Shit hospital care - newborn feeding

[BeastOfBODMAS]

This is long, sorry, I’ve tried to be concise

DD born Monday at 37+5 by EMCS after failed induction due to (incorrectly) predicted at

What I would do is get her weighed again. If she's gaining I'd Jack it in. But I'm no doctor

Feed like mad, keep baby on the breast as much as possible. Sounds like you didn’t get great advice, just keep feeding now. Make sure you are eating and drinking properly - keep trucking and congratulations

That sounds shit OP, it's truly awful how bad breastfeeding support is. Do you have the option to get baby weighed soon? If your milk is in, and she is feeding correctly, regularly and is settled after feeding then I would keep going and weigh her in a day or so to see how she is going. I wouldn't leave it longer than a day or so though. I also would set an alarm to wake her 2-3 hourly overnight for feeds as this is when your body produces lots of milk and will help your milk establish

So sorry to her of your experience.

It varies so much! My little one lost 14%, was not referred to a Dr, post natal ward not interested and so we just carried on.

Glad your milk has come in!

Definitely breastfeed, and try get baby weighed again. She sounds happy and content though, so I wouldn't worry.

Breastfeeding support does not exist, goodness I could write pages and pages on how rubbish the alleged support is

If your supply has come in now i'd say to sack off the top ups. Stick to the breastfeeding especially if that's what you'd prefer. You sound like you're doing all the right things x

If you're on Facebook see if you have any local support groups, most are amazing and can advise. Don't force feed, if your milk has come in and she isn't wanting for more then drop the formula feed. If you can get back into bed, skin to skin for as long as possible, plenty of water and snacks for you and feed on demand. If she's still wanting then perhaps decrease formula slightly or offer every few feeds. Check plenty of wet nappies (poos not relevant) etc, if drop in clinics are back on try and get weighed soon. They're only advising that as it's easier than bothering to actually support you. Combi feeding can be great, but it's early days and sounds like establishing supply to fully breastfeed is achievable if that's what you want.

I agree - just stick with responsive Bf now. Sounds like you have turned a corner and are doing great. Dirty nappies really good sign. What colour is her poo?

Poos are relevant at this young age (as are wet nappies); infrequent poos are more common in older bf babies. Dirty nappies are an important part of the unicef baby friendly feeding initiative assessment.

Could you weigh her on your own scales? You or DH weigh without baby and then with. If she is gaining I would be inclined to stick to breastfeeding as that is going well. No an expert though, just my opinion.

If she is shitting like a demon or at least 6-8 times in 24 hours she is getting what she needs and should no longer need the top ups. Stop expressing and let your milk supply do what it needs to.

Babies are often weighed on day 5 to allow for the birth weight to catch up, weighing earlier often gives a distorted view on weight loss factor also that babies born via CS often retain a lot of fluid at birth, as this is lost over the first few days of days, this too would explain the 13%wl.

Most babies lose some of their birth weight but it can take up to 3wks to regain this.

Sounds like you are both doing brilliant, congratulations to you both ☺️

@Landlubber2019

If she is shitting like a demon or at least 6-8 times in 24 hours she is getting what she needs and should no longer need the top ups. Stop expressing and let your milk supply do what it needs to.

Babies are often weighed on day 5 to allow for the birth weight to catch up, weighing earlier often gives a distorted view on weight loss factor also that babies born via CS often retain a lot of fluid at birth, as this is lost over the first few days of days, this too would explain the 13%wl.

Most babies lose some of their birth weight but it can take up to 3wks to regain this.

Sounds like you are both doing brilliant, congratulations to you both ☺️

I didn’t know this about CS babies retaining fluid!

Day 3 she was weighed at 13% down, the day we were admitted
Day 5, today first thing, 11.3% down, a gain of 60g in less than 48 hours - but they want me to start formula?!

I am using a bf app which gives feed reminders every 3 hours, but offering sooner if she gives any sort of hunger cue.
Im offering both sides each time.
Her latch is lovely, no pain.
Eating and drinking plenty, today I’ve had muesli with fruit & yogurt, peanut butter toast, lentil dahl, a few walnuts and almonds as a snack and a roast dinner!

I would pump as small amount before feed to get rid of engorgement and to soften breasts for easier latch/make hind milk easier to get. I would stop top ups if feeding on breast for decent amount of time (used to have to strip mine and pop them on changing mat when the dozed off several times during a feed. Keep close eye on dirty and wet nappies.

It sounds as if the top-ups may no longer be needed. Mine was being topped up after each feed at one point because she wasn't putting on weight, but she didn't take very much after most feeds so we dropped the ones she didn't seem to need.

