newborn/new mum struggling to feed

[loulou33]

Hi,

My best mate had a baby by c-section this am after long labour (36 hours) Baby is in neonatal as his heart rate is tachycardic but i think its just a precaution. She didn't get to see for about 4 hours and is justing feeding him now. He is opening his mouth and goes to latch on but then pulls away crying. She has expressed some milk and has put this on her nipple but he won't latch on. I have advised her to persevere and try to be patient but there is some pressure from the neonatal staff to give him formula. He's crying a lot obviously and my mate is tired..

any advice would be great. I'm hoping to see her this evening and hope you can all help her out

Thanks

loulou - your poor friend :(

If the baby is not yet feeding effectively then your friend needs to start expressing colostrum ASAP. This can be given by syringe or spoon.

Kangaroo care/skin to skin as much as poss.

Is there an infant feeding specialist at the hospital? Neonatal staff should not be pressurising about formula, not when she has not yet even started to express :( :(

Iagree - expressing colostrum was essential for my DD as she would not feed - now she is nearly 3 weeks and feeding well but sometimes they need some help at the start.

loulou i'm afraid i don't have any advice but just wanted to say that you are a great friend.

Expressing colostrum and using the syringe to get it into DD worked wonders for her.

And I know some people don't like them (and they probably aren't necessary as often as they are used) but when I was totally knackered am v.long labour and surgery, and DD just would not latch those nipple shield things helped amazingly. We used them temporarily and it seemed to give her the kick she needed to figure out what to do. Will defer to folk far more experienced than me as to whether we were the lucky exception.

I just wanted people to hold my hand a lot though and tell me we'd get the hang of it in the end. Which we did.

Can you speak to the staff on her behalf and tell them how much she wants to bf and that their actions are making her feel undermined or less confident?

thanks for all your advice and thanks Monfacemama

Have phoned infant feeding co-ordinator who is friend of mine and she will visit on Monday. She managed to feed him at 12 (20 mins) and again at 5 and he seems to get it some of the time. I think he's still sleepy from birth and she knackered. He's in neonatal tonight so she'll get some kip between feeds but was annoyed that they had left her for 5 hours with catheter in and didn't try to get them to do skin-to-skin early enough...she did express a bit which was good,

The midwife on tonight in neonatal is good with breastfeeding as she helped me when I had mine so fingers crossed. The midwife on today who i saw at visiting time said, 'don't wake him he howls a lot' made my mate feel a bit shit but I told her they say that to all the visitors!

Will keep you posted and ask for more advice if needed. thanks xx

Just by way of encouragement, DD was born by emcs under general anaesthetic. She was very very sleepy and would latch but not suck for nearly a week after birth. The majority of the midwives were supportive of my attempts to bf, and I also roped in the local bf support volunteers who visited me in hospital during my 5 day stay.

I was able to express (with some assistance from the infant feeding midwife) my colostrum and my milk then came in and I expressed that too. The hospital provided me with an electric pump and all the storage equipment to enable this and they cup fed DD every 2 hours.

Eventually on the 6th day after birth, DD started to suck and we gradually established bf from there. She is now 3 months old and has doubled her birth weight and we are still ebf.

It was very hard work (physically and emotionally) to establish feeding for us but we did manage it eventually - so tell your friend to take all the support that is available and ask for more if needed. There will always be one or two midwives who will say, 'why don't you just give baby a bottle' (I had that too) but she must summon all her strength and stick with it if she really wants to bf.

Hi, we had feeding problems after a difficult birth as well, and my ds birth weight dropped too low and was showing signs of dehydration, so in the end we had to give some formula and for a couple of days.......BUT

....expressing is really key, so whatever your friend ends up doing, she can ensure that the baby gets her wonderful colostrum as well as the formula, and it will ensure her milk supply is good. skin to skin is vital, so keep putting baby to the breast with as much skin exposed as possible. And ask that syringe or cup is used rather than bottle to avoid teat confusion.

Insist on speaking to a breastfeeding counsellor, or a midwife or hca who have trained in this. if she wants to do it and persevered, then they will get there. Good luck to her!

thanks for all your advice.

I'm really chuffed to say that despite a tricky start, she is breastfeeding well, her milk came in today and baby is a happy chap. They are home at last.. hooray