Formula feeding but breast feeding first feed

[JB2021]

Hope this is the right board.

I'm due my 2nd child soon (currently 36+2). With my first I breast fed for 2 weeks then switched to formula. I was/am totally OK with this decision and feel no guilt about it.

The plan was to FF child 2 but I would quite like to do that very first feed as breast feeding whilst getting some skin to skin time. Will this mess up milk supply etc?

I briefly mentioned this to the midwife today to ask her the same question and she said about breast feeding support and it might be different this time but I think lifestyle wise for my family formula is better. Although I then feel guilty a bit if I don't try for child 2 like I did child 1.

Do exactly what is right for you, and take no absolutely no prisoners on the advice front, everyone is an expert it seems😉 . If it helps DC1, 6 months (but hated it some of the time, suffered badly with mastitis and feeling low, finally got into the swing of it about 6 months in, but went back to work) DC2, 2 weeks, eventually moved to formula due to no weight gain, too many dry nappies and also DC1 was only 1 !. DC3 - 48 hours hours-ish (til home from hospital, then FF), DC4 - 8 hours (same scenario), DC5 - one, possibly two feeds on the breast to help with bonding and he was 37w so helped push placenta out (also appeared hungry 😁 and I had nothing better to be doing while lying there tbh ) Nothing really messes up with milk supply (although I never tried to stop then re-start, so I think once you are done, you are done). Only had really sore boobs after I stopped with DC2, and then only a couple of days, I actually expressed milk for a bit, but realised I would be going on for a long while with this, so just went "cold turkey" - I feel I must have done this with DC1 but I cannot remember it. The rest, no issue, everything was hurting anyway, so it was just part and parcel of it all. I think they gave my later DC Vitamin K ? in the hospital but I am now not sure of whether this was related to breastfeeding or not, I am sure someone more enlightened will help. I can't remember it at the first two, but equally, it might have happened. You really do have to do what is right for you unless there are clear medical reasons why not. They are all older now, but absolutely no difference that I can discern in health or other qualities. Hope you have a peaceful birth, and congratulations xxx

I did similar with my only - not out of choice at the time, but if I was going to do it again I would choose to do the same now - it really worked. I latched her after birth and did skin to skin and I think she got some colostrum. And I carried on ‘nursing’ her for a few months though I don’t know how much if anything she was getting - it was mostly for comfort, but perhaps she got enough for some boost of breastmilk goodness. But her main nutrition was formula. I don’t suppose I was ever producing enough for it to be a problem tbh. But it worked really well and I’d try to replicate it again. She switched back and forth very happily between bottle and boob. She did take comfort from nursing at the breast that she didn’t get from the bottle that actually fed her. But that stopped naturally around 3 months.

What you did with DCs 3 4 and 5 sounds appealing! This is my ideal I think

Have you thought about BF for at least the first few days so your baby benefits from all the antibodies, allergy protection and nutrients from your colostrum?

I didn't know if the longer I breast fed would "make it worse" in terms of my body and supply continuing whereas if I just did the very first feed with skin to skin it might not tell my body anything?

Slightly different but with my second, I froze colostrum while I was pregnant and used that for the first feed for DC2 before switching straight to formula.

Ah this sounds ideal, but I'd just not freeze
Did it affect supply etc

Yes I put it in the freezer because I was doing it more than 3 days before birth.

It didn’t affect my supply but I’m probably different to you. I really struggled with supply with DC1 and hardly got anything out the second time either, not even enough for the full first feed. I needed c sections both times.

It's delivering the baby/placenta that "tells your body" to start producing milk, giving a few colostrum feeds won't make much difference (to you that is, it will make a big difference to your baby and is very much worth doing even if you don't plan to continue BF!)

Thank you! This helps a lot.

If I do a couple of feeds then stop, will my supply just dry up?!

Yep. You can literally take it one feed at a time, and if you switch to formula after the first few feeds it's unlikely to cause you any more problems than if you hadn't BF at all. Milk generally comes in whether or not you BF - in ye olde days women who weren't BFing would be given drugs to dry it up but it's now known that these drugs cause problems further down the line (linked to various cancers iirc).

Obviously the longer you BF for the greater the benefits to your baby but honestly every drop of breast milk is worth giving them, especially their very first ever feed.

I've got a couple of friends who decided to BF while in hospital and switch when home to make packing the hospital bag easier! One of them did indeed switch to FF as soon as she got home, the other ended up BFing for over a year