Bottle and Breastfeeding - advice and help

[Louisee58]

Hi All,

I am only 8 weeks so early days but after some advice, I'm meeting my midwife for the first time this afternoon and I know one of the questions I am going to be asked is if I plan to breastfeed or not. I had a pretty traumatic birth with DS1 so by the time it came to feeding him I was exhausted, and he wasn't latching on properly and rather than persevere I just gave up! in hindsight, it was probably for the best because he fed constantly for the first few weeks, never finished a feed, didn't sleep at all during the night etc so was nice to get a break by my partner taking over.

I would like to combination feed this time and I know it is not something that is massively supported but I have seen past threads on here (from 2012 so couldn't ask questions on them) of plenty of people with success stories. I was just after some recent success stories and advice before my midwife immediately tries to put me off. (hopefully she will be supportive as this is the decision I have made)

I would love to breastfeed but also want my partner to be able to feed the baby and also be able to still have some spare time to spend with DS1. Would expressing be the answer instead of formula? or would I just end up spending my whole day feeding then expressing?

I have previously posted on here that I have had a breast uplift and implants, and this may effect my milk supply, so in the end I may not be able to bf at all.

Thanks for any advice and support in advance.

I'm currently mix feeding dd (13 weeks) and so far it seems to be going ok. I bf most of the time but she has 1 bottle (of f) a day at bedtime. I think the key is to use f very sparingly in the early days so as to get bf established first then use the bottles. There are real benefits to mix feeding for me; dp gives the feed (sometimes!) which let me get to bed early( this matters less now as she sleeps very well), I don't worry that she'll refuse bottles and f later (this was a very big issue for me) etc. There are down sides though and the main one for me is confidence in my supply-I do worry about it now she's sleeping through.

Sorry but I've no idea about how your uplift and implants will affect bf but I'm sure your mw will be able to advise!

Thanks for replying Nicky

hearing success stories does make me feel better and more confident to stick to my decision

Hi Louisee58, I'm a bf peer supporter and I would like to help you if I can. I just want to say that in the early days / weeks a BF baby will feed at night they only have tiny tummies and unlike formula, breastmilk is processed quicker and this is why they need to feed more frequently. It is true that frequent feeding does build up supply and if you give your baby too much FF in the early days you may not be able to play catch up with your supply. Once BF has been established, probably around 6-8 weeks then I suppose you are less likely to drop supply if you want to give your baby a ff at night.

I think you will be able to judge if your supply is well established or not, if baby is crying constantly for feeding and not say for other reasons then this is a sign your baby wants more boob time to build up your supply.

The other option to FF is to express milk as you already mention into a bottle and keep it in the fridge, warm it up at night and perhaps get your partner to feed the baby whilst you sleep. I know some people have managed to perfect the art of feeding baby on one boob and expressing on the other to save time, it also helps to get milk to let down into the pump as this can be hard for some without a baby already on the boob. Expressing will also help with supply.

Regarding your implants, I think it is something you will just have to wait to find out. I don't think anyone can give a definitive answer as each woman is different.

Finally if you find your baby is not latching on properly this time around please go and find a local support group. At my group I see a lot of mums-to-be who come along to ask questions and get advice before baby is born. The midwife at our CC suggest mums-to-be do this so they know where support can be found before baby is born. Perhaps you could ask your midwife if there is one near you?

Thanks Captain great advice!

I have my first midwife app in a couple of hours so will be asking all the questions I can then and hopefully finding out about a support group. Thanks for the help, I just didn't want to be told no, that's not a good idea lol x