I'm surprised the nurses didn't just get you to do the top-ups - on the prem baby ward we all did our own.

Just stick to the breastfeeding if it’s going well and baby is pooing lots (getting lots of milk).

90mls into a 3 day old baby at 6lbs is pretty much impossible, 30ml on top of a BF is great (I appreciate milk was not in at that point). If clinical concern was so great that the 90mls was needed an NG tube would have been sited. I'm a midwife and wed have advised re-admission from the 13% loss until less than 10% from birthweight and gaining well each day but you genuinely sound like you are both doing great.

I had a similar experience with my DS dropping 15% birth weight and ended up in the NICU for a short stay. He’s a big strong lad now thankfully but I really stressed about what to do when we brought him home so I would take him into our community health nurse every week for a weigh so that I could see he was gaining and not dropping centiles so I knew I was on the right path with what we were doing.

But at the end of the day, if your little one is happily eating, then deeply sleeping and pooping, sounds like you’re on the right track.

Absolutely I'd sack off the formula if she's gaining weight, having lots of wet nappies and feeding regularly. Poos I'd be a bit suspicious about measuring by because the switch between formula and boob might be muddling frequency a bit.

Just FYI If your boobs are very engorged you might get a strong let down to begin with. I had to latch on, pull off for the peak of the let down, then latch back on once it's stopped. It'll settle down after a while, but there's a definite period of potentially jetwashing the kid off!

Spend as much time holed up in bed with some lovely skin to skin, eat lots of oaty things and just enjoy each others company.

Dear OP

Please please please listen to me: do what your feel is right for you in your gut. Your story reads like mine with my first born. Flash forward 2 weeks post birth and she wouldn’t regain bf and I ended up pumping for 9 months and feeling her. Got a stock of frozen bm and then pretty much 50/50 formula fed and bm from 9-12 months. With my second, he was larger, but I was a) determined to bf and b) determined to ignore midwife’s and hv who would potentially harm my desire to bf by putting baby on schedules. I think it’s v harmful. Unless baby is massively malnourished. If you need any support please ask. I found that most professionals were under resourced, conflicting opinions and largely useless. Everyone has an opinion on what is right. You know what is right for you. Congratulations and good luck in your journey. Xxx ps there are a lot of Facebook groups that support BF or Pumping that i found far superior to any professional

This sounds so stressful...and it doesn't need to be..sounds like baby is thriving..go with your instincts and as someone else suggested start weighing yourself for peace of mind. We had opposite experience of formula fed baby..all was fine. Support is just awful and all over the place.

90ml is over the top. Given the birth weight you describe, then full requirements of 150ml/kg/day would come in at about 50ml 3 hourly. Now that your milk has come in, I'd be offering half that after a breast feed, then reweighing in a couple of days.

My instinct is to focus on breastfeeding - I’m so pleased you’ve all confirmed it. We’ve another weigh in Monday afternoon.

Just had a lovely feed, skin to skin, she was actively suckling for 25 minutes across both sides alert and making eye contact, she’s now drowsing in DH arms. I will try to nap and DH will bring hers for a feed at the first sign of being unsettled.

If we were doing a topup, we’d both be pissing around with the syringe for the next hour and trying to wake her up every couple of . By the time she’s winded and changed it’s suddenly time for the next BF which she won’t then want.

PP has it right, it feels like force feeding

Top ups are helpful to make sure she has enough energy to feed. She clearly does now so I would pack them in and let her regulate your supply.
Night feeds are really important so try and get as much in her then as you can and nap during the day. It sounds,ike baby's dad is being supportive, make sure you use him to the max

Sounds like you're doing great! As long as baby is waking regularly to feed, plenty of wet and dirty nappies (both important at this early stage) and weight is improving on Monday I'd not worry about top ups. I had to strip DD off and tickle her with a wet wipe to get her alert enough to feed in the very early days so if your baby is waking to feed that's great. How often is she feeding now?

When we had a C-section baby who lost a bunch of weight in the beginning and then we had a bit of trouble with breastfeeding, the best investment we made was an infant scale for home. You can get accurate readings daily and even weight pre and post feeds. We even had a few days where we had appointments for her at two places one right after another and the scales at each location were calibrated slightly differently because there was no chance her weight would change that dramatically in less than an hour, but the staff would start panicking anyway. Getting our own scale made it so much easier for me to be confident that we were feeding enough. We used it daily for about 8 weeks, so not that long. We eventually donated it to someone else once.