Hi everyone
I have a similar dilemma about whether I'll have time to get someone round to look after the DC's, get DH home from work (usually a 1hr drive away) and get to the hospital (20mins away) in time as I had a 1hr50min labour last time (was induced so already at the hospital), I might end up having an unplanned home birth with a 3yr old and a 1yr old as birth partners my midwife reminds me I can always ring an ambulance to get me there super quick, so I'm trying not to worry about it too much.
ladylush I have finally found enough time to sit down and reply to you properly! sorry it's taken so long .
It's so hard to predict how things are going to pan out for you so I thought I'd just give you some of my overall hints and tips for prem babies and feeding in SCBU. It would be good for you to have the details of a local bfc who can be on hand for you when your baby has arrived, it's also worth checking with your maternity unit if they have any counsellors working on the wards (they do at York District Hospital but not every hospital).
The most important thing for you to do is make it very very clear to the maternity staff that you wish to breastfeed, if they know this they should do everything they possibly can to support you with this. I emphasise the 'should' as it really does vary from hospital to hospital.
The hospital should lend you one of their supa-dupa double pumping machines, double pumping is a really good way of maintaining/building up your supply. In the first few days when you are still producing colostrum I would bother with a pump, it's so thick and stick it tends to just stick to the sides and you end up getting nothing in the container! It's alot easier to hand express colostrum, either directly into babies mouth or into a cup (a 'cup' is like a very small measuring jug with a lip, which is placed to babies mouth and tilted slightly and the baby will lap the milk like a cat, you should insist on using a 'cup' instead of a bottle/teat)A midwife or bfc will be able to show you the hand expressing technique. It's also worth mentioning that an average feed of colostrum is about 7ml which is just a tiny bit more than a medicine spoon, so don't worry if you don't seem to get much, it's so concentrated and packed full of good stuff your baby doesn't need a huge amount.
Sometimes when a baby is very prem there may be a slight delay with the mother starting to produce milk, if this happens they will probably want to give your baby formula, if you are happy with this that's fine (although you must ALWAYS be asked for consent) If you don't want your baby to have formula you can ask to have breast milk from a milk bank (the milk is donated by donors, it is screened and pasturised) Not every hospital has a milk bank but even if yours doesn't the should arrange to get some from the nearest bank and get it delivered, donated milk is very expensive but the NHS will fund all the cost for this without question.
If your baby will suckle and latch on ok the SCBU midwives will summon you from the ward everytime your baby need feeding.
I think that's everything I have at the moment, feel free to ask me questions if anything is not clear. Apologies for the mammoth post, there's just so much info to take on board. It's probably worthwhile discussing it with you midwife next time you see her and make sure you make it clear what YOU would like to happen. It's quite overwhelming and it's easy to just do as you're told, but it's important that you remember you still have a choice in what happens and they should be consulting you the whole way through.
Hope everything goes smoothly for you, you know where I am if you need anything else