Preparing for Breastfeeding: Build Your Support Before Baby Arrives

Hope of Motherhood is a nonprofit maternity & postpartum support organization located at 1855 Wells Rd, Suite 2, 2nd Floor, Orange Park, Florida. We serve families throughout Clay County, including Orange Park, Fleming Island, and Middleburg, and welcome families from surrounding communities across Northeast Florida.

Start Preparing Before Baby Arrives

We spend months preparing for a new baby—the car seat, diapers, nursery, birth plans, and pediatrician. If you’re planning to breastfeed, add one more thing to your list: prepare for breastfeeding before your baby arrives.

You don’t need to become an expert. You want to enter those first couple of weeks knowing the basics and, most importantly, knowing where to turn if you need support.

Build Your Breastfeeding Support Plan

Before baby arrives:

Take a breastfeeding class. Learning the basics during pregnancy gives you a foundation before you’re also caring for a newborn.
Find an IBCLC in your community. Save their contact information now instead of searching for someone when you’re tired and worried.
Consider a prenatal visit with an IBCLC. This allows you to discuss your goals, ask questions, and make a plan before delivery.
Join a breastfeeding support group while you’re pregnant. You don’t have to wait until you’re breastfeeding—or until you’re having a problem—to start building your community.
Know where you’ll turn after birth. Your baby’s healthcare provider, maternity care provider, and an IBCLC have different roles and specialties.

What About Breastfeeding Discomfort?

Breastfeeding is something you and your baby learn together, and some tenderness or sensitivity can happen as you begin breastfeeding. That doesn’t mean you should expect every feeding to hurt. If you’re experiencing significant pain, pain that continues throughout feedings, cracked or bleeding nipples, or you’re dreading the next feeding because it hurts, don’t feel like you have to push through it.

Reach out to an IBCLC early. Sometimes getting support sooner rather than later can make a big difference in how those first weeks feel. And you never need to wait until something becomes a “problem” to ask for help. If you’re simply unsure whether breastfeeding is going well, that’s a perfectly good reason to reach out.

Hope of Motherhood provides opportunities for mothers to connect throughout pregnancy and the postpartum journey.