How to start BF?

[kayzisexpecting]

Hi,

I think I might be in labour with my 2nd DS. Didn't BF DS1 but desperate to BF this one.

I am expecting my MW to be great as she knows the problems I had with DS. But on the off chance she isn't, what should I do in the first few hours etc to help get BF established?

I did lots of skin to skin in the first hour.

Good luck!

firstly congratulations.
In the early opart just lots of close contact, skin to skin and put the baby near the breast asap, instinct will be very strong while you are in skin to skin, placing baby straight onto your stomach.

google biological nurturing! tis fab.

if not your cup of tea then just plenty of skin to skin and lots of opportunity for baby to latch on if s/he wants to.
ds2 wasn't interested in feeding when he was first born, but latched on at about an hour old and stayed there!

there are some jack newman vids on youtube I thnk, about latching on and stuff like that

Keep the bf helpline numbers close to hand.

Keep baby close.

Where are you giving birth?

I'm having him at home. I have all the helpline numbers written down and in my mobile.

Plenty of skin to skin, didn't have much with DS1 as I had pethedine in labour and he was very sleepy.

Did you bf at all with no.1?

Not really. He wouldn't latch while we were in hospital. So he was given a bottle. Then when we came out we saw 10 MWs as mine had broken her ankle. They all had different advice. Some said if I kept trying he would eventually get it but they never showed me what to do. Then others said as he had a bottle on the first day he would never BF.

So by day 10 he was fully FF, but I did try everyday for those 10 days. But he normally pulled away or screamed so I don't know if he ever got anything at all.

I studied all the diagrams like a madwoman and memorised the advice about tummy to mummy etc, then had a lovely long skin to skin cuddle when she was born and I was being stitched up (ugh). I also had to spend 24 hours in hospital (ugh ugh - so much for my home birth ) which was effectively a kind of babymoon, since I couldn't do anything else but lie in bed and cuddle DD, so that might have helped

Kayz That's terrible.

How much info do you have on bfing? Do you know what is normal?

Expect the baby to sleep quite a bit for the first day or tow (though every baby is different, and then expect him/her to suddenly wake and want to feed almost permenantly. It is usual to need to feed between 8-12 times and they won't be evenly spread out. In the evening you may only get 15mins between them. It's best to plan ahead, settle on the sofa with the phone, tv remote, book snack and drink and resign yourself to a few good hours pinned to the spot.

HTH

Labour didn't happen last night. All contractions stopped at about half 7.

I have read that 'Bestfeeding' book and a NCT one. I am hoping MW will be excellent and not at all like any of the ones I had with DS. I'm also hoping not having pethedine will help.

Good advice from Starlight - oh, and expect it to hurt quite a bit at first, despite NHS propaganda that 'it won't hurt if you;re doing it right'.