Breastmilk from a bottle?

[BroTim]

I formula fed my other two children as I knew I wouldn’t have maternity leave and it was easier for crèche feeds. This time around I’m going to have 9 months maternity and would love to give the baby breastmilk. My question is can you express milk for bottles like right away or does it take a while? I don’t want my Husand and children to be left out of feeding the baby I think it’s important for them all to be part of feeding, baths, nappy changes etc?

To begin with you'll have colostrum for the first 2 or so days. This is not produced in much volume as baby doesn't need much and is very hard work to express. You'd need to do it by hand into tiny syringes. It's not probably a sensible idea to try and do this if you don't have to.

When your milk has properly come in then you could try expressing. Most breastfeeding sites/books will advise not expressing until after 4 to 6 weeks. At that point your supply has usually settled down and it is easier to fit in expressing without causing you discomfort or issues with supply.

However, many women will express as soon as their milk is in. Probably best to express at the same time each day so that your body gets accustomed to it. Your husband/children/others can then give the baby a feed at that time instead of you feeding the baby directly.

Some babies might begin to prefer the fast easier flow of milk from a bottle and start to fuss at the breast or refuse to feed. You can read up about paced bottle feeding which can help prevent this, along with not using free flow teats.

Thanks for your information I wouldn’t mind doing it for the first week but I’d rather bottle fed with breastmilk. I’ll have a chat with the midwife and see what she says 😃

I found expressing such a faf , it would take me forever to express a few ounces but only a few minutes to feed my baby

My DD was 10 weeks early and in SCBU for 11 weeks. She was too little to bf initially - no suck reflex - so I exclusively expressed for a good 6 weeks. Then she switched to actually bf and continued till she was 12 months or so. So it is possible but absolutely a faff! After she started to bf I only expressed enough for a bottle or so on the odd occasion she was with GPs etc.

I take the point about wanting others to help feed the baby but agree that expressing can be a massive faff. You might find it easier to combi feed and give formula in a bottle and give breastmilk through the breast. Just an idea! Good luck with it though. Breastfeeding for us was an initially hard but ultimately an amazing journey.

I had a premmie with no strength to feed so I expressed from Day 1. It's a right faff though. You separate input and output do each feed takes twice as long, plus you have all the washing and sterilising.

I found expressing to be such hard work. Took bloody ages to get even a small bottle’s worth of milk, yet I knew I was producing plenty because my babies gained weight steadily and produced plenty of wet and pooey nappies.

My midwife told me it's because you don't love a pump

Expressing and bottle feeding is double the work! On a more serious point, breastfeading works on a supply and demand principle, meaning the more comes out, the more is produced. Babies are better at draining than pumps, so your supply might suffer if you only express. Can't Dad and siblings bond by cuddling / playing / nappies, and leave you to feed for a while?

You should also probably get in touch with your local BF support group - eg, La Leche League or Sure Start. NHS runs free classes about breastfeeding, and your HV will have leaflets about it. There are also extremely good books on the market. You should get informed about what to expect ahead of time, to have the best chance of it working.

Good luck!

Thanks for all the information it was really helpful at giving me an insight to how hard expressing is. I think I might just stick to formula this time round again. 😃

Hello, my baby just wouldn't latch at all, tried everything. So I hired a double pump from medela for about £45 each month for three months. I was obsessed that he have breast milk. I guess I didn't know any better but it was hard work. You have to pump 5-8 times a day 15-30mins each pump and in the night because your boobs will explode. And I still had to do one or two feeds with formula per day. So just have a think about the extra work. Storage bags/bottles and cleaning the pumping equipment and then steaming. It was brutal. So if you can breast feed then great, if you simply just don't want to or to stick with what you know from your previous two, then do that too. I am totally indifferent about formula vs breast. I say whatever is best for the mother in all cases!

You can always do both - breastfeed when you're with the baby, formula if you go out or your partner wants to do a feed.

@BroTim what do you think about giving your baby colostrum, and then maybe seeing if you wanted to do one or two breastfeeds a day alongside mainly formula feeding? That way your husband can take turns with the formula feeding, and your baby gets some breastmilk.