First feedings/breastfeeding

[333Alexandra120999]

Hey guys I gave birth 24.12.19 at night and they put the baby straight to my breast but I had no milk. They said it would come in by morning but when I pumped there was nothing, they tried to sqeeze my nipples but again nothing. I asked them if I could just buy formula and feed my baby while I’m here and they said they don’t recommend it and that it’s normal for the milk not to come in for 2-3 days, but I feel really bad that my baby isn’t eating anything. I keep trying to put her to my breast when she’s a bit moody or when she’s tired and it really calms her down but I don’t think she’s getting fed. They just told me that it would make my body start producing milk if my baby keeps sucking on them and I tried to pump as well but there was absolutely nothing.
This is my first child btw.. is there anything that can be done for my milk to start? When did your milk come in? I really don’t want my baby to starve for the next week

What they are telling you is true (usually) but there should be colostrum at the start, which is produced in small quantities but is very good for the baby. Repeated sucking is what stimulates the milk isn't it? I'd say it was day 4 for me with both my babies.
You don't have to keep going with bfing if you don't want to, but if you do you sound like you are doing the right things. With an electric hospital pump I could get a small amount of milk out in those first days, do you feel the pump is not effective? I could never get the hand of hand expressing.

It’s normal for milk to take a few days. Do lots of skin to skin and keep putting her to the breast as this will help. She won’t starve

And congratulations by the way

Congratulations!! I remember your other post. I'm not an expert but I was always told that skin to skin and putting the baby to breast are the best way of helping milk production. Good luck!

Hi there congratulations on your new baby. At this stage pumping is unlikely to be the best way to get milk (colostrum) out, you will be better off hand expressing from nipples. Has someone shown you how to do this into a syringe? It will be a lot of work to fill a 1 ml syringe at first but if you keep trying regularly (8-10 times in every 25 hours) the volume should increase rapidly. I know you said nothing came out when they squeezed your nipples but I wanted to check if you have been shown properly.

Milk will come in on day 3-4 after birth so you have been badly advised if you were led to expect it on day 1. Colostrum will be produced by then. Assuming you are in hospital still, ask to see the infant feeding specialist for help.

(I'm assuming you want to get breastfeeding to work - of course if you want to give formula that is totally your choice, but it sounds like you are getting misleading advice and this is maybe making you unnecessarily worried).

It can take several days for your milk to come in. Until then colustrum provides all the energy and fluid your baby needs. Putting your baby to your breast frequently will help ensure you have a good supply of milk

Why are you pumping? It’s a pita, it’s not unusual to be unable to pump even if you are an established bfer, and the time spent putting the baby to the breast is far more effective at stimulating supply....

If your baby is happy on the breast keep letting her suck as much as possible. If it is calming her chances are she is getting colostrum and your body is responding to the baby, not a pump or a hand.

Keep an eye on her generally- skin, colour, eyes, energy levels, nappies, fontanelle- if she’s staying hydrated and producing wet and dirty nappies something is going in...

Just as a bit of a counter post, although I know I’m a rare case...my milk didn’t come in for 3.5 weeks, so my baby would have starved to death were it not for formula. Not saying that’s the case with you, but just keep an eye

I could barely squeeze any colostrum out and pumping never worked for me. My baby ddI calm at the breast, was 'sicking up' milk as all babies do and made wet nappies. Those were all the signs I needed and weight gain too. Don't just rely on squeezing your breast or a pump

It's normal. With my first it took 3 days but with my second I lost a lot of blood after a traumatic birth and it took 5 days. Just put baby there frequently and it will come. Congratulations!

Sorry I should have said that yes putting your baby to the breast will be the most effective way of stimulating milk production (unless baby is very sleepy for some reason). Suggestions about hand expressing were mostly if you wanted reassurance that you are producing colostrum or if expressing has been advised for some reason.

Baby's stomach is the size of a Malteaser when they're born, they don't need much. Colostrum will keep baby going. Little and often is the important thing, put baby to boob frequently. Your milk will come in 3 ish days after birth.

Definitely ask for more information and more time with a bf supporter in hospital or from community midwife, if you feel like the info or support you've been given by them hasn't been helpful.

What you are experiencing is 100% normal.
Mill takes around 3 days to 'come in'. This is when your breasts begin to feel really large and hard.
Until then you will be producing colostrum. A very thick, yellow serum which feeds the baby until your milk comes in.

If you try to squeeze/pump colostrum you will find it very difficult. Many people wills struggle to pump a few drops of colostrum.

Allow your baby to suckle as much as she wants as this will help bring your milk in faster

Congratulations
X

Just to reiterate what others have said. Milk takes a few days. Colostrum is what you produce first and is more than sufficient!

Congratulations!

Agree with the others, just keep feeding her, no need to pump at this stage if she is feeding well. If you're getting wet and dirty nappies there's definitely something going in! A tip I followed to avoid sore nipples was to build up, so for the first day or so I unlatched the baby after 10-15 minutes and then latched him again a bit later. Then built up to the extra long cluster feeds.

The difficulty of the birth can affect the milk coming in. I wasn't engorged for a good week after DS1's birth and I remember lying in HDU barely able to express 0.5ml of colostrum the night he was born.

He went on to become a bottle refuser with CMPA who BFed until 13m. It was well worth ploughing through the early weeks by whatever method necessary which involved a bit of forumla. It's not all or nothing. A bit of formula gave him the energy to get going and work at the BFing and supply.

Breastfeeding is about supply and demand. It's tough but just give your baby unlimited access to the breast and they will regulate your supply according to their need. You will have milk/colostrum. It is rich in fat and calories and perfect in small quantities as pp said newborn stomach size is tiny. Are you happy that the latch and positioning is ok? You will still be under the care of the midwife who you can ask for advice.
Hang on in. Give formula if you want to but it may be detrimental to establishing your milk supply.

