How many of you have express breast fed?

[Spice17]

I do because DD wouldn't really latch (tongue tie) but looking at the recent threads on BF and FF, I didn't see many comments on that option, am wondering if people just say they're BF when they're doing it? (which they obviously still are!)

I'm genuinely asking because my friends who BF think expressing sounds like hard work but compared to trying to carry on, for me it was a good solution.

The only thing is, you absolutely need a good pump or you'll find yourself sitting for half an hour getting nothing and at 3.00am that can be a bit soul destroying!

I'd be interested to know how people who do it find it and whether they would do it again (in place of even attempting BF?) I'd do it again even though the annoying microwave beeping noise after steralising the bottles sends me into a rage now!

[scuzy]

ds wouldnt latch and with jaundice in hospital was topped up with bottles. when i came home he wouldnt take to breast to expressed for 6 weeks. its was draining as when he was fed and asleep i then had to pump for next feed. between one thing and another and not doing it as often i dried up. but am proud of myself for doing the 6 weeks. was tough. tougher i imagine than bf itself.

[scuzy]

please god with next one i will manage to BF and will try and try and try. but if it doesnt happen i will express again for as long as i can.

if anything it helped me not suffering the engorging boobs!

[Meglet]

I had to do it for 3 weeks with DS before he decided to latch on. Then kept at it a few times a day while I mixed bf, expressing and ff until 3 months when I got sick of it and went to ff.

Second time round bf was a doddle with DD, all bf and I expressed loads of milk so I could pop out without her every so often.

My friend expressed for 6 months as her DS wouldn't latch.

[Shesparkles]

I did it for a year with ds, he didn't have tongue tie, but couldn't latch on.

I did it from the first night he was born, when he was absolutely starving, and the midwife offered a bottle of formula, I'd said "if I knew it was going to be like this, I'd have got dh to bring in my pump" (ds was 2nd baby), and only then did the midwife offer me a pump!

I know that not everyone can be successful pumping, but I certainly was. I was able to express a full day's feeds for ds AND an extra 9oz bottle for my niece who's a couple of months younger!

[scuzy]

wow i feel a failure with my 6 weeks! well done guys. that was tough.

[Spice17]

Looks like I'm going to express to 6 months, though I have to admit it's tempting to 'wean' her slowly onto ff now she's 3 months old.

When DD was about 3 weeks old HV said I could get some help trying to latch DD back on but by then I was in a routine and my bf experiences in hosp were quite bad and off putting, so I was happy to carry on as I was.

I'm quite that it's seemingly unusual to do this (not in a bad or judgemental way, I just honestly hadn't realised!)

Makes me feel a teeny bit better about wanting wean her onto ff plus am hiring the pump and costs a fortune!

[Moominsarescary]

I did with ds3 for the first few months, he was prem and feeding every 2-3 hours and taking an hour to fed. I was bloody shattered. Hopefully it will be different this time around.

[gallivantsaregood]

I did it for 13 weeks as DS was in neonatal ICU fir 10 weeks, tube fed. My supply started to reduce just before he got out of Hospital so switched to formula then. He is a very complicated wee boy and us still completely tube fed at almost 8yrs old. Doesn't have formula though. He hasvteal food, blended up and done his tube :-D

[YorkshireDeb]

scuzy don't ever feel a failure for doing the best you can for your baby!
I combination fed my ds for 10 weeks, by which point I was producing so little milk it hardly seemed worth expressing & have ff since. Found it very hard to make the decision to stop though. Hopefully I'll be able to breastfeed dc2 when the time comes.
Personally I think we should all be proud of our efforts to provide milk for our dcs despite not having it as straightforward & easy as some people would suggest. I was under the distinct impression from my midwife that ds would find my breast by himself if I laid him on my chest, latch himself on & start feeding. If only it were that easy! X

[MsElisaDay]

I was doing it for my 10-week-old DS, despite the HV and doctor telling me to stop and ff instead after three bouts of mastitis.

I couldn't bf at first for various reasons- NOT through lack of trying!- and was readmitted to hospital at four weeks due to his weight loss. We had to supplement with formula for a couple of weeks until my supply caught up, but he was fed ebm only from around six weeks til now.
It's been really, really tough as I felt tied to my electric pump and couldn't be out of the house for longer than four hours at a time. Hand pumping just wasn't working and carrying a electric pump around-plus bottles etc- wasn't practical.

However, I'm SO glad I persevered as, just this week, he's started latching on. I'd try and latch him before every feed and, this week, something clicked. It's early days, but I really do think we've cracked it.
I do hope so, as expressing round the clock with a newborn is an absolute nightmare. I have so much admiration for those who've kept it up for weeks and months on end.

[BalloonSlayer]

Not my story to tell but I don't think my friend would mind and she is not on Mumsnet to tell it herself . . . my friend did it for ages with her first, I think maybe up to a year.

I take my hat off to her as like Leonie says, it's the worst of both worlds.

