Breastfeeding advice please!

[Mumtobe26]

Hello! Please could anyone share some advice on breastfeeding!

My baby is 2 weeks old. She's doing super well and gaining really good weight. She feeds really well too, every 4 hours. However, I've been feeding her from each breast every feed. When she needs burping I've taken her off, burped her and put her on the other side.

I've been reading that you should feed from just one side though? And swop next feed? Am I doing the wrong thing? And how do I know she's emptied one breast?!

Thanks x

Hello and congratulations.

The advice to feed from just one side is old and harks back to when they thought that there's a big difference between fore and hindmilk. At the start of the feed, the milk is a bit more watery and is the fore milk so thirstquenching and then it goes into hindmilk which is a bit fattier. But really there's no massive distinction between the two.

Just keep offering her a boob until she comes off and then see if she'll take the other one. There's no hard and fast rule here as with my DD she very rarely took a second boob at one sitting except for during growth spurts but your baby could be different.

Also the most important thing to remember is there's no such thing as emptying a breast. A breast is not like a bucket that can be emptied but is a river. If your DD was at the breast for an hour during a mammoth feed, your body would just keep on producing milk until she'd done! It's like magic!

Agree with showtunesgirl

Hi congratulations & well done for doing so well!

Show tunes has got it spot on. Nothing more to add!

Thank you for getting back to me!

Well it sounds like I'm on the right track as when she pulls off that's when I've swopped sides. So when do you know if she's had the hind milk? Or is there no way of knowing?

Also, can you recommend when to express and how much I should express? My partner is keen to help and keeps saying I should have a go, but I don't know when to do it or how much would be enough or the average amount?! Sorry for all the questions!! X

There's not really any way of knowing but it's really not a worry if she's gaining weight well and everything is ok.

I found expressing first thing in the morning the easiest as that was when I felt most full. But do bear in mind that some women can't express a drop and that absolutely doesn't mean that your baby isn't getting enough. There are some rather questionable bf experts that claim that expressing indicates your supply but it's not true!

As for how much you will need to express, take a look at the kellymom milk calculator.

Do also bear in mind that some babies will point blank refused bottles, my DD being a case in point and I found it so much less stressful when I stopped dedicating three hours a day trying to give her a bottle!

Don't stress about the fore milk/hind milk thing- just feed her from one side till she's had enough then offer her the other side. IME sometimes she'll take the second side, sometimes she won't. If she doesn't take second side then offer that one first next time and Bob's your uncle.

As for expressing, I think two weeks is a bit early- you want your supply to settle down first in my opinion. Wait til around six weeks if you can to get bf established. Others might come along and tell you something else though ;)

When you do start, I always used to express about an hour after first feed of the morning. (By that I mean when I'd woken up- not 5am!) as that's when supply is supposed to be highest. It's supposed to dip in the evenings but experiment and see what works for you.