trouble breastfeeding?

When I found out that I was pregnant the thing I was looking forwards to was being able to bond with my baby through breastfeeding. So it was my request that as soon as he was born that I would breastfeed him straight away. And thats what happened except that 

Anyway I tried and tried while I was in hospital to breastfeed my baby, but he wasn't attaching properly (so the mid wives told me). They kept telling me that I wasn't doin it properly and that I was to take him off and try again because he was making noises. I stayed in hospital for 5 days and was getting very upset that I couldn't do what I thought was such a simple thing (I was wrong).

The same day that my son was born my nipples became very tender and the midwives told me that this was normal as I hadn't done it before and that I wasn't attaching him properly. So I was getting very upset and sore. After a while of all this I realised that my nipples were too short to get back to the soft palette of his mouth. And that is why we were having troubles, not that I wasn't trying hard enough or attaching him proplery, but that he couldn't have attached properly no matter how hard we tried.

So after 5 days of tears and very sore cracked and bleeding nipples, I was very upset when he would cry and all I was thinking was please don't be hungry. I went home even though we were still having trouble as I thought i'd be more comfortable at home. But anyway my mum was talking to our friend about all the troubles that I was having and she suggested that I try nipple guards/sheilds. Neither of us had heard of these before but I would have tryed anything at this point. So we bought some and they were the best $10 I have ever spent. I would deffinately reccomend them to anyone who has the same problem with breastfeeding.

They are very good to use while your nipples heal or as I have to for evey feed. I was told that my nipples would come out further with time but they never did, but thats ok with me now that I have these lil beauties I no longer have to worry about him not being able to get the milk out.

I hope it didn't sound like I was bagging the midwives becasue that was not my intention. They were wonderful, but they didn't tell me about nipple guards and if they had maybe my first weeks of mothehood wouldn't have been go painful and upsetting. But I still think midwives do a great job its just that they are told how to do things one way and thats how they do it but thats ok.

Anyway I hope that this info can help anyone else. Nipple guards are deffinately a bargain. My son is nearly 4 months old and I am still using them for every feed, I wouldn't be without them.

thanx