does c-section interfere with breast feeding?

[madmouse]

Hello

I have been advised by my (anti c-section) consultant that I should seriously consider c-sections for future pregnancy, as there are possibly some risk factors that have caused ds' brain injury and neonatal seizures.

Despite the ICU/SCBU start ds and I are an ace breast feeding team (7lb4 to 12lb in 12 weeks) and I am glad that I can give him the very best start in life at least in this respect.

There are a lot of reasons (obviously) why I prefer to avoid sections but I keep on hearing that sections interfere with breast feeding. Is this true and what causes it?

Thank you!

I fed ds1 for over 3 years following an emergency section and ds2 is 14 weeks and has been b/fed since my elective.

I think this is pretty rare but some cs babies because they are not squashed like a vaginal deliver can be very full of mucus (as my ds was) and so they don't want to feed. I think it would be the same for bottles as bf but with a bottle you can see if they are taking anything. Anyway with my DS he was tube fed and cup fed formula until the mucus cleared out (2 or 3 days) and then he BF pretty well. So I would say if the baby doesn't seem to be feeding after a cs flag it up with the mw's just to make sure it isn't a mucus problem.

I could BF after my elective CSs.

I bf after my em cs. Milk took 5 days to come in but dd was fine on the colostrum till then. She's still going at nearly 6 mo.

2 emergency c sections and breast fed both times..think it took 2-3 days for milk to come in.

With ds2 during the first night i did end up giving him 1 oz of formula as despite me putting him too boob lots he just seemed hungry and was trying to feed then crying as though not enough there. Once the milk proper came in i never had this problem and it didnt affect his feeding at all.

Ds1 was a sleepy baby and i had to wake him to feed, i did this every 3 hours and im sure it helped, also had to express as he wasnt putting on weight and paed wanted me to give formula...midwife was fab and set me up expressing so at least we knew what amount ds1 had taken..also im sure the expessing helped establish milk supply.

Hedgepig- you are so right, I forgot about that. Mine were both a bit 'rattly'. DD I had absolutely no problems with, but the lady next to me who was ff had terrible problems, and it took her dc ages to have a good poo, which is a sign that the mucus is clearing.

ps...never had any trouble with scar pain during feeding...just used a pillow on lap.

With ds2 in hospital the plastic cot they put them in had a lowere side on one side so i could lift him out myself without having to ring the midwife. Ask on the ward if they have one of these if you dont get given one.

yes hedgepig my DS was full of mucus. It took a couple of days for it all to come up poor thing.

On a more positive note the 3 mums i know who had planned c-sections had no problems bf. I am having a planned cs this time .

Glad to hear so many stories of successful bfing after c-section, but for balance must add that I had a lot of problems after my crash cs. These may or may not have been due to cs: it's so hard to tell. DD did not grow; there were obviously problems with supply, and I had to supplement with formula very much against my wishes. However did carry on bfing for 10 months.

It may have been retained placenta that caused the problem: I bled for a long time after the birth and then there were "bits" that came out of me (sorry TMI) and if any placenta remains, the body may think you're still pg and not produce much milk. This is all guesswork tho and prob quite rare, so don't let this put you off either having a cs if you need one, or bfing afterwards.

I think a traumatic birth experience is more detrimental to breastfeeding, whichever way the baby came out. When you just want the HPs to leave you alone, asking for breastfeeding help isn't very appealing.

Re the mucous, a MW noticed it with my DD and stuck a pipe down her throat to pump it out! Sounds shocking but it worked a treat, before that the milk had just been sitting on the mucous and getting posseted back up. Not sure how standard a practice it is though.

buckets I wish they had done that with my ds, because he was so mucusy he didn't pass his meconeum for over 72hr and so alarm bells stared going with the pedeatricans (sp); did he have bowel problems, meningitis, cystic fybrosis !! loads of horrid tests and he was fine they just put it down to the cs in the end. But looking at all these posts it looks like 90% had no probs with bfeeding which is brill.

Agree with some of the earlier posts. For us, I think it was the long labour pre-c section that made it difficult, I was so shattered and baby was jaundiced and very sleepy. Difficult to start with but Successfully BF for 9 months.

Had another emergency c sec for second baby but after a relatively 'easy' labour (well compared to my first one which was hell) and baby at boob in recovery room and feeding like a little monster every hour for first two days. But as the labour was easier and baby was alert, I found it much easier to get on with it.

The scar does hurt but I BF lying on my side, or in the 'rugby ball' position.

Re scar pain, trapped wind is very common after abdominal surgery so combine that with the uterine contractions when breastfeeding on the first day, yes it can be quite achey around there. Always pack peppermint teabags in your hospital bags to help eliminate one kind of pain (because you never know if you'll end up with CS).

yes,mw gave me warm peppermint cordial with paracetamol in it, worked a treat!

I had an elective CS and had no probs with BF - the midwife helped to get DS latched on while the surgeon was still stitching me up and DS has been hoovering away good style ever since.

I had an emergency section with dd2 - and bf for over a year.

I was determined to be more successful that I was with dd1 - helpful that dd2 was always hungry whereas dd1 could never be bothered - part of the problem!

My emergency C section was less traumatic than my vaginal delivery, I was in less pain, found it easier to sit up and move about and found bf'ing easier. It was my second baby though, which helped. And not being exhausted by the delivery/heavy blood loss helped a lot.