Will my milk ever start?

[trundle]

I gave birth to my DD 9 days ago by emergency CS following the onset of pre-eclampsia. She was only 5lb and although we did all the skin-to-skining etc, she didn't seem to get any feed after 10 hours (and was pretty lathargic) and the midwives insisted we gave her formula as her blood sugar dropped suddenly.
I have been trying to hand-express from birth and also now have a manual pump and am expressing for 4-6 hours per day, but the most I have got in total in one day is 20ml.
DD will latch on, but gives up after a while. (DP also latches on to try and get things working to, but also gets very little).
Is there still a chance my milk will come in? My breasts don't feel full and I've never experienced let-down. How long should I perserve?

can't help, never managed to breast feed my two, but bumping for you

to to bed with your baby.take magazines, drinks, get DP to bring you up whatever you need
lots of skin to skin, let baby sucklywhen she wants. stay there for at least 2 days

How early was your dd? I know that it can take longer for your milk to come in after a c/s, but I don't know how much longer.

I can't help you but there may be someone along shortly that can - in the meantime have you tried ringing your local la leche league/ breastfeeding councillors? I got a load of local telephone numbers from the hospital (I think, or could have been midwife/HV)

Google La Leche and see what turns up?

Good luck!

Look at that - the cavalry turned up whilst I was typing!

anyone tonight able to help trundle?

keep latching her on... her suck is much more efficient than a pump

try and pump every 2-3 hours, including in night... not great i know, but it will help!
also would definitely advise buying or hiring an electric medela pump (my saviour!!!)

when you pump remember to start of gently and slowly and then build up... i never got anything out if i started pumping too hard too fast

I hired an ameda egnell pump and it saved my breastfeeding- sooooo easy and sooo much milk...good luck!

Fennel tea. Worked for me!

anyone this morning?

I'd try to see a BFC asap, to try to get the latch working.

I'm sure tiktok will be around soon.

While expressing, relaxing and doing yoga breathing often helps with letdown, but if you've not had engorgement, that's not a good thing.

Was your DD full-term?

sorry got a hungry baby in arms. currently in same predicament have a look at my post here . i'm now 5wks, milk seems to have come in now with drug help but ds still a crappy breastfeeder.
Good luck has your hospital got a drop in clinic?

Thanks for the support. Chuffed's story was very useful to read. I'm finding expressing by hand is working better than the pump. 35ml this morning, so should be hopefully 25% EBM today. Trying to re-educate DD about the nipple is difficult - will speak to a BFC today to try and get somebody to help with my latch.

trundle - glad you are seeing someone.

Frequency of expression is much more important than doing it for ages.

You need to express a minimum of 8 times in 24 hours.

Continue with skin to skin, co-sleeping, co-bathing, and being gentle. No head ramming, no fighting....just stay close to your baby all the time apart from when you are hand expressing.

Good luck and keep us posted

I had similar problem with DS. He wasn't getting anything when he fed from me until about 10 days old. Was hideous as I was determined to BF. I would latch him on to no avail then express at least every three hours, alternate boobs for at least 10 mins a time, no longer than 20 mins to preserve what little sanity I had remaining. Was not getting anything from expressing but continued anyway. Gave DS small amounts of formula in a syringe to stop him getting used to bottle. The day when he latched on and emerged with a face full of milk was so fantastic. We are still exclusively BF at 8 months. It was worth the heartache and hassle and pain. Hope it works out for you.