I'm getting quite annoyed about how my midwifes/HVs are giving inconsistent information. I breastfed DD for 5 days before she was admitted to hospital having lost 17% of the birth weight and was severely dehydrated. In those first five days I saw three different midwives who all said she was latched on well and congratulated me on how well I was getting on with BF. I was concerned as DD hadn't done any wet nappies but they reassured me that it was fine. On the fifth day I saw a different midwife again who watched me feeding, saw that DD wasn't latched on properly at all, was hardly taking any milk and not having wet nappies was a sign of concern. She then weighed her which was when we were sent straight to hospital.
Anyway, long story but we have now ended up formula feeding which I have come to terms with. The midwife I saw when I came out of hospital made it very clear that the rules regarding making up formula have changed and that I must make a fresh bottle each time and boil fresh water and let it cool slightly before adding powder, and to never make up bottles of water in advance and add powder throughout the day when needed. Fine, so I am making up fresh bottles each time, no problem.
But today I was at a friend's house who is FF and her midwife told her while I was there that its fine to boil water, put it in the bottles and then leave it all day before adding powder. I actually challenged her saying this wasn't the advice any more and she said it is. So now my friend is left worrying about what to do because the information is unclear.
I'm not worried too much about making up formula as I'm happy to make a fresh bottle each time and confident that is the correct way to do it. But it just makes me so annoyed that some midwives don't appear to know what they're doing!
I'm not sure why I'm posting this really but just wanted to get it off my chest. I'm sure many babies could avoid becoming ill, and mother's avoid becoming stressed and worried, if only midwives were better trained. Hopefully it is just our team who are particularly bad and it is better elsewhere.