Feeding pumped milk in the hospital

[missmc12xo]

24 and pregnant with my first baby, not wanting to breastfeed but wanting to pump and feed from a bottle but don't know if it's possible? Has anyone done this before???

Sorry if this is a stupid question feeling overwhelmed.

Thanks x

This has absolutely nothing to do with the question asked?

If you breastfeed the baby is very likely to become very dependent on mum to sleep/settle, as well as to eat. Some become 'bottle refusers'. For many families, and many mums, this is not an option for many (perfectly valid) reasons. Some will settle for dad/gran if combined fed from day one.

I had a baby January and the hospital had a pump I used. I pumped solidly for 6 weeks as baby wouldn’t latch, I was also a self conscious breast feeder and it took to around 5 months for baby to be breast fed fully and no pumping. So if you only want to pump it is possible but I have to say not pumping is so much easier especially on my breasts as they used to become quite engorged if I didn’t pump. So glad I dont pump now.

Hi there it's a midwife with 3 years of experience in breastfeeding support groups. I would say pumping is a lot harder than exclusively breastfeeding or mix feeding. You would need to find the time to pump, feed the baby and sterilise the bottles. Just putting the baby on the breast is an easier option. Yes, they feed for hours in the early weeks. It's normal and it's to stimulate mum's milk supply. Dummy could be introduced from around 4-6 weeks so the baby could satisfy their need for suckling without being endlessly on the breast. 15-20 per feed on the breast and job done. Far easier than pumping, feeding, sterilising 8 times in 24 hours to keep your supply. One bottle of expressed breast milk in 24 hours after 4-6 weeks has never done any baby any harm. So that your partner can help out. I can see you are having a whole range of different options. My suggestion would be to attend antenatal classes, get as much support in hospital as possible and find out where your local breastfeeding support groups are. I hope it helps. You don't need to commit to exclusive breastfeeding. Breastfeeding support groups are to support women in their choices. If you go and say you want to mix feed nobody will have a go at you, you will be supported in what you want to do. However pumping and bottle feeding seems like the hardest option of all

Babies become dependent on mum if mum breastfeeds them to sleep. If mum breastfeeds and dad settles it could work very well as dads don't smell of milk. No baby will refuse a bottle at 6 weeks

It's perfectly doable but my word was it a commitment.
I ended up pumping as I got mastitis and bleeding nipple in the one breast I can feed from and it was just too sore to feed him so I started to pump instead. It was time consuming to say the least. DH could feed him but it didn't allow me a "break" because I still had to pump every 3/4 hours. Then when I fed him, especially night feeds, I also had to pump after feeding and ended up feeling like I was losing so much opportunity to rest myself when he was because I was then pumping.

I ended up stopping at just over 2 weeks though I did have the added complication of only being able to feed from one side as I had milk ducts removed on the other side.

I’ve had 3 kids and 2 settled with dad very easily. The 3rd was a hopeless case even after he stopped bfing.

Giving a bottle of pumped breastmilk early on at the same time every day is the easiest way to tackle this concern.

In my opinion, you’d be mad to exclusively pump for this reason. It’s physically and mentally draining and takes a lot of commitment. It just wouldn’t be worth it when there are other solutions.

I had an extremely prem second baby so exclusively pumped for the first 5 weeks or so. It was definitely harder than breastfeeding my first son, but it was doable. Waking up with an alarm every 2 hours in the night for the first few weeks without a baby doing it was hard, but as mine was in neonatal i had no choice. He did manage to transfer to the breast eventually but I continued to pump once a day (which I had done for my first son too) so that their dad could feed the bedtime bottle and I had more freedom. I think getting breastfeeding established but pumping once a day and freezing it initially, and then doing one or two pumped bottles a day after your supply is established is probably best (in my eyes)... But it's whatever works for you.

I was lucky enough with my first son that I could feed him on one side and pump the other for the bedtime bottle so killing two birds with one stone!

This is true. But with a newborn sometimes the best laid plans go out the window and tou slip into nto habits just to get some sleep. And before you know it you are having to retrain the baby.
Sounds like OP is making good, informed choices and doesn’t want to be naive.

Oh, @bostonchamps of course it does. I wondered why op wanted to pump instead of bf. She then explained why. Then a midwife examined how much easier it is to bf than pump. Hopefully this will sway the OP in her decision.

If you want to do this you will need to begin double pumping now to stimulate the breasts. Is there a reason you can’t put the db to the breast at the beginning? It’s the easiest way to stimulate production - you can then double pump much more easily afterwards.

I did for 13 months it was very hard work. I would describe it as like feeding 2 babies, the baby and the pump! Also you end up with all the hard work from bottle feeding but without the convenience!

I had tried and tried to breastfeed and due to reflux, latch and other problems I ended up exclusively expressing. Saying all that though I'd absolutely do it again because giving my kids breastmilk was important to me. I borrows a pump to begin with from our community midwife then bought the Medela Freestyle.

I breastfed my next child with no top ups and it was a breeze! So easy compared to pumping.

There's loads of fab resources online, especially USA websites and groups because they tend to go back to work quicker so mums often go down the pumping route.

Good luck

My baby was born at 35 weeks, and while healthy was too sleepy to latch, so after lots of unsuccessful latching attempts in the hospital and giving her bottles of formula to help with her jaundice I started to pump when we left the hospital 4 days later.
I use momcozy wearable pumps and find them easy to use. I had to pump a lot at the beginning and had to supplement a bit with formula but now I have a small oversupply where I get 1 extra feed per day that I freeze. I think hospital grade pumps are recommended but I've never used one and my baby is now 14 weeks old and I have a very good supply.
I know people say it's the worst way to feed as it's the most work but I love knowing how much she is eating and being able to share feeds with my partner.
If I was to have another baby I'd attempt latching and take my own wearable pump with everything I need to clean and steralise it.

