Hi, I recently had my second child and both of my babies were admitted to neonatal unit within a week of birth for phototherapy as they had really bad jaundice.
I wanted to post in childbirth because for me i was so wrapped up in the giving birth I never contemplated that just a few days after I would be dealing with jaundice and I just wish someone had told me about it. So here is my experience so you know what it is like to be in hospital with your little one under the lights when you thought you would be at home enjoying your bundle of joy. I felt very alone at the time and knew no one who had been through it.
I blamed myself so much for failing to get both babies to breastfeed enough to clear the billirubin from their blood but after DC2 was born I asked a lot of questions as to why both my children were jaundiced.
Apparently it is really common for breastfed babies to become jaundiced, most just get monitored at home but with my two, we were discharged from hospital and then sent back again within days.
My daughter (DC1) became so ill she was just giving up on feeding, and they had to force formula down her nose in a tube. It was awful, I had been sat waiting for doctors to see her on the ward that she had started to turn floppy. I really had to push for them to see her and not ignore her missing a feed. You hear so much that babies that are breastfed should feed on demand but with jaundice babies it really is every 3 hours from the start of a feed. If your baby is not meeting the 3 hours you have to try and wake them up (not very easy).
I was told by a very experienced midwife who they sent out to my home when DC2 was jaundiced that nearly all babies born earlyish (mine 36 DC2 and 37 DC1) that are breastfed develop jaundice and really it is down to their immature liver and nothing to do with the mother's attempts at breasfeeding. I was getting quite tearful because I felt like a complete failure, as I had been managing the 3 hourly feeds with DC2 I was hoping to avoid hospital. The midwife assured me that the biggest factor in whether a baby will end up with jaundice is having a jaundiced sibling. She was adamant that I could not prevent the jaundice, unless I wanted to formula feed. However she, the hospital, other midwives and health visitors were so supportive of me continuing to breasfeed that they did not recommend I give up breasfeeding and told me that once light treatment had finished the babies would be fine. AND THEY REALLY ARE FINE, HEALTHY CHILDREN.
If you end up back in hospital as a blubbering wreck, feeling like a failure, feeling like your stupid milk/boobs just wont work please take heart you can still go on to breasfeed your baby if you want to. I have to be honest the temptation to formula feed was really swaying me with both children and DH was inisisting with DC1 that I should. The hopsital had other ideas! I was given a breastpump and bottles, and they helped me wake every 3 hours to express milk for the babies and this was fed through a tube or bottle to the babies. If you dont make enough milk they top up with formula.
It is pretty exhausting, because you have to express/change baby/feed baby probably via tube and not bottle and then find time to eat drink and sleep. Also you have only just given birth and you are probably still trying to get over that too. They monitor the babies billirubin from blood samples, so be prepared for lots of needle pricks in the babies feet and hands. I cried every time they did this so had to sit outside.
With DC1 she really struggled with breastfeeding and she was very poorly and required longer phototherapy, in order to maintain breastfeeding when she was discharged I used a nipple shield as a temporary measure. They had us stay in an extra night to properly monitor the breastfeeding, I actually feel like they should give this kind of support to every new mother. DC1's jaundice cleared up in 2 weeks.
With DC2 he was not as bad, he wouldn't keep still under the lights and kept pulling his feeding tube out of his nose and removing his eye mask. He wouldn't take a dummy in order to settle so they used a lot of tape on his face and it left horrible sore marks. His jaundice took over 6 weeks to clear and we had to go back for more tests in case it wasnt straight forward jaundice but a liver problem. It wasn't, he just wasn't as regular with his stools (its how the billirubin leaves the system) and he was finally discharged still looking like he had a suntan.
Both my babies had to have formula on top of my expressed milk, and after we were discharged they soon fed like crazy to bring my supply up. So if you are worrying that you are not making enough milk it can be overcome. Your GP can give you some tablets to help increase milk supply, I had these with DC1 and they worked fine.
Anyway I hope this helps any new mums wanting to breastfeed but faced with jaundice.
On the flip side it is ok to admit defeat and switch to formula, I was lucky that my births were fairly straight forward, both over in 5 hours and therefore I had reserves to get me through some pretty tough days of little sleep. I know not all NHS Trusts are as good at helping with breastfeeding as mine is. Really if the support wasnt there for me and they weren't so bossy in making me continue I would have gone on to formula feed (I lost count of how much breastfeeding support I was given with DC1). No point making yourself ill trying to breastfeed and refusing to formula feed. Baby jaundice with DC1 made me very depressed and I had no confidence in my abilities as a mother. It took months to feel like I was a good mother.
I also know that if I have anymore children then there is a strong chance they will require phototherapy too, and I am not going to beat myself up about it and I will prepare in advance for a long hospital stay in the first week of their life.
Finally here is a hug 
to anyone currently in hospital with a jaundiced baby. I read mumsnet when in hospital in order to take my mind off the jaundice and keep me sane. If anyone wants to ask me anything about my jaundice experiences feel free to ask.