Mum's agonising breastfeeding experience proves how little new parents are taught about it

There's an assumption that breastfeeding, being one of the most natural things in the world, should come easily.

The reality for many new mums can be very different, sometimes even traumatic .

Blogger and mum MamaClog posted a picture on her Instagram page three days ago which demonstrates how painful and distressing aspects of breastfeeding can be - and it's got people talking.

It was a stark departure from the usual kind of pro-breastfeeding photos she shares, which give a more blissed-out impression.

The picture showed the mum in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV and with her left breast red hot and swollen.

"This is mastitis."

"Breastfeeding did NOT come easy for me," she writes.

This is mastitis. After hitting the 1 year breastfeeding mark last Sunday I felt compelled to share my story. Breastfeeding did NOT come easy for me. My milk came in after 5 days. I wasn't aware that it could take that long, I didn't even necessarily know what "milk coming in" meant. (Nobody ever taught me.) I was the only mother breastfeeding on my ward. One women did try to breastfeed, but switched to formula after 12 hours because she "had no milk" (nobody taught her either.) While the other babies slept with full bellies, my son screamed and cried attached to my breast through the night. (What was cluster feeding? Nobody told me) When I got home, problems started to arise-my nipple literally cracked in half. I have never felt such pain, I dreaded every feed, but persisted with tears in my eyes until I was healed. (Nobody taught me that breastfeeding could be painful, nobody taught me what a good latch looked like) When feeding my son out in public I would either go to the bathroom or pump at home and feed him with a bottle. Because I felt embarrassed and as though I would make others uncomfortable. This resulted in clogged ducts and engorgement. (I feed freely in public now, and have done for a long time. Fuck this backwards society!) Then came mastitis. I remember waking up at 3am shivering, putting on my dressing gown and extra blankets and trying to feed my son. The pain. It was excruciating. I was shaking and sweating but freezing to my bones. At 5 am I woke up my boyfriend and told him I thought I needed to go to the hospital. We got my stepdad, a doctor, he took my temperature and said it was slightly high, but to take a paracetamol and try and sleep. 7am comes, I've had no sleep, and now I'm vomiting, he takes my temp again. 40 c. I had developed sepsis overnight. This was because I was not able to recognise the more subtle signs of mastitis (as I had seen no redness that day) I was rushed to resus, given morphine, anti sickness and the strongest antibiotics they could give, and separated from my baby for two nights. I was Heartbroken. Continued in comments...

A post shared by MamaClog (@mamaclog) on May 1, 2017 at 12:25pm PDT

"After hitting the one year breastfeeding mark last Sunday I felt compelled to share my story. "My milk came in after 5 days. I wasn't aware that it could take that long, I didn't even necessarily know what 'milk coming in' meant. (Nobody ever taught me.) "I was the only mother breastfeeding on my ward. One women did try to breastfeed, but switched to formula after 12 hours because she "had no milk" (nobody taught her either.) "While the other babies slept with full bellies, my son screamed and cried attached to my breast through the night. (What was cluster feeding? Nobody told me)."

When she got home, things got worse. Her nipple "literally cracked in half", she began to dread every feed but persevered, again, not having been told what a good latch should look like.