Breast Prep?

Can anyone help?I was unable to breastfeed both my daughters,one because she was born at 30 weeks and had no one tell me how to deal with the stress and to perservere,and the second because all she did was chew my nippleswhich bled constantly and my milk didnt come in properly.Is there any secret to preparing your breasts to help the milk come in and to harden your nipples??I have purchased nipple shields just in case I need them.
Any help would be great as I really want to succeed this time

I didn't do prep either but Lanolin saved my life in the first week or so. Sorry I'm not much help either

Someone told me everytime you get out of the shower rub each nipple harsly with your towel about 10 times this helps make them tougher and easier when you have a baby breastfeeding.

When I tried this after a couple of days I had bloody sore nipples but I did notice they had toughen up a bit.

I must admit I have stopped and dont know why...must keep it up.

I didn't do anything to prepare them. had a bit of discomfort, but nothing major, no cracks etc. my midwife told me not to do anything to "toughen" them up, and the nurses at the hosp told me to rub the colostrum into them.. good luck!

try and get as much help as you can from the nurses and midwives at the hospital, and also the lactation consultant can help too if they have one - talk to them about the problems you had last time and oput things in place this time to ensure your success. I had probs 1st time round - this time i haven't cos i perservered and although there were a few probs at around 6 wks i fought thru and am now still feeding Ayja at 8mths. support and knowledge are the best preparation really.

The lactation consultant I had up at the Rotorua hospital was Margaret. She was pretty good but I found her a little too forceful. The other midwives were brilliant, really patient. This sounds freaking weird, but they ended up hand expressing out of my breasts for me!!! At the time I didn't think anything of it and now I look back and I'm like "what the hell!?!"
Anyway, just to show the lengths they will go to to help out!

I had to give Hannah formula top ups as she was such a big baby and so hungry and my milk didn't come in until day 3. Margaret was not happy about the formula but my midwife recently told her I breastfed until 13 months so she was very happy with her efforts.
In the first couple of weeks I had blistered and bleeding nipples, I used lanolin and perservered and it eventually became enjoyable.

Apparently Rotorua has got extra strict on the whole breastfeeding thing. My midwife made comments about how it's like police work. They are making sure every mother reads and signs the anti-formula form every time they give a bottle (which was policy when I was there but never implemented, I think I signed it once). I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not but at least they are supportive of breast feeding!

And Tania, my dad's girlfriend is the manager of that section of the hospital, I could probably find out who the nice midwives are regarding breastfeeding and get Carolyn to swing one your way when you are in?

haha yeah, no interference there!
But I think the support of good midwives is invaluable.
Hopefully things have improved since then.
Will have a word to Carolyn for sure and let you know what I find out

My Mum told me that as well!

After the heat we had here yesterday i dunno if I would want to put my poor nipples out therelol
Imagine getting them sunburnt