Breastfeeding in hospital. Help - 1st time mum to be!

[JBroRo]

Hello ladies

I haven't posted in this section before so I'm sure threads like this one already exist but I'm hoping for a bit of straight-forward advice from more experienced mums.

Im currently 34 weeks and starting to get all the last bits and pieces organised - washing clothes, packing my hopsital bag etc.

Im a very organised person who likes to be in control. Now before anyone shouts me down I fully accept that being a 1st time mum to a newborn there will be lots of situations where I will feel out of control!

Anyway, the one thing that is worrying (scaring?!) me at the moment is coping with the baby alone in hospital once DH has gone home and with potentially unhelpful midwives (should that be the circumstance I find myself in).

I just want some tips really for coping alone for a night in hospital with my newborn. More specifically, how do you start breast-feeding? I know this might sound like a really dim and basic question but I have no idea! I know that I want to start getting in to routines once Im home but during that first night if the baby is awake and crying do I literally put it to my breast every time??

Sorry for the long post. Hope it makes sense - I just want to be equipped with as many coping strategies as possible!

Thanks x

Get baby latched on ASAP - put her/him straight to the breast after delivery if possible. It's a great way to stop people interfering with the baby in those first precious moments ! Baby will know what to do even if you don't

You might not have to spend any time on the PN ward - DD (now 15 weeks) is my first and I was discharged 4.5 hours after her birth - didn't even make it out of the delivery ward.

And don't be too fixated on establishing a routine, you will drive yourself bananas if baby doesn't want to fit into it. If you exclusively breastfeed you will be doing it on demand, you can't put them into a routine. Baby will establish its own routine soon enough - we've had a "baby imposed" routine since about 8 weeks but the important thing is that the routine fits around her, she doesn't fit around the routine. She is a remarkably content, happy little soul.

My advice is chuck the books out - I have one book which is a Miriam Stoppard book on play (highly recommend it) and that's it. The books just make you feel scared/inadequate so I have found it much better just to muddle along go with my instincts

If you end up having to stay in hospital for more than a few hours, ask if there's a room with a sofa to breastfeed. Turned out there was one next door to my room, which was deserted and had a small free telly in it. So while my first night was dreadful, the second night ds and I sat on the sofa watching a Bollywood movie and gettign the hang of feeding.

And spend most of the next 2 days there until we were discharged. My experience was staff were all eager to help bf during the day - including the reassuring advice on day 2 that maybe he just wasn't hungry and not to be concerned until some hours later, just keep putting him to the breast, but night support was non-existent.

Re routines - I planned to be routine based. Ds is the most anti-routine baby I know of, but once I hurled away my copy of Gina Ford and decided I was going about my business and ds was coming with, we got on well. He just got fed on trains, bus stops, in bank managers' offices, many cafes, etc.

Don't worry if your baby isn't interested in feeding for the first 24 hours. They have an alert period for a few hours when they are born and where they're likely to want to feed and then they may go into very deep sleep for a good few hours and refuse to feed. This is completely normal which I only found out by googling on my Iphone whilst stressing that DS was sleeping for too long. I was lucky enough to have a wonderful midwife who came into my every 3 hours through the first night to help me express colostrum and syringe it into DS as he wasn't interested to feed. At no time was formula suggested as she knew this was normal.

my daughter is 12 weeks old and I have breastfed her from the start, the midwife helped me put her to the breast soon after she was born and after that I just tried her when she cried (which wasnt much, she mostly slept for the first 12 hours). The midwives told me to use my buzzer if I needed help when I got back onto the ward but I didnt like to bother them even though I wasnt sure I was doing it properly. They came quite often and asked how I was doing though and corrected me sometimes and showed me different feeding positions, it did take me a couple of weeks to become confident at feeding though so ask for help if you need it and persevere even if you are finding it hard. It is a lot easier and more convenient than making up bottles!

I think it will depend on your hospital midwife team and also how busy they are at the time as to how much help you will get. Having said that after the birth of my DD (nearly a year now) I could not get out of bed for the first night because of the drain attached from the emergency caesarian and the midwives were very good at coming when I buzzed (which was everytime DD cried). I just offered breast everytime and 9/10 times it was what she wanted the other 1/10 it was wind or nappy or comfort after being woken up by other babies on the ward. The one time they were busy they just asked me to keep her with me in the bed, did mean I got little sleep though! The main thing is if you don't ask you don't get and if any midwives are less than helpful ask another or make a complaint. Your body has been preparing for months by waking you up to wee so you will be fine, just tired. PS don't try to add stress by trying to get routines at this early stage, just bond with your baby, make sure you eat and drink enough water and ignore the fact that you haven't done the cleaning etc... AND SLEEP WHEN THEY SLEEP otherwise you will be so tired you will be no good to anyone. Enlist DH, mum or other friends/relatives to help with chores, shopping, walking baby around while you nap etc...

With regard to latching as their mouths are quite small it can be painful at first if they do not latch correctly. If that happens insert pinky finger and scoop sideways to unlatch then bring them back up to nipple from underneath, with mouth opening wide so they get the nipple and aureola for a good latch. They might not do this at first so in that case use your free hand to pinch up nipple and surrounding area and place it in their mouth. If you can use warm flannel and hand express (midwife can show you how even before birth if you ask them) a few drops from your nipple the baby will smell it and be encouraged to feed. Avent and Lanisoh nipple creams good for sore nipples, but dry nipples first so that you do not encourage yeast infection. Again drink lots of water to encourage your milk to come in and don't be suprised if about 3 days in you feel very emotional when the colostrum switches to regular breast milk. Even if you don't think they are getting much persist as newborns have small tummies and feed little and often (10 mins, 15 mins, half hour whatever they need). The more often they feed the more you encourage milk production.

It's great that you're getting prepared already! I think it's really important to think about breastfeeding and read a bit, before the birth.

Have a look at this: it might work for you. Biological nurturing is becoming more and more known in hospitals, as well as out of them, and it basically involves you being propped up, but still reclining (say, 45 degrees or less) and your fresh new baby being put on your tummy/chest, belly down. The baby will instinctively make movements to come up your body and 'scan' for a breast and nipple. Watch for 'windmilling' arms and the head moving from side to side. The baby can smell and see the nipple (it will be a dark contrast against your breast) and will actually move to it and latch on. Some people think that trying the first few feeds when sitting very upright actually works against the baby's natural, innate movements to find the breast (gravity doesn't help if you're sat too upright). I don't mean that you can't feed sitting upright - not at all! But you might want to give this a try for the first few feeds, particularly if you do try a more upright position for the first feed and the baby seems unhappy or not latching on well.

MWs are overworked in hospitals but keep buzzing them if you have any problems or need support or advice, it's part of what they're there for! You could also take in with you the NCT breastfeeding line number: 0300 330 0771; and National Breastfeeding Helpline: 0844 20 909 20; and Association of Breastfeeding Mothers helpline: 08444 122 949. I've included a few because sometimes lines are quite busy, but you might want someone to talk to about breastfeeding, perhaps for longer than a MW can spare.

I'm sure it'll be fine - good luck with the birth!