenges and demonstrating that they can be overcome, the new mum has her confidence raised and, together with the practical assistance, now develops the perseverance and patience necessary to work through these early issues and come out on the other side.

So what are the common challenges? And what can I do about them?

Sore nipples. This is probably one of the most universal challenges faced by new mothers. While some level of discomfort (caused by hormonal sensitivities in the early days) is normal, pain and injury are not. One way to tell if you’re experiencing ‘normal’ pain or not is to give your breasts a bit of a prod and rate any discomfort on a 0–10 scale. Normal feeding discomfort will be 1-2 notches more uncomfortable than that, but anything higher is probably latch-related. If you are experiencing pain, check out lesson 5 on latching a newborn baby and contact your local lactation consultant for further support.

Baby isn’t waking for feeds. Some babies struggle with their adaptation to the outside world and retreat into deep sleep. Our concern with these babies is that they are not cueing appropriately for feeds and, therefore, are not taking in enough milk. Once they’ve skipped a few feeds, they can struggle with the stamina to stay awake long enough to eat. To prevent this cycle from kicking off, we want to make sure that new babies eat at least every 3 hours. This means that if it’s been 3 hours since they last started a feed, it’s time to initiate another one. This isn't, however, a goal; it’s a safety net, so if they signal for a feed after 2 hours (or even after 20 minutes!) we offer a feed. We continue this 3-hourly cycle until they have hit three important milestones:

They are more than 40 weeks pregnant (i.e., have reached their original due date).

They are back to birth weight (most babies drop up to 10% of their birth weight in the first few days).

They weigh more than 3kg.

Concerns about milk intake. In our data-driven world, many parents find it challenging that they are unable to precisely measure the milk intake of their breastfed child. It is true that we can’t accurately measure this in mls or ounces (and actually, it’s not helpful to try and do so), so what we do measure is what comes out on the other end! Once your milk is “in'' and until your baby is about 8 weeks old, they will have frequent bowel movements. When well fed, most babies will make at least 3–4 poos per day of at least a £2 coin size. Of course, your baby may make many more than this or fewer than this but larger in volume. Whatever the pattern, you should be seeing plenty of poo! In addition to measuring poo, your baby will be weighed frequently until they are comfortably over their birth weight. If you’re not seeing this volume, make sure that the latch is comfortable, you're feeding frequently enough (see below), and that you’re offering both breasts at every feed. If you’re doing all of this and still not seeing the appropriate amount of poo, you should contact your local lactation consultant for further support.

Very frequent feeds. Your baby was fed a constant stream of nutrition in the womb and is now slowly getting used to the idea of a “meal”. Their natural instinct is to take in small amounts of food at frequent intervals. They will slowly learn to eat larger amounts in one go, but initially, nearly all babies require 8–16 feeds every 24 hours. This does mean that you can be spending upwards of 60–80 hours per week breastfeeding; while this is challenging, it is also normal.

What are the common breastfeeding challenges I may face?

For our Baby Feeding Journey, Unii Expert Wendy Lever explains how to tackle common breastfeeding challenges.