How long for milk to come after planned CS?

[diggingforvictory]

I'm having my (second) baby soon, this one is by planned caesarean. Since I won't have been in labour, will it take longer for my milk to come in? Will I need to use formula until it does, so the baby doesn't go hungry?

It depends. With DD1 milk came in on day 2, with DD1 it took until day 4. I had a few cartons of ready made formula in the house on stand-by as this took made me feel less stressed by the whole thing. When I mentioned this to the midwife checking on me at hospital I was told not to be so silly but my response was 'shut up, I failed to breast feed DD1 beyond week 10 so if this makes me feel less stressed where is the harm?'

I was out 24 hours after my section (both girls were sections and both were planned as they were breach) and suspect the fact that I was home sooner with DD2 helped.

I opted to mix feed so have used the formula but it's a personal choice.

Good luck with the section.

No, you not going through labour will not make a difference. The changes of hormones going from 'pregnant' to 'not pregnant' will help, but the single most important thing is to have lots of skin-to-skin contact with your baby from as early on as practically possible and your baby having unrestricted access to the breast as often and as long as he/she wishes .

Your milk 'coming in' will happen the sooner depending on how often and how much your baby suckles more than anything else.

As your are having an elective section, it should hopefully all be a nice calm experience and you should be able to hold your baby at the latest once you are stitched up. You may need help with lifting and positioning for the first day or 2 until you are not so sore anymore.

Very best of luck to. FWIW, I struggled to BF DS1 after a vaginal delivery and had pleny of milk for DS2 after an emCS at 31 weeks - I exclusively expressed for him, but that had more to do with his prematurity and nothing with the mode of delivery.

I think it's the removal of the placenta that triggers the production of whatever hormone makes you lactate. I had em cs with DS and vbac with DD and visible White milk was there on day 4 both days with orangey stuff appearing day 2.

Best of luck :)

I had a planned c-section because ds was breech. He was sort of feeding from day 1, definitely by day 2. I may have been lucky but I didn't find it awkward to hold him when feeding, just needed help lifting him out of his little tub thing! For what it's worth, my experience was lovely and the staff made a real effort to make sure I had skin to skin contact as soon as possible. Hope you have a positive experience too.

Thanks everyone. I won't get any formula then. Last time the staff were really keen on the whole skin to skin thing, so that should be ok.

I would just echo whats been said before, lots of skin to skin contact and keep baby latched on as much as possible, the more they 'feed' the more milk you should produce...also eat lots and drink lots.

I only have my c-sections to go by as I have never given birth naturally, 2 emergency...fine to feed, although slightly traumatic with the first as I had to express then tube feed her, but was adament that she was to be fed no formula and to have no teats of any description as I believed that would ruin her latching onto me. The next 3 were all planned cs and fed really well, although with no4 I was in agony but perservered.....you'll be fine, trust your instincts, also you've fed before so you know! Good luck.

Day 3 for me - 2 days earlier than previous traumatic Vaginal delivery. You will be fine, just get help to get to breast very frequently.

My milk came in 3 days after my em cs and planned cs.

BF after the em cs was a nightmare as it took DS 3 wretched weeks to latch on.

But DD was fine after the planned cs, no problems with supply (running down my legs) or soreness. I was pretty strict about getting her to feed, I would feed her non-stop in the hospital and wake her up every couple of hours. Basically she would feed, I'd have a wee, cup of tea and snack and a little rest then pick her back and get her to feed again. I didn't worry at night, but in the day I fed and fed and fed.

Pain wasn't too bad after a planned cs. But I rested all the time anyway.

Make sure you rest and don't lift a finger and buzz the nurses for everything. There aren't any medals for coping on your own.

cbmum I did that with the formula second time round. Once I had it in the house I stopped fretting about it all. In the end DD was ex bf for 4 months before I cracked it open.

...just to clarify I would often feed more then every 2 hours, but would wake dd if she was sleeping in the day so we could crack on with it...

Day 3 for me too. As others have said, I had skin to skin contact as much as possible, got DS on the breast as much as possible. Like Meglet, we never went more than 2 hours between feeds (and 'feeds' seems like a misleading word for those early days - they were so short but frequent I couldn't really say if a 'feed' was 5 minutes or 3 hours, IYSWIM).

I would also squeeze out a tiny bit of colostrum before bringing DS to my boob, just so it was there on my nipple. That often seemed to perk him up and remind him why he was there!

If you do give baby to midwife so you can rest, be sure to tell them if you want baby fed, and when you want it back. I did this, but they fed her 15mls formula as I was asleep, and she slept for 9 hours! It was very hard trying to establish feeding after that, but at least I was rested.

I had a planned cs for a breech baby and my milk came in on day 3, despite DD sleeping all day and being virtually impossible to wake for feeds. I fed pretty much all night though.

My midwife told us they used to leave babies for 24 hours before letting them feed the first time (in East Germany) and it didn't do them any harm! Seriously, as long as you ARE feeding, your baby will be getting colostrum, which is highly nutritious, so I'm sure you won't need to resort to formula.

As others have said I don't think it has much to do with whether or not you have been in labour - removal of placenta is the main trigger I think. I was in labour for 30 hrs before my first section. Milk came in on day 2. My next two sections were planned (no labour), milk came in on day 2 for both of those too, so it seems that for me milk comes in day 2 regardless of whether i have been in labour. I had no problems feeding after any of my sections (1st one hardest due to traumatic labour and exhaustion). Things that helped were taking a couple of pillows into hospital from home (in coloured pillow cases so they don't get mixed up with horrid hospital ones) as I found it most comfortable in the early days to sit up in bed with the baby lying on a load of pillows up to breast level. I also found feeding lying down on my side comfortable.