Been reading bf myths and this has been really bugging me...

[Heated]

..what do you do about feeding nb baby while waiting for your milk to come in? Or did you have milk almost immediately?

8 hours after delivery and not managing to bf ds, was told I had to give a bottle. And 2nd day, told he was low in blood sugar, not getting anything via bf so had to bottle feed.

I don't know if I'm usual or unusual in this but I had no milk until day 5 (after traumatic delivery & constantly hooked up to a breast pump but producing nothing).

Like Moondog, I just put dd1 to the breast as soon as she was born and after that, I latched her on every hour or so (when she was awake) for the first three days until my milk came in. So I bf about 10-15 times a day in those first few days. I never saw the colostrum and one midwife did tell me my baby would become dehydrated but I ignored her and dd1 was fine.

This is so helpful, both the advice and links.

Very interested in the idea of stimulating and collecting colostrum before birth; never heard of this before. And the syringes and collecting kit available from the mw?

No idea if he was tongue-tied either; again first I ever heard of it was on MN but wonder now if he might have been, he couldn't latch very well at all, unlike dd.

And does everyone then top up whilst waiting for milk to come in, if it doesn't appear in the first few days? And it's generally better to do so with a cup/syringe rather than from a bottled teat? As I mentioned before I had nothing at all, no colostrum or milk. My community mw kept telling me it was odd but she did get very excited when it did appear!

Your story sounds exactly like mine. DS was born 3 and a half weeks ago at 36 weeks and was slightly small for dates (4lb 7oz) Birth traumatic...very fast and a ventouse after dilating fully with no pain relief. Ds very sleepy for first 24 hours and wouldn't/couldn't latch on at all even with huge amounts of midwife help. Was hypoglaecymic so Hospital gave us formula. I had colostrum but couldn't get DS to latch on. Milk came in 4 days later and got him latched on. Now 3 weeks later continuing with mixed feeding, getting better with every feed and hoping to get fully onto breast in time. He's got stronger and gained weight very well, the stronger he gets the better the bfing goes.

Starlight - don't know if you read threads on first page but the only reason we were talking about giving formula from a cup or bottle as a kick start was only because these babies were very small, were too weak to latch on and get started (sucking reflex not developed) and risked dehydration and losing too much weight and going into neonatal. My milk came in fine when I was giving formula to kick start DS1 because I made sure I carried on stimulating via expressing. Therefore when the formula gave him the strength he needed and made him less lethargic it was ready and waiting (I also fed him what I had expressed via a syringe)

if its any consolation, my friend had to give her baby a bottle because it was prem and in special care for a week and she wasn't allowed to stay in the hospital. She was told to keep pumping at home but she couldn't really cos she had traumatic birth and then was separated from her baby. Was told she would have to at best mix feed. ANYWAY, baby came out of hospital, had one bottle of formula then she just persevered with breastfeeding, now baby five weeks old, a guzzler, only breast feeding and a little fatty! SO... if you do have to give in and give a bottle, that doesn't mean the end! GOOD LUCK

re starlight, but not necesarily

i know, but i had some probs with bf too and i got so panicked about so much info that in the end i couldn't do anything/didn't know what to do etc And sometimes i think you can get so stressed and confused and then take everything too seriously without any perspective. I too have read loads about bottles interfering with bf, (i have got bottles and sterilisers to the brim and never dared use them yet) but just saying that my friend used them then didn't and its more than fine and its important to hear that side too. I thought i had ruined my baby with anti biotics in the early weeks and was in such a panic and felt so sad and guilty for about three weeks and now he's lovely so i just don't want anyone having same neg feelings!

My breasts have only ever leaked at night in the early days and never after that with all babies.

You dont know you have colostrum, the only way the midwife can even tell is if the babys poo changes colour, which it does after a day or two. Not sure why they push bottles on everyone

Cosima's post at 20:18 is my point as well and I feel quite strongly about this. It is important that people hear the other side ie it is NOT a disaster to use a teat and formula for a bit if needed - especially because I was so stressed out, confused and in tears. I, and many others I have spoken to did just that and went on to breasfeed fine.

I agree with Starlight that there is a best practice way ie not to use teats, but I fear that women are taking this so seriously and as such gospel (I did and looks like Cosima was shit scared as well to use a bottle) that they don't know where to turn. My baby simply would not cup feed as he was too lethargic to do anything and spat everything out - I simply had to stick a teat in, in the end and was in tears doing it because I so wanted to breastfeed (and in the end breastfed successfully and exclusively for 6 months!!!)

My best friend was so scared to use a teat that her 5lb 12oz baby ended up being rushed to neonatal! Surely that cannot be right. She also gave a teat and then breastfeed successfully for a year.

I just think that when nipple confusion is spoken about it should be put into some kind of perspective - at the moment it simply does not read as best practice - it reads as a dead certainty that if you use a teat you will ruin your chances of breastfeeding (well it does in the aftermaths of birth and when in an emotional state) That is all.

At the end of all this we are all on the same side on this one as we are desperate to get more women to breastfeed. successfully.

I agree with Starlight that there is a best practice way ie not to use teats, but I fear that women are taking this so seriously and as such gospel (I did and looks like Cosima was shit scared as well to use a bottle) that they don't know where to turn. My baby simply would not cup feed as he was too lethargic to do anything and spat everything out - I simply had to stick a teat in, in the end and was in tears doing it because I so wanted to breastfeed (and in the end breastfed successfully and exclusively for 6 months!!!)

My best friend was so scared to use a teat that her 5lb 12oz baby ended up being rushed to neonatal! Surely that cannot be right. She also gave a teat and then breastfeed successfully for a year.

I just think that when nipple confusion is spoken about it should be put into some kind of perspective - at the moment it simply does not read as best practice - it reads as a dead certainty that if you use a teat you will ruin your chances of breastfeeding (well it does in the aftermaths of birth and when in an emotional state) That is all.

At the end of all this we are all on the same side on this one as we are desperate to get more women to breastfeed. successfully.