I'm still a new mom and still new to breastfeeding. My son was born in early November 2018, and he has been exclusively breastfed. I researched everything I could find when I was pregnant to best prepare myself for what breastfeeding would be like. Like most moms that plan to breastfeed, I was worried that my baby wouldn't latch correctly or that I wouldn't produce enough milk for him in the beginning. I really wanted to try my best to breastfeed, but if anything happened that wouldn't allow me to nurse him, I would supplement or switch him to formula if need be.
I definitely came out lucky when it comes to breastfeeding. Within the first hour after giving birth to my son, he was already nursing with a deep latch. The lactation consultant in the hospital told me that I had nothing to worry about when it came to my son latching. I had minimal pain while in the hospital and was able to feed my son whenever he showed signs of being hungry.
Things got a little tougher once I got home; he wanted to nurse every hour or so, and my left nipple started to crack because his latch started slipping. And once my milk came in, I was very engorged and sore. The pain got very intense for the first couple of days home, and the crack got worse. It got to the point where I dreaded nursing him on my left side because it hurt so bad. There were several times when I would cry or get a bottle out just to avoid having to nurse him on that side. I felt like I was giving up, so I powered through it, and it eventually healed.
I used Medela Lanolin and Medela Tender Care Hydrogel Pads to help with all of the pain and to help heal my cracked nipple. What worked the best for healing was to express some breast milk and rub it onto the nipple and then led it air-dry; the more I left it out, the better it felt. It did take a while to heal completely though, with no pain. I did mention it to a lactation consultant and she said it wouldn't heal until I fixed my son's latch, but his latch was fine. One of the things that I had to learn on my own is that there can be pain in the beginning even if the latch is perfect.