if you plan to bottle feed when you give birth, do you have to take all the stuff in with you?

[yousaidit]

ie bttles, cartons / formula, steriliser etc, or will the hospital let you use the little bottles with teh screw on teats?

I don't want this to be a debate about what is best form of feeding, its just that this is a very real practicality and i want to be prepared..

thanks for any advice

I don't know.

But I think if you don't have anything the hospital will provide. but if you want something particular then yes bring your own formula.

I know this isn't a debate thread but can I at least ask why? You can of course ignore the question

Ring the maternity ward about this. I don't imagine they provide you with any formula.

I think they provide it all on the ward. A choice of formulas in small glass bottles and disposable sterile teats.

Slur, no, i don't mind you being nosey!

This is my secong pg (am also overdue now so v bored!!), dd didn't latch on and we tred and tried to get her to feed from me but she wouldn't even after referral to doctors, breast feeding counsellor etc (was having a daily routine of tryng to feed, not eing succesful, expressing while dd screeching for milk, then feeding the said expressed milk.. repeat as many times as feasible for each day!)

the worst bit was that in hospital i was in for 4 days purely while nurses tried to get dd to feed: however, the methods employed were hardly brain surgery: it was just a nurse hiolding my boob and trying to stick dds mouth onto my nipple: it was made clear by the nurses that i was being kept in until they got a succesful feed from dd, and even though it was very obvious after a short length f time that dd wasn't latching n by them tring to stick her mouth n my nipple, they didn't want to let me home. it was only after dh had to stand and argue with a midwife they agreed to discharge me.

I don't want to have to be kept in purely for feeding again, especially when there is more useful 'outside ' help from bf councellors, nct etc: so if the dc doesn't latch on, i want to just cover myself in case i have to say that i intend to bottle feed, even if it;'s just to get home, where i would be more than willing to spend all day trying to get dc o latch on if there are any probs.

It sounds a bit daft, i think, readung what i've typed! but i felt sh*t by the time i left hospital with dd, esp as we had to argue to have me 'allowed'home.

So really, its a back up in case bf oesn't go as planned: i want to be out of hospital to get home asap and deal with feeding issues away from hospital as i know from experience the support that they claim to offer is not (at least in our local hospital) much use at all!

Does that make sense?

Of course it makes sense! You sound like you tried very very hard in difficult circumstances. I sincerely hope it isn't an issure for you this time round

Ta Slur! Am now off to scare myself silly on the induction and sweep threads in Childbirth.

Any tips on how to shift an overdue baby welcome!

(tried hot food, fresh orange, pineapple, chillies, marital duties ) am fed up of floating round house in middle of night with heartburn and then being knackered!

Oh just sleep sleep sleep and drink hot cups of tea while you still can.

I have just found two Millies cookies in the fridge!!!!!!!! Am about to devour with a cup f hot milk and vanilla syrup!! Yum.....

Yeah, TDWP, funny how you never enjoy a hot cup of tea in daylight hours once you have dcs, isn't it....

Think it depends on the hospital, the one I worked at started off with the little bottles, then moved to having to provide your own, there was a milk kitchen with sterilisers etc. However in reality they still provide the little bottles, but they are in a locked cupboard instead (meant walking about half a mile every 15 seconds to get yet another bottle .

Wish you lots of luck with bf this time, hope your dc is a natural.

I actually worked on the ward I was on postnatally and found the bf support crap in the extreme, ds had gone around 12 hours without feeding as he was v sleepy. Got no other advice other than to give him a bottle.

Did manage to latch him on eventually, but he was a v v sleepy feeder and I just didn't know what to do got no support from family or midwives so he ended up on formula.

You seem much more clued up than me though, and I agree you are better off without the whole shoving boob into face thing.

Depends on the hospital. Our local one provides everything but if they have to close the ward due to a rush of births, the alternative doesn't provide formula or bottles.

around here they provide the sterilised bottles but you ned to tke in crtons of formula.

Thanks all!

Abstractmouse, I'm rather puffy chested and proud that you think i'm clued up!!

I'm probably being a bit more devious than anything else... I do want to bf its just i do not want to end up being 'detained' on that sh*thole of a ward to give the hospital a little tick on their bf charts...