[SirBoobAlot]

Expressing isn't generally given as an option, unfortunately. It's getting better, with mothers now all being shown how to hand express before leaving the ward, but it comes down to a lack of breastfeeding support (again), and the suggestion that expressed breast milk (either mothers, or donor) sometimes goes unmentioned.

Know several friends that have expressed for their babies and for others, it is hard work, yes, but worthwhile.

[Pigsmummy]

I got mastitis and blockages and found that I expressed one side while feeding on the other it helped. The pump was recommended by the hospital and t wasn't cheap. About £70 but way better than the well known brand that cost about £39, (the recommended one was a madela but get your midwife to tell which one). My milk never came properly in left boobie and I couldn't keep up supply in right, my right boob was 2/3 cup sizes bigger than left for a while! Anyhow I ended up doing combination feeding, making sure that I gave "some" breast milk everyday until it got untenable. My left breast was in such a state I had to quit. Baby thrived and still is. Now FF, have been for about 4 weeks. Good luck. My top tip for milk supply was to get an afternoon nap, it helped me.

[Twattybollocks]

With expressing its double the work really, you have to do all the sterilising and bottle washing and also express the milk aswell. If you have a real problem with milk delivery like tongue tie or a baby who won't latch then it's a good viable alternative if you want the baby to have breast milk, but i think you have to be very committed to keep it up so the baby has full breast milk up to six months.

[DeepRedBetty]

ddtwins (my first and only children) were in SCBU for first four weeks and tube fed at first, so I got used to expressing and found it very hard to learn how to feed them directly. I ended up renting a hospital grade machine for the first three months.

The upside was that DP could do the bottle feeds while I blobbed out on what became known as the Milking Parlour. (Sofa, remote control, what more could a girl ask?)

I eventually got the knack of it, just in time for them to start solid foods... but kept up some breast feeds through until 13 months.

[goldenlula]

I desperately wanted to bf all of 3 mine but for one reason or another (possibly just that I was useless at I don't know) I couldn't. I would have happily expressed fed but I couldn't get any milk when I tried.

[SirBoobAlot]

MsElisa, oh that's fabulous news! Well done to you both

[LovelyMarchHare]

I did both of mine for 20 months. The first time it really hurt until 3 weeks in but a friend kept persuading me to give it another day. After 3 weeks it was a doddle and never looked back. No problems at all with the second. With both the issue was getting them to stop!

However much a fan of bf I am, and I definitely am, I completely understand that it is no body else's business but yours how you choose to feed your baby. I wouldn't judge someone who ff.

But I did love it and occasionally miss the closeness.

Oddly, most of my friends have fed their babies at least for 3 months and often for longer. I don't quite know the reason for that ......

[INeedThatForkOff]

I haven't needed to express, but I choose to every evening. That way I have a supply in stock to give me a bit of freedom when I need it (and I don't mean that in the 'escape' sense: I need to work in the evenings and I want to exercise.

Expressing when out and about would be too much of a faff for me in your situation if I'm honest, so I would probably stock up on EBM as far as possible and use cartons of formula where its necessary or easier.

[KateSMumsnet]

Morning everyone,

We're going to move this to the breastfeeding topic in just a moment, as we feel it is the best place for it.

[Yfronts]

My friend managed to do this for a year.

[Lovecat]

I expressed every day for 7 weeks - mainly so DH could give DD a bottle in the evening 10-11pmish feed and I could go to bed at 9pm and then be slightly more rested to get up to do the 2-3amish feed. It was an exhausting and tiresome process, more so than plain BF.

Also although she latched easily on my right, on my left neither of us could get to grips with it (tried all kinds of holds, only the rugby ball one came even close to working), so I would express from my left to keep up the supply/prevent getting too sore.

Had to stop at 7 weeks because she was still jaundiced (it was the middle of winter with snowstorms daily) and the Drs told me she'd be brain-damaged if I didn't go onto formula. Still cross about that one.

[redwallday]

My best friend had given up Breastfeeding by the time I went to see her and she was in tears about it. I walked into her house and she flung herself on me sobbing. I told her to try expressing if bfeeding was too painful for now. Amazingly she was like daisy the cow! She had a cheap hand pump and expressed 10oz in about 10 minutes. She was amazed! She went on to exclusively express for her baby for 5 months. No formula at all! I think she did amazing and I do proud of her

[zlist]

I expressed because I went back to work when DS was three months (only very part-time but 1-3 hours every day - I thought I would feed around this but I was very wrong!). I started pumping and offering a daily bottle of EBM from 5 weeks old.
As he was used to EBM and my supply was slow (monthly cycle) he would refuse me. I pretty much pumped exclusively to bring my supply back up for a few days each month. I maintained a 10+ oz over-supply the rest of the month. I froze a lot of that and ultimately ended up throwing a lot away. I did this until DS was 1 year old. Getting a double electric pump and pumping bra when he was 8 months old made me realise how much easier it would have been if I did that beforehand!
Although I had a love-hate thing with the pumping I would definitely do it again, whether I needed to or not.