We expect that breastfeeding will make us feel relaxed and in love with our babies, but it doesn’t always work this way. For people with D-MER, breastfeeding can feel downright awful.

Despite their prevalence in advertising and entertainment, breasts are really not well understood by most of us. This becomes a big problem when we are feeding our babies with them. What can we do to empower ourselves and learn how to care for them?

Why do we put so much energy into creating a nursery for our baby? Sure, it's fun picking out colors and choosing all those sweet little details, but shouldn't we put our energy towards learning how to feed our child? Most new parents plan to exclusively breastfeed, but many will stop a lot earlier than they planned. Perhaps we need to center the conversation on what we can do to empower ourselves before the baby is even born.