I have 3, and breast fed all. Still feeding number 3 actually, at 18months,

Baby 1- we struggled. With hindsight I got hung up on whether there was any point before the milk came in, didn’t put baby to breast enough, let him sleep too much AND brought a pump into it which is just a terrible idea in the first couple of months...it didn’t go well, he lost weight, we eventually had to bring in formula and mix feed.

Baby 2 -Learned from my mistakes and accepted and understood that the baby just has to be on the breast all the time in the first days, even the first couple of weeks, dozing, suckling, dozing, suckling. Weight dipped a bit but picked up.

Baby 3 -I think I finally got it. Understood the 4th trimester much better -baby connected to you all the time just like pregnancy. Next to me, feeding on demand , suckling to sooth, suckling to feed. No pumping, just supply and demand relationship between baby and me (well, my breasts). It has gone great, minimal weight loss, and we’re still doing it now morning and night.

It’s a massive culture shock. We all get this idea that you’ll feed baby, put them down, they’ll feed a few hours later. Most of those preconceptions come from the cultural take over of formula feeding. Breast milk doesn’t have a high fat content, and babies stomachs are tiny. They also arrive from a situation in which they received their nutrients as a continuous i.v. drip in utero. So you are going to be feeding them little and often, constantly. If you really want to breast feed, you do kind of have to accept this is your full-time job for the next 6 weeks, starting immediately even before the milk has come in. You can help the colostrum along and the milk come in by massaging when baby is asleep too.

But don’t use a pump. It takes away the time when baby is latched in -this is more effective. You may get oversupply, rather than just what baby needs -oversupply milk is watery and sugary with less fat so baby gets fewer calories in the small volume they can consume, and colic. Seriously, it is a delicate balance of communication between your baby’s mouth and your breasts. The industry that pushes pumps as essential bits of baby kit is just trying to make sure that breast feeding is profitable as formula is. Through 3 babies and mat leaves, I have met lots of people trying the BF, with varying success. The people I have known to be most successful are the ones who just made it about them and the baby with no fancy (or expensive) extras.

Good luck. It’s hard work. So rewarding and worth it. But please, always know, fed is best, however you do it. Breast feeding is seriously undermined by a lack of knowledge and meaningful prep. By my 3rd I had discovered La Leche League, massaged coming up to delivery and had copious colostrum, knew that a lot of the NHS advice didn’t work for me, and ignored a lot of bad advice and actually harmful commercialisation...with my 1st, formula rescued us.

The people I have known to be most successful are the ones who just made it about them and the baby with no fancy (or expensive) extras

This. With my first i knew nothing about bf. I had no friends with babies, my mum and everyone I knew were from the “bottle is best” era.

So with no one to ask or give advice i didn’t know what to do other than put her to the breast. Every whimper, every stir, every time she was unsettled. I let her stay there constantly as she wouldn’t settle if I took her off.

Had very few problems. Ignored the bottle feeders who told me my milk wasn’t good enough if she was feeding so often, or bf wasn’t hygienic or nutritious enough etc..

Friends who have subsequently attempted to bf seem to have had more “help” from m/w and hv. Some have been put on ridiculous regimes of feeding, pumping and topping up- it seems that hcp feel the need to advise some sort of action as if saying “just feed more” isn’t enough intervention, iyswim. Nearly all on these regimes have switched fairly rapidly to formula as a) they got the impression they weren’t producing milk, b) it was fucking exhausting- when you’re not feeding you’re sterilising and pumping, when do you sleep?

Micah absolutely agree. The regimes that the NHS “lactation consultants” advise all seem start an inevitable path to formula. I’m quite sure this is ignorance rather than intention. I had one telling me “but breast feeding is my life’s work!!!” when I rejected her advice to pump. I new I was rejecting it because slow weight gain was caused by watery oversupply and I needed to block feed for a bit, not make it even worse by pumping. She didn’t understand this; their training is rubbish and few pay due attention to the experience of groups like LLL who have been around for ages.

Congratulations OP - hard to do but really try to relax and get to know baby and for baby to get used to you on the outside- let the heart beats thud against each other through skin to skin and do let baby suckle to stimulate your milk. Mine came in on day 5 just as everyone was beginning to wonder if it ever would. Babies are born with enough to keep them going until it does come in supplemented by the drops and small but power packed colostrum you first produce. Good luck do let us know how you get on

Please, seek help from people with expertise. A lot of medical professionals are woefully badly trained on BFing sadly. Who's squeezing your nipples? This sounds off to me.

The National BFing helpline are great, please give them a bell and ask them for advice.

They're on 0300 100 0212 and open 9am to 9pm every day.

The best thing to do, IME is to just keep offering your breasts, all the time. Where are you, are you still at hospital? Is it possible to lie on your bed with your baby and just let her feed as much as she wants to, even if she doesn't seem hungry?

www.nationalbreastfeedinghelpline.org.uk/

Just here to agree with others- milk takes 3-5 to come in and baby will get enough colostrum until then. Colostrum is made in tiny but is really nutrient dense so baby only needs tiny amounts.

Things that will help you to successfully breastfeed:

• put baby to the breast frequently, in the early days that's pretty much every time they open their mouth (I'm not kidding). You should be feeding more than doing anything else.
• lots of skin to skin.
• keep yourself well fed and hydrated
• know what is NORMAL: all most constant feeding, feeding for 30 or 40 minutes, falling asleep, waking 5 minutes later and wanting more.
• up to 11% weight loss (this fine as long as baby has a damp mouth and is having wet nappies
• seeming hungry, thrashing at the breast, headbutting it, screaming. All totally normal and good!

I cannot emphasize this enough: just keep feeding.