Questions about Breastfeeding!

[Hessa1997]

Hello everyone, and Happy New Year!
As an expectant mother with queries about breastfeeding, I'd appreciate any advice.

1. Are there any tablets or herbs I can take before birth to ensure enough milk production for breastfeeding?
2. I've purchased a breast pump. How should I store the milk it extracts, and for how many days can I keep it?
3. Using a breast pump means more milk for bottles. Are there techniques to balance breastfeeding and bottle-feeding without risking the baby rejecting the breast?
4. When going out, should I carry frozen or refrigerated breast milk in a cooler bag? Is a baby bottle warmer necessary?

Thanks a bunch for your help!

I wouldn’t worry about tablets or herbs! The best way to increase your supply once baby is here is to feed, feed and feed some more. Breastfeeding works on supply and demand, the more demand there is, the more supply there will be. Instead of trying to take anything to increase your supply, I would focus on learning as much as you can about breastfeeding. La Leche and Kelly Mom are both great resources, and Lucy Ruddle and Lucy Webber on Instagram are both fab. Familiarise yourself with what support is available too in case you struggle or have questions on the early days - keep the breastfeeding support network phone number handy and look up any local support groups.

In terms of pumping I don’t have much advice as I rarely did it but I would try to focus on establishing breastfeeding first unless you have a specific reason to pump / be away from baby. Then once your supply is more regulated and both you and baby have got the hang of it, you could introduce a bottle. I think ideally you are meant to pump at the same time as the baby has a bottle to keep your supply up.

You could also consider getting a Hakka which collects milk on the other side while you’re feeding. But again I’d be weary about using this too early on as it does still stimulate milk supply and you don’t want to give yourself an over supply.

Just take each day at a time and good luck! It’s the most special experience and really is worth the hard work.

Sorry, thought of a couple more things!!

Look up paced feeding for when you introduce a bottle and use the slowest teat possible, this will help reduce the risk of them getting a preference for the bottle.

One of the best things about breastfeeding is the freedom to just leave the house without having to think about packing milk, sterilising a bottle etc. so to be honest I’d just do that if you can and save the bottles for at home or for when you need a break / are going out. The more you feed in public the more confident you will get and it’s very easy to be discreet.

Are there any tablets or herbs I can take before birth to ensure enough milk production for breastfeeding?

No need to do this. Not having enough milk is extremely rare, something like one in a million. Have a read of preparing to BF top tips to find out the best way to prepare.

I've purchased a breast pump. How should I store the milk it extracts, and for how many days can I keep it?

I wouldn't bother at first. It's not advised straightaway as newborns are fucking exhausting it can interfere with your supply. When you do feel ready to express have a read of BM: storing and handlingg*.

Using a breast pump means more milk for bottles. Are there techniques to balance breastfeeding and bottle-feeding without risking the baby rejecting the breast

I'm not sure what you mean by this? Will you be Combi feeding using BM for formula?

When going out, should I carry frozen or refrigerated breast milk in a cooler bag? Is a baby bottle warmer necessary

So, so much easier to carry it in your breasts. One of the huge benefits of BFing is that you don't have to worry about taking out feeds and bottles

Sorry x-posted with Living there

www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/breastfeeding/expressing-breast-milk/

See the NHS website for info about storing breastmilk safely.

One of the major major benefits of breastfeeding over bottle feeding is that you don't need to prep and take bottles with you when going out and about. You can just directly feed, whenever and wherever you need to.

Don't worry about any herbs or supplements prior to giving birth, there's nothing you can buy over the counter that is proven to work in that way. The best thing to stimulate the production of breastmilk is putting baby to the breast frequently.

Just to add to stat others have said. I used to pump and add it to a sterilised bottle and refrigerate. Pump again and add to another bottle and refrigerate. When your bottles of pumped milk have been in the fridge for an hour or so and are both at the same temp you can combine the milk. You can't combine refrigerated and freshly pumped milk. I would combine and freeze in 4oz batches. You can buy bags specifically for freezing from Amazon. The advice around pace feeding is that you shouldn't bottle feed more than 4oz of expressed milk at a time. Milk can be stored for 6 hours at room temp, 6 days in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer.

I know that trends change and there seems to be one following the American bf style which is to pump and then feed the milk via bottle. But when I had DS 19yrs ago I just fed from the breast.
DS was early and spent 4 days in NICU, the midwives asked if I wanted to breast feed and then tube fed DS initially until my milk came in then he was transferred to breast. They encouraged me to offer the breast frequently even when he was being tube fed to encourage a latch and stimulate milk production. I also pumped until he came out of NICU. It took a couple of days to produce more than a few mls of milk but once my milk came in I could have fed the whole of NICU.
If DS hadn’t been in NICU and being tube fed I would not have pumped but they were keen for him to have any milk/colostrum I could produce to use in the tube feed.
At four days old we had established a good latch and didn’t look back.
NICU didn’t bottle feed him at all because I wanted to bf. They said the worst think I could do was to swop and change early on.
DS didn’t have a bottle until his was 5mnths when he started nursery. As long as I wasn’t around he would take a bottle.
I worked part time and my body just got used to the routine. I carried on bf until DS was nearly 2.
To be fare I couldn’t be bothered with the faff of pumping and storing milk. I did try it and froze a decent supply but DS didn’t like breast milk that had been frozen so there wasn’t any point.
He would happily take a freshly pumped bottle if we were going out and MIL was babysitting. I also had a small stock of formula as well.
Pumping takes such a lot of time and when you are pumping and breast feeding there is no time to do anything else. It always seemed to take a long time to pump half a bottle. I suspect that your body knows the difference so the let down isn’t as effective.
I speak from first hand experience rather than professional knowledge. I found that every midwife had a different opinion so ended up just winging it via trial and error.
The only advice I would give is that it hurts like hell for at least four weeks but then improves, although I always found the let down uncomfortable. And the more you relax and ignore all the “helpful” advice the better.
I was in hospital for ten days mostly in a transition unit where there was a midwife and nurse nurse 24/7, visiting was very limited and discouraged if you needed privacy. There was only two of us in the unit at the time so the staff were bored, they pretty much did everything for us and at night would wake us up to feed the babies, having changed and woken them. They also did most of the cares letting us rest, eat and relax. By the time I was discharged any bf issues had been sorted.

I believe that in the past newborns were probably wet nursed by a family member who was breast feeding, so the baby learned to latch with an expert. Mum was allowed to rest and recover giving a few feeds to stimulate milk production and provide colostrum then would be in a much better position to carry on when their milk came in.
The early problems we see with breast feeding are probably because the “old ways” have disappeared. I found the high level of physical support I had was why I established bf so quickly. It just doesn’t happen with most births. We no longer have the support of the groups of women our ancestors had. Our owns mothers and grandmothers mostly bottle fed so the whole support system has probably been lost forever.