Advice on breast feeding + expressing milk for bottle feeds

[Joannezipan]

Hello, I'm 28 weeks with my first child at the moment. I would like to breastfeed, but DH is keen to help with feeding so he can bond with the baby and give me a bit of a break sometimes. So my question is what kit do we need to do this? And how much of it do we need? Thanks for the advice xx

I expressed milk with my DD but ended up with mastitis as pumps don't drain the milk as efficiently as babies, so decided to let DH do little formula feeds every so often. Once BF established it makes no difference to supply and despite what some militants may tell you formula isn't poisonous! With DS I have done the same, he is now 5 mths and has the occasional bottle of formula, just a really small amount though, not what it says a baby of his weight should have. I do have a Tommee Tippee manual pump but have only used it a couple of times. It comes wih a storage bottle so I guess you could express and store in the fridge on a daily basis, you would need more kit if you were stockpiling the stuff!

Your OH does not need to do feeds to bond - they can help hugely with doing more of the nappies, settling for bed and entertaining the LO. Plus bringing you food and drink so you can feed!

You don't want to have to introduce a bottle or start expressing until you and your LO have both got the hang of breastfeeding and your supply is established. That can take 4-6 weeks.

To express, you need a way of doing this and a way of safely storing the milk and cleaning storage containers and bottles. This could be as little as having a few bottles with teats and a dishwasher or cold water storage tub for cleaning and then hand express. If you were providing all your LO's feeds though expressing (e.g. if they were in SCBU) you'd need access to a double pump probably. Most people are somewhere in between. TBH I would recommend waiting until you find out what happens.

I agree DH feeding is not essential to bonding.

Expressing is a right PITA and DHs can help in so many other ways instead of feeding for 10 mins (which IMO is the easy way out).

He can do the evening bath and putting to bed (DH has done this nearly every night since DD was born).

He can give you a break by taking DC out in the sling for a few hours and bringing LO to you for feeding and feeding only. Doesn't matter if he's at work, he can help with night stuff or early get ups. In the first few months there is likely to waking that require more than just food.

I'm not saying don't express, but you don't need to think about it now. Wait until the baby is here and do it because it is what you want, not because you feel you should. In practice expressing takes up a lot more than than just feeding and also it can be quite a added pressure to fit a pumping session into your day routine.

Also the time you most feel like you want a break from feeding are growth spurts and cluster feeds where it is even more important you do the feeds and DH acts like your slave (and you do nothing that feed)

If you decide to pump starting off with a manual is a good first step. You can get these from 24 hour Tesco stores, so it's not like you need to get them before hand.

Completely agree that your DH doesn't have to feed to bond.

But if you do want to express - rather than, as you say, do it now and again (which could mess up your supply a bit if you don't express to a set pattern), I would regularly take some off and freeze. It's usually easier to express in the morning than at night.

You would need a pump (there are some good hand pumps or electric pumps) and bottles/cup feeder. Steriliser - microwave or electric steam ones are good. Also some freezer storage bags for breastmilk.

And expressing can be a lot harder than bf - not un-doable - just that the baby efficiently draws milk from the breast whereas the pump pulls it from the breast in a very different way - so don't be upset if you find you get very much milk out with a pump.

Try not to express before 4-6 weeks so as to get an established supply.

If you decide to bottle feed some expressed milk occasionally, I would suggest doing it fairly regularly - I gave my dd a bottle of expressed a few weeks before I needed to go out and have my parents babysit for her. I thought - wow - that was easy but when it came to the night a couple of weeks later, she wouldn't go near the teat! I think it's less confusing if they see the bottle regularly or not at all

When it comes to it, you may find you don't mind doing the bf yourself and that dh can help in other ways.