Has anyone recently FF in hospital? How does the bring your own Formula/bottles thing work in practise?

[Wormshuffler]

As title says really, there is a discussion going on about some hospitals having changed their policy regarding the free supply of formula to babies. I am hoping to BF, but as I will be a CS I am worried about how I will manage 1) BF post CS, and 2) make up bottles etc if needed on the ward whilst laid out on a bed?

When I had my DC's DH would fetch me the bottles I needed to last until he was next in, if I buzzed a nurse every time I think I would have been lynched!
If anyone has recent experience of this could they please detail how it works? Many thanks.

i would check and see what your local hospital's policy on this is. you may find they're still providing formula, in which case you don't need to worry.

if they are not then i would get some of those ready-prepared bottles just for while you're in hospital. I know it's more expensive, but it will be so much easier for you.

but here's hoping the breastfeeding goes ok and it isn't an issue good luck with it! how long have you got?

I did 10 years ago. I got formula for day 2/3 (bf day 1) as I was v ill but by the third night I was on my own ( 5 day stay). I had a section and complications but had to be up & about making up bottles.
We had a milk kitchen & steriliser.

You'll be up the morning after a section and get v little help from then on so be expected to sort stuff out. Dd3 was born last year and I didn't see many people day 2/3( except for when I tried to be discharged!)

Well thisisyesterday I am somewhat forward planning in that I am only 11 weeks PG, yes I think maybe I am getting hysterical given that I havn't even seen bean yet .
harriet thanks, did they provide a fridge so you could make up multiple bottles like you do at home?

They did then everyone had a thing that held 6 bottles.

You aren't advised to make up multiple bottles now though.

FGS why not make up more didn't harm my DC's!!! the poor baby will starve waiting for me post CS to shuffle to a milk kitchen, sterilise a bottle make it up and let it cool down and shuffle back............I pray my boobs do their job!

well. it's good to be prepared! I was utterly unprepared for anything when I had my first baby and there were a lot of things I simply hadn't thought about that I had to make decisions on once he was born, and I wished I had thought it all through a bit better!

my top tip for successful breastfeeding is to find local breastfeeding counsellors/groups NOW, and go whiloe you're pregnant. that way you have a support system right there ready for when you give birth, should you have any problems.

formula needs to be made with water that's over 70 degrees, to kill off any bacteria in it- it isn't sterile.
so, you can make up bottles with very hot water, then store in the fridge. but that's "riskier" than doing it fresh each time simply because of the cooling and reheating phases. also far more faff when you're in hospital too i'd imagine.

ready-prepared is the way to go for the first few days I reckon.

There's v rarely a reason women can't physically bf. Main problem for women is lack of support/being given incorrect info. Read up on it first & remember at least you don't have to get out of bed at night!

Re FF it's something to do with bacteria in formula made at under 70 degrees or something.

Unless you're kept in past 3 days, you should still be only producing colostrum while in hospital. So LO needs very tiny amounts. If you want to at least try to BF then you shouldn't need formula for the first day at all, so don't worry about not being able to get up while catheterised. And if your LO is ill and did need formula for any reason, the hospital would provide it.

The need to take in formula is only for those mums who don't want to even try bfing.

Should've said - I had DD by EMCS and she was then in SCBU, after getting some colostrum in recovery, needing tube-feeds for 3 days, which were largely formula as they wanted to get lots into her and it took me a little time to get the hang of expressing. We then started BFing in transitional care with EBM top-ups. So we experienced a whole range of feeding-in-hospital situations, other than refusing to try Bfing.

Had DC2 just recently and BF but took some pre-sterilized bottles and the little individual cartons of made-up formula that you can just pour straight in. The MW wouldn't let a poor woman on ward use the powder she had taken in with her (policy was newborns shoudn't have the powdered stuff) and they were spectacularly unhelpful to two youngish first time mums who were FF - dumped a sterilizer they obviously have never used before on the table and said "here - sort it out!" Check with your hospital. They all seem to differ.

You might also like to consider 'harvesting' some colostrum before you give birth. (there have been threads on here about this if you want to search).

Don't forget, the average feed volume on day 1 is 7ml and on day 2 is 14 ml, so we're talking teaspoons here.

Hope all goes well when the time comes.

I had an EMCS and found the midwives were very good St getting baby in and out of the cot as needed until I could do it on my own. Also I co-slept and made excellent use of the uppy-downey buttons on the bed!!

My hospital had disposable bottles and teats you could use, but you had to bring your own formula (cartons). There was a fridge for storing filled bottles in (as you can keep ready made formula for up to 24 hrs), with trays to label with your bed/bay number. The whole area also had a microwave and steriliser so if you were in for longer/brought your own bottles you could use those.

BF didn't work for me for various reasons, so I got DH to bring formula (can't forget DS's reaction to actually getting some fluid inside him, before he went to sleep rather than screamed) and used the hospital bottles.

Hopefully next time...