There’s no doubt that breastfeeding is best for everyone involved, but many moms aren’t sure they can stick with it in those early sleep-deprived days.  Since breastfeeding is so healthy for mom, baby, and the environment, we’d love to gather up a few of your stories about breastfeeding your baby.   What were the highlights?  What were the challenges?  How did your friends and family react?  Did you manage to breastfeed despite obstacles like working full time or having to pump all your milk and bottle feed?  Your stories will help so many of our readers as they struggle to nourish their babies, save the planet, and get a few hours of sleep now and then.  Thanks so much for sharing!

Before my daughter was born, I knew I wanted to try breastfeeding for all the usual reasons: breast milk is nutritionally perfect for a newborn and helps promote bonding between mother and child.  I’ve got to admit, though, that a big motivation was the idea that it was free!   For that reason alone, I’m glad that breastfeeding ended up working out for us.

A couple days ago I became aware of something I’d never thought about before: the hidden costs of breastfeeding.  Now, breastfeeding is generally much cheaper than formula, which can set parents back $1000 to $2300 in baby’s first year–but it isn’t exactly free.   Working mothers may need to pay for a breast pump and bottles out of pocket if insurance doesn’t cover it, which can cost hundreds of dollars.  My hospital had lactation consultants that were paid for by the county, but some women spend upwards of $1000 for lactation consultants if they’re having trouble with their supply or the baby’s latch.

Then there’s the food.  A breastfeeding woman needs to add 500 calories to her diet to keep up a good supply.  How much do 500 calories cost?  Well, a huge five-ounce serving of plain pasta costs $.31. At about $1 a pound, that’s one of the cheapest foods around.   If you supplement your diet with 500 calories of pasta every day for a year, you’ll pay  $114 more on food that year.  Not bad–except who wants to eat that much pasta?  (Me.  Maybe.)  Adding 500 calories of lean proteins and organic vegetables to your diet will end up costing much more.

I know exactly how I got those extra calories while I was breastfeeding: lattes and pastries.  Practically every day I would stroll on down to the coffee shop for a coffee drink made with whole milk and some little treat to tide me over.  While I should have been eating salads and whole grains, I craved carbs, sugar, and butter!  Moreover, I craved the little bit of social interaction my coffee shop jaunts provided.  Okay, so let’s say I spent an average of $3 a day on coffee and pastries–that’s $1095 on food I needed to nurse my baby.  The amount is staggering, especially considering how proud I was to spend under $800 on baby gear, including diapering costs!

So what are some ways to defray the hidden costs of breastfeeding?  Here are some ideas:

1. Check with your insurance company to see what kinds of benefits you may be eligible for as a nursing mother.  Also, look around for free breastfeeding resources.  Kelly Mom has great information online, and La Leche League holds meetings all over the world.

2. Ask your hospital or birthing center if they rent breast pumps, which may be cheaper than buying one yourself.  Joy borrowed an electric pump from family members and bought her own tubing.

3. As for the added calories you’ll need as a nursing mother, just being mindful of the extra expense can help you budget for the food and nutrients you need. I could have easily baked my own treats and limited my coffee shop expenditures. Even better, I could have tried to keep more cheap and nutritious snacks around (like wholegrain toast, carrot sticks, or homemade muffins) so I didn’t resort to pastries in the first place.

Now that I’m aware of the hidden costs of breastfeeding, I feel fortunate for the nursing support I received as a new mom.  Also, I can’t really complain about needing  to eat an extra 500 calories a day.  Ah, how I miss the days of lattes and pastries!

As a notorious cheapskate, it may seem out of character for me to consider wool nursing pads that cost almost $20 a pair. While I was pregnant, I obsessed over this purchase. Nursing pads were something I’d never thought about at all pre-pregnancy. I hadn’t even considered their existence. After doing some reading, I came to the startling realization that lactating women leak. This frightened me.

I learned that there was a simple way to prevent soaking all my shirts in breast milk: wear nursing pads. I didn’t want to buy disposable nursing pads, and I heard cotton nursing pads soaked through too easily and resulted in a cold and clammy chest. Somehow I found www.danishwool.com, a website promoting wool nursing pads. Intriguingly, the website claimed you only really needed one or two pair, because wool has the magical ability to feel dry even when wet. According to the website, the lanolin in the wool “has an antibacterial effect and removes odors.” It goes on to say that “even if wool is wet with sweat, urine or breast-milk, the lanolin goes to work cleansing the wool—it need only be washed when the lanolin needs replenishing.”

As I am not one who needs to constantly clean and disinfect everything, this seemed okay to me. So I bought a pair. I thought I could try them out and order more if necessary. This might be a good strategy for other pregnant women as well, as you never know how leaky you are going to be. Some women nurse for a couple years and need breast pads the whole time. Others find they stop leaking after the first few weeks or months of breastfeeding.

My review: I would recommend LANAcare wool nursing pads, which are very soft and don’t feel wet, as promised. I’d often be surprised to take them out and find them soaked through, as I couldn’t feel the dampness at all. I would often run them under hot water and squeeze them out and let them dry overnight. This is when it would have been handy to have a second pair, but I was too cheap for that kind of practicality! I trusted the claims that the lanolin kept the pads sanitary and never had any problems with thrush or anything else. This product appealed to the environmentalist in me; it was nice to own just one pair of nursing pads instead of an entire box of disposable pads or several cotton pads that needed to be frequently washed and dried. The wool itself is dust mite/chemical/pesticide-free, according the website.

There were only two downsides to these pads, as far as I was concerned: the initial high price and the lumpiness. I had to wear them under a pretty thick bra. They would have been noticeable under a sheer or tight top. I spent a few months wearing looser and thicker clothing than usual. I wore these pads for about six months. At that point, I didn’t seem to need them anymore, even though I was still nursing. Despite these two detractions, I would not hesitate to recommend LANAcare nursing pads for the thrifty, eco-conscious breastfeeding mother.