Painful memories of the struggle to breastfeed | Letters

Readers share the difficulties they had with breastfeeding in response to an article by Niamh Campbell

Reading Niamh Campbell’s article on breastfeeding brought back painful memories for me (‘Like a cheese grater raking across my nipple’: why I kept trying to breastfeed for so long, 3 September). Nearly 43 years ago, I too found breastfeeding agonisingly painful. Unlike her, I never had access to a lactation consultant, and the only advice I was offered by health professionals was to wear a nipple shield, grit my teeth and persevere. I lasted four months before switching to formula, and from then on started to bond with my baby. All these years later, there’s still a slight feeling of shame that I “failed”.
Barbara Thompson
Sheffield

• I can absolutely relate to Niamh Campbell’s experience. I gave up breastfeeding when my daughter was 20 weeks old. I had the same issues, which nothing prepares you for. I was in agony, with cracked, bleeding nipples, and had to supplement with formula. I envied mothers who had milk flowing like wine and contented infants. There were no lactation consultants then in my neck of the woods, and even had there been, I doubt they’d have been able to help.
Siobhan McGovern
Edinburgh