Breastfeeding six month old and hospital stay

[summerymummery]

I am going into hospital for an op next week and will be admitted for one, possibly two nights. I am breastfeeding my six month old, so have hired a breast pump to express while I am away to keep my milk supply up. I've just noticed that in the hire agreement it says that I can only use the pump at home! If I can only take my pretty useless manual pump to hospital, will my milk supply dwindle? I plan to have my little one come visit so can feed during the day, but I'll have to express at night. She currently feeds about four times a night still. I'm just worried what will happen to my milk supply. Anyone have any advice?! Thanks!

For what reason would the agreement say you could only use the pump at home? Could it be because they don't want it to be seen as a portable pump?

I can't imagine it would actually be a problem. I'd be tempted to ignore the clause entirely.

I would've thought that by six months your supply is settled enough that you'd be expressing for comfort and to avoid mastitis etc and that your supply should hold up.

Are you expressing for the bottle or dumping the milk?

Could the hospital provide you with a pump?

Good luck with your op.

I went into hospital in nob and was ebf. I asked for a pump to be brought down from the maternity ward.
Maybe you could request the same?
With regards to the hire..... They'll never know if you took it away from home....
Good luck

*Nov

By 6 months your supply will be pretty robust. I was away from DS for 24 hours or so at that age and didn't express at all, and apart from being uncomfortable was fine.

Can your baby not stay with you, in hospital?

Hm. Not sure - the agreement says that I agree to keep the pump at my home address. Could be an insurance thing. Might be worth giving Medela (where I hired it from) a call, I suppose. Maybe they are worried about it going AWOL in hospital.

I'm so relieved you say that my supply should hold up. My little one is a voracious feeder - we've only managed to space the feeds to every three hours, now that I've started weaning. I was worried that as I probably won't have the energy to pump so frequently, it might impact my supply

I'd just be expressing and dumping as I don't think I'd be up to sterilising the pump bits and bobs, and making sure the milk was stored correctly in the hospital.

I did contact the hospital patient liaison service, but they didn't mention any possibility about hiring equipment from the hospital. I have to say, the consultant wasn't particularly supportive of my having the op while breastfeeding. I felt as if they thought I was just being a bit of a pain the rear end for asking...

Thanks for your support!

Apparently, my little one can't stay with me. I did ask. My DH has to take her home and bottle feed her overnight, which is a bit of a stress in itself as she is very clingy and she doesn't settle if he tries to calm her at night; anyway won't go into that one...

I will ask the maternity ward if they can lend me one! Good idea. Thanks for the tip. I'll drop them a line tomorrow.

PLease contact PALS, if you're EBFing you should be able to keep to keep your baby with you.

I had to express on the postnatal ward. I was told just to rinse the bits of the pump after use and put in the Milton fluid. It was dead easy.

They really really should support you to continue to breastfeed. Demand support, particularly if you'll be physically incapable of doing this independently.

Thanks for all the advice! I'll ask for a breast pump from maternity when I get there and take my manual pump just in case. Hope they aren't peeved with me for making the request so short notice...

Is there an infant feeding coordinator at the hospital you can talk to?

When my DD was poorly in hospital at 11 months the IFC came to see me as part of her role was looking after breastfeeding mums in other departments than maternity and peads had put me on her list. I didn't need anything but it was nice to be asked and she said she could get me a pump if I needed one and didn't have my own.

We got chatting and she said she helped nursing mothers coming in for ops as part of her role.

It all worked out fine in the end... Op was on Tuesday. The breast pump hire people said that I could take the pump to hospital in the end. As it happens, I didn't need it; the surgeon at the last minute decided to start with less invasive surgery, so it was done under local anaesthetic and sedation, so I could go home same day (which meant that I couldn't get the sneaky lie-in that I thought I might get for the first time since my little one arrived oh well...). Thanks again for all your advice!