Bham women's hosp will not provide milk or sterile environment for new mums...

[satsumaish]

Cannot believe this, but mw warned me today that due to breast is best policy the hopsital will not provide first milk, or bottles or an area to sterilise bottles after July 1st.

I cannot bf due to medical reasons, but even if I could, I would like to feel that there was milk available for my baby after god knows how long being in labour. I reckon this is totally wrong and punishes new mums who can't or don't want to bf.

Lynette, gwendolinemarylacey said it upthread.

i dont understand what will happen to people who intend to bf but then cant? like me?

and i bf my other 2 dcs

You have to provide nappies so I can understand that if you know you can't bf then you should take your own formula. They will have sterilising facilities for pumps but you could use cold water serilising. They will also have some formula available but probably won't advertise the fact - some newborns, if premature, have to have formula. I imagine there's more to this and your mw is putting it in black and white, ignoring the grey areas.

GD can lead to a severe drop in blood sugar in the newborn. Because of this they have to ensure that the baby is feeding well to bring the blood sugar back up. Obviously there's two ways of going about this; lots of help and bf support or, in the case of my hospital, grab your boob, shove it in baby's mouth for a split second. Tut and walk out and return with a leaflet on expressing and leave you to it. Come back to find mother clueless, upset and having no success, tell mother she is unable to bf and give baby formula otherwise "your baby could become very ill".

They should have an area to sterlise bottles. They'll have to, they won't let everyone bring in their sterlisers and start plugging them in left, right and centre.

And they'll still have to have a stash of it for emergencies. DS had a ff when he was almost 2 days old at 4am, I doubt they'd have fancied nipping to tescos at that time in the morning.

Ds3 was prem and in NICU, then SCBU when he was born. I had to sterlilise the pump after every use and was given a tupperware box filled with Milton which was kept in my room. Seems unworkable not to have any formula in the hospital at all, bfing doesn't always go well.

I had to top up my ds1 with formula in hospital cos of low weight gain and they never had a sterilising area, they gave us the feeding cups and told us just wash it with washing up liquid?!

I think you will find that the hosp will provide sterile disposable bottles & teats, mothers just provide the ready to feed liquid or indiv glass prefilled bottles.

Not practical to sterilise reusable bottles or make up powder on the ward.

Equipment for expressing only needs to be washed and stored clean & dry - no need to sterilise that at all

is that why they told me i couldnt/wasnt allowed to express as my pump wasnt sterilised?

Part of me doesn't want to get involved with this thread as it will only upset me, but I didn't want it to go un-acknowledged - so massive big un-mnety hugs to you OP. And 's galore for Birmingham. :(

can't people take in ready made cartons just in case

When i had ds you had to take own formula (no idea about sterilizing facilities), a friend of mine took in the diddy sma premade/teat attached bottles. I planned to breast feed DS but herwouldn't latch as exhausted i think, they provided two formula minbottles and then i fed him breastmilk from then.

Well yes they ca coccyx, that's if they know they are intending to ff. I'd imagine plenty of women, like me, set out to bf and it all goes, well, tits up.

I'll say again they WILL have formula for emergencies.

They will however expect you to take in your own if you are admitted under normal circumstances and intend to ff.

Which is fair enough imo.

I work in a 'baby friendly' hospital and we provide bottles and teats but only provide formula for 'medical reasons'. Whilst this is intended to cover babies with low blood sugar for example, it actually is mainly used for mums who forget to bring it or intend to breastfeed but stop for one reason or another in the middle of the night for example. (Although the majority of bfing women bring formula 'just in case' ime).
I believe not providing formula is the norm now but I expect that most places have a halfway house such as our arrangement.
We ask mums who intend to formula feed to bring ready made cartons or bottles with them. Sterilising facilities are never provided as far as I am aware, much too complicated!

People have months to pack hospital bag, easy enough to pack ready made stuff even if you intend to BF.

That's not really the point though, is it? I remember posting here before I went into hospital and was advised by so many people that if I was intending to bf, not to have any bottles/formula in the house as it was too easy to start it if you were having a bad night. Community mws said the same. Going by that advice, why would you have formula if you had no intention of using it?

I tink we've established that formula for medical need will still be available.

In reality if bfing wasn't working to the point that formula was needed it would obviously be made available until such time as someone could bring you some.

Nonsense you can buy a coulpe of ready made cartons or those ones with teat on end.
Why should taxpayer be paying for Formula, unless an emergency

This thread makes me feel very guilty that I used to send DH home with 3 bottles and teats every night whislt I was in post CS. It's this kind of thing that has lead to it being stopped all together. at myself as I am now PG again, although am planning/hoping to BF this time.

To wash/sterilise wormshuffler? or you used to steal them? at the idea, i must be naive...

Low blood sugars in newborns are not exclusive to those whose mothers have diabetes, although obviously it is more common.

Diabetes, gestational or otherwise, does not prevent mothers from breastfeeding. I say that as a T1 diabetic who breastfed her child for a year with no formula, ever. I just don't want any diabetic mums to be to read this and think they cannot breastfeed!

Agree that hospitals should be provding a sterile area, although not automatically providing formula for anyone who is not breastfeeding. Clearly, if a baby is in dire need of formula (if they had low blood sugars, for example) the hospital should be providing in that instance.

I never said it prevented mothers from bf, I said it increased the pressure to get them feeding well and quickly. And if there is no bf support then they push formula on you.

Coccyx, fuck off there's a dear.