I exclusively pumped for 3 months. I hated it, to be honest. Such a rigmarole. I was desperate to try and get my dc just feeding. We were in Nicu and then special care due to complex health issues. Everyone said I was not going to get him breastfeeding. It was too long, he wouldn't know how to suck etc. But he did it. With work!!

So you can change your mind and transition if pumping is just too hard.

I hated pumping, it took so much more time than just feeding him, I just produced so little in comparison to what he took. I was stunned when he fed as it took about a quarter of the time!

That is just what happened for me. You do what feels right for you x

If you want baby to have some breast milk but share the feeds it's easier for you to breastfeed and have your partner use formula than to pump, combi feeding is much easier than HCP would have you believe.

Midwife again . Out of professional curiosity.... has anyone mixed fed and then exclusively breastfed another child or in the opposite order? How would you compare your experiences?

I have no strong opinions re fully pumping as i refused to pump at all as i found it too hard 🙈 go for it though if thats your preferred option, you've had some good advice here. Just wanting to throw it out there as no one really spoke about it being an option for me until i was doing it - if you're wanting it to be shared between you and partner could you combi feed with formula? I bf my daughter half the time and bottle fed the other half, she didn't get bottle preference as we kept teat size small and it meant I was a bit freer than ebf.

I combi fed my first and have ebf my second. Second was just easier to feed so the whole experience was easier and better and adding bottles would have been more faff than bfing. My first was hard to feed, took a long time and so I felt trapped so adding bottles was better for us.

I pumped when my youngest was born at 31 weeks. She was in NICU for almost a month. I originally used a shop bought pump but it was useless so the hospital lent me one of their electric ones and that was amazing! I had some little bags which I filled and froze for them to put in her feeding tube. Eventually I put it into a bottle and fed her that way. I did try to bf her but she'd fall asleep and not take in enough, so she was put on a prem milk and we bottle fed her.
Pumping takes up a lot of time. If you either bf or bottle feed you can just feed them and then they have a nap, but if you are pumping as well you might not get much time to rest.
I bf both my older two children for over 6 months and although I did get frustrated at being so tied to them all the time (that's more a me thing) it was far easier to do than bottle feed.
This is just my experience of it, and you need to do what feels best for you💐

I wouldn’t recommend this as a choice. I had one who physically couldn’t breastfeed so I pumped. Had to use a hospital grade double pump (hospital gave them for cheap hire due to babies medical condition) and it was such a chore. Took up much more time than breastfeeding all my others. Was absolute pants and I wouldn’t actively choose it.

Thank you for sharing. I exclusively breastfed both. The first one was always on my breast. I also got him into a habit of falling asleep on the breast which was hard to get out of. Basically I knew nothing about breastfeeding at that point. With the 2nd I introduced a dummy and one bottle of pumped breast milk in a day at 3 weeks. That was the only way I could manage with a toddler in tow. I never let the 2nd to fall asleep on the breast. He slept 5-6 hours at night in the cot at 2 months despite being a more difficult baby to start with. Feeding wise - 15 minutes at the breast and job done. After 2 months my 2nd experience seemed to be so much easier than my friends' experiences. No need to take flasks of hot water and formula when going out. No need to sterilise the bottles. The first 2 months were very hard though. I didn't sleep for the first 3 nights until my milk came in. Babies need to feed a lot in the night in the first few weeks to stimulate good milk supply. I didn't know about it with my first and the night feeds stressed me out as I wasn't mentally prepared. I would say my 2nd experience was much better overall.

I've fed both of mine to sleep and found the first absolutely awful (awake every 45 mins and needing me to resettle) and the second fine, wakes maybe once or twice and can sometimes settle herself. I think there's a lot to be said for baby personality. Also I think not much said re the sanity of the feeding parent, I just couldn't have done ebf with my first, I was so low until we went half and half. Second however seemed to just slot right in. So funny how it all works out differently for everyone

I’m saying this because I desperately wish someone had said it to me: combi feeding is the answer. Do it from day one. Ignore what anyone says. If you find breastfeeding is still overwhelming you can switch to formula-only, but combi feeding allows you to share the load and means your baby still gets the benefits of breastmilk (and you get the hormonal benefits of breastfeeding). I tried to exclusively breastfeed after a traumatic section during which I haemmoraged and nearly died – I was so exhausted I ended up with severe PND and gave up BFing altogether which made my PND even worse. I so so wish I had tried combi feeding from the start.

Thankyou for this, it sounds like you had a really tough time there so I appreciate you sharing it with me, I definitely think this is what I will do x

I plan on doing exactly this @missmc12xo. I am currently 37+5 weeks (with my second) and have my electric breast pump and bottles packed in my hospital bag ready to go. Wish I had done this with my first as after expressing slight interest in breast feeding the midwives on the post natal ward became very intense and ‘handsy’. To the point one midwife was hand stripping colostrum from me at 3am just 6 hours after birth whilst he was on NICU. We struggled to breastfeed so I ended up feeding the ready made formula I had brought with me in my hospital bag just to stave off jaundice and a longer stay in prison hospital. Thank goodness my older sister told me to bring some just in case. I felt much more relaxed once we were discharged home at 2 days old so I was able to express breast milk until he was a week old then switched to formula.
Like other posters I found expressing extremely time consuming (hence doing it for one week) but if I can do longer this time then I will but one week is my target. As a farmers daughter and wife I know how important it is for newborns.
I still think of the naïve, slightly traumatised from an induced birth, first time mum I was being hand milked by a total stranger (after she ignored my ‘no’ when she asked my consent) all because I said I was interested in exploring breast feeding. I’m better informed this time and feel confident in my decisions and have a voice.