Advice for BF after C section

[beaufies]

I will be having DS1 next Friday by C section and am desperate to breast feed.

I have heard that having a section can delay things ? Also I have gestational diabetes, and although I have managed it very effectively through diet only, baby will be checked for low blood sugar.

I am really worried that he will be delivered and taken away for testing, and then filled up with formula for the blood sugar and that all this is going to make my feeding him an uphill struggle. Also he is going to be a big boy - 10lb+ and I am fearful that even if I didn't have these added complications I wouldn't be able to satisfy him in the early days and again he would be put onto formula

Don't misunderstand, if he needs anything for genuine medical reasons, that's fine, but I have little faith in the medical profession doing what's best rather than what's easiest.

If anyone has had any experience of these issues, or has any useful advice I would love to hear about it

I'm afraid my experience wasn't exactly like yours, but I did BF (and still doing it 10 months on) after an emergency c-section and my son being in SCBU for 5 days being tube fed.

Basically if there's any reason why he has to be taken away to begin with request that they avoid bottles as much as is humanly possible (spoons, cups whatever is appropriate) so he doesn't get nipple confusion and if you can't get him to the breast start trying to express asap.

IME you will get almost nothing for the first 2 days but don't despair. With expressing and only getting my son to the breast properly on day 4 (I think) my milk came in properly on day 5.

This is probably down to luck too but stimulation has to help.

I wish you the best of luck and hopefully you won't need any of that advice because you'll be able to put your lovely bouncing boy straight to the booby!!

I hope I can reassure you beaufies. DD was born at a low birth weight and so her blood sugar levels were checked before each feed until they reached an acceptable level. They did not need to take her away to do this as all is involved is a heel prick test to draw a little blood. Was awful the first time I watched, but she didn't really notice it so it wasn't distressing really.

As for breastfeeding after a c-section, although I have heard that it can take a little while for milk to come in afterwards, that was not my experience. My milk came in on day 3. And a friend of mine who had a natural birth had to wait till day 5, so we're all different!

Due to the low blood sugars in DD, the hospital advised us to give formula top ups until the levels increased. But this in no way affected the establishment of breastfeeding. I think this was due to the way in which they dealt with this. I was encouraged to put DD to the breast whenever she was hungry (and if she did not demand it within 3 hours, which she didn't at first as she was really, really sleepy due to the low blood sugars I would wake and feed her). Only after a good long feed/suck would we then try to get the top up into her. And I'm talking over 30 mins, 45 mins breastfeed first here. So my supply was stimulated, and baby received what she needed by way of colostrum, but also we got her blood sugars up by way of the formula.

I have heard mention of expressing milk/colostrum whilst still pg if low blood sugars are a possibility, enabling you to top up with that rather than formula, but I don't know whether this has ever been successful. Perhaps someone else can help here. I think I read about it on this site but I'm not sure.

Anyway, don't be afraid to assert yourself and ask questions of the hcps to check that there aren't other ways of doing things if they tell you what they are going to do.

And good luck! Enjoy the peace while it lasts! Go and have lots of nice meals out with your DH before Friday!

Hi, I had DS1 at 36 weeks by cs and struggled to bf him - he was just too weak to suck even though I had the milk. Spent a very stressful time in hospital desperate to feed him, and ended up giving him top up formula on about the 4th day. I wish I'd done it sooner - he was so weak and lost so much weight, and I was so stressed about it that affected those first few days. Having said that, once I got out of hospital I hired an NCT breastpump which helped enormously and ended up feeding him for over a year.

DS2 was a vaginal birth - bf no problems again for a year.

DS3 emergency cs - again, no problems, milk came in after 2 days. But I topped up again before the milk came in, due to him being large and very hungry.

As you can see all different experiences. The only advice I would give is that if you decide to top up, don't agonise about it, just do it. I was given all sorts of dire warnings that it would affect my milk supply and it didn't - I just made sure the baby had a really good suckle before I topped up. Good luck.

my baby was 10lb 5oz, and is breastfed. he is 10 weeks now. i also had a cs. you will have enough milk to feed him. i worried about feeding a big baby too, but its turned out fine. hope all goes well xx

I had ds by emergency CS and he weighed 9lb 7oz. I had no problems whatsoever with bf so be positive!
Ds had his blood sugar levels tested because he was a bit jittery but all was OK and nobody mentioned formula or bottles at any point
Althugh ds was an emergency CS (total surprise as dd was vaginal birth) I still made sure to make my feelings on bfing clear and kept reminding everyone that I wanted skin to skin as soon as possible. This happened successfully and I am still bfing 7 months on
Good luck!