My daughter fed for ages straight after the birth (after they checked her for meconium or what ever its called) She was delivered onto my tummy before they checked her.
In hospital they told me you have to squeeze your nipple so it will go into their mouth. This was wrong advice, when my midwife saw me do it she told me thats why i was so sore. You do get sore anyway, but if you persevere after a couple of weeks its not too bad. Put a blob of nipple cream on your breast pads and every time it looks dry on the pad add another blob. I used Lasinloh, it is £9.99 but worth every penny. If you need your baby to come off the breast (if the doorbell rings or one of your kids needs something etc) dont pull her/him off, put your little finger in the corner of her/his mouth and pull it open a bit otherwise your pulling yourself off a vacum. on day 5 Isabel ripped herself off and took off half my nipple skin. The boppy/widgetty cushion is a great idea too although sometimes a pillow works just as well. If your going to use a dummy wait afew weeks or they get confused. Skin to skin. Nipple sheilds are not the greatest invention, i tried them but you need about 5 hands to use them! If you don't buy "just in case" milk you know that you can't give up. When the milk comes in theres lots of it and it takes a little while for it to calm down to supply and demand, if your anything like me I just had to touch them and they squirted out, that can't be nice in a babys mouth, but they have settled down now.

Hi, I gave birth 27 weeks ago to my first baby boy and I was determined to breastfeed before I give birth. Of course I didn't know that it was going to be very difficult in the beginning and that I would be in so much pain but at this point I can say that it worths the pain as baby gets to sleep a lot easier and he loves it plus all the other medical and economical reasons. What helped me first of all was determination as after I gave birth and I was in the clinic all the other babies of the ladies who gave birth the same days with me and were bottlefed were sleeping wereas I had to rush every two or less hours in the infant room to feed him(It helped when I had him in my room but due to the many visitors I had I had to move him out all the time. Another thing that helped was the paediatricians instructions to give me the baby as soon as it was born and to be placed on my chest. He just breastfed for a minute or so but it is crucial for succesful breastfeeding. I also bought a big circle pillow that is placed around your waist and is very helpful because it placed the baby at the right position without you having to hold all the weight.
For soreness, I used a cream (Mustela) and I tried to stayed without bra when possible. The pain only lasted for about a month but the first minutes I had to bite my lips everytime I had to fed him to stand the pain. However, I have no regrets at all. Go for it.

im now onto baby number 5 and for 1 reasn or another havent been able to breastfeed the othr 4 and would really love to succeed with this one. there was only my 2nd baby who breastfed well for first few days then when milk came in she screamed blue murder and wouldnt latch on bay 3 and 4 just gave me sore nipple and didnt seem to get any milk midwifes while fantastic in all areas werent very helpful in breastfeeding they seemed to think baby would pick it up. id really like to get it right this time without any soreness if possible any tips??