I wouldn't mind, but tyey put on my notes that dd left after a succesful latch and feed when she did no such thing!!!!

omg, you poor thing. fwiw if you don't bf at first you can still be ok. ds was in scbu and they gave him fomula for some reason altho i wanted to express. anyway, we were reunited after four days and i fed him for over a year after that. i totally get the nipple squeezing thing, after that with dd it has been part of my birth plan to have no 'help'. this time ds 3 didn't feed for hours afterwards. good luck, you sound v sensible and at least you know what you want this time. some poor woman was in the same position as you when i had ds3 last year - nipple squeezing, breast pumps, a constant stream of midwives etc. she went home and apparently got going later - alone!

I bought some SMA Gold ready made bottles with sterilised teats from Tescos - £14 for about 12 bottles and teats I think.

Turns out the hospital had the same and provided all we needed until we left.

I was going to breast feed but when the time came it didnt happen (long story). However at the hospital they provided small bottles with teats on in a variety of brands for me to choose from.
I think each ward is different and it may be worth checking.

HTH

yousaidit Good grief, sounds like you had a hard time in hospital last time and as for nurse, shoving your breast into your baby's mouth This is unprofessional behaviour and highly likely to upset the baby.

Could you ring your local maternity ward and find out their policies on formula in the wards ? As it seems wasteful to buy and take in loads of formula stuff when you are unlikely to need it.

Has anyone directed you to the breastfeeding help lines yet ? They are here on the right hand side of the page.

All the best with the arrival of DC2

I had exactly the same experience until after 3 days they were very hectic and weren't paying attention and so I sadly lied and said the baby had fed so that I could go home. I know I needed help but I will never be comfortable with any one grabbing at any part of me particularly when the baby obviously just wasn't latching on at that point.

Our local hospital will NOT provide anything for bottle feeding, no bottles, no formula. I am hoping to breast feed, but will take in some bottles and ready made cartons of formula, just in case I have problems - don't want to have a starving, crying baby on my hands!

The angry lactivist in me (sorry - but she's lurking in there and sometimes needs to be let out for an airing) wants to tell you to write to your supervisor of midwives and say:

"I would like to know what provision you will make for supporting my baby and I should we have difficulties establishing lactation. Last time I gave birth at your hospital I had extremely poor support with breastfeeding, which I feel contributed to severely curtailing the time that I was able to continue to feed my baby once I got home. I would like to be reassured that I will have immediate access to midwife or other health professional who has appropriate training and expertise in helping women with initial breastfeeding problems, and help to express my milk if I am not able to get my baby attached immediately.

Please can you also reassure me that should I experience bf problems I will not be detained against my will as I was last time, as this was detrimental to both my comfort and my baby's'.

yours sincerely
.... etc'

Honestly. You want to breastfeed. Your baby wants to breastfeed.

Why should you have to compromise on what's best for both of you because of crappy, cruddy, insensitive care! You deserve better and so does your baby.

Sorry

just makes me very cross.

Hello YouSaidIt, your experience sounds very similar to my first baby. It was awful, DS1 would just not latch on, and I felt violated with everyone grabbing my tits. Wasn't allowed home until he had fed properly and after 5 fucking awful days I broke down and decided to bottle feed.

With Ds2 it was a completely different story as he latched on 5 mins after being born. I BF till he was a year old with no problems at all. It was great. You might be as lucky as me.

FWIW I now think hospital is the worst place to learn how to breastfeed if you are having problems. Too noisy and when you need help you cannot get any. It is all down to their timetable and not the babys.

Good luck with your birth and bf'ing!

Just wanted to add that you are always able to self discharge for a hospital at any time and without any recrimination ( you will not hold the hospital responsilbe if anything should go wrong)

IME this tend to facilitate an earlier discharge rather than the formal paperwork process if you're prepared to wait a couple of hours

IMO With a "normal" birth without complications there are very few real reasons for keeping mothers in and at great risk of infection for them and their babies, (I'm quite pro homebirth too for similar reasons )

Good luck!
Hopefully this time your baby will just come out and latch straight on - fingers crossed. Each baby is a totally different little animal (as it were!) so hopefully you get one that has read the breasfeeding manual this time.

(FWIW and this isn't going to be recommended by many midwives I shouldn't think, but my SIL struggled for about 4 days in hospital just like you did. Was desperate to BF and baby wouldn't latch on at all. She was just about to give up (tearful, demented, exhaused, disappointed etc) when one of the midwives suggested she try nipple shields as an absolute last resort. It worked! and she came home breastfeeding. It was a bit of a faff, but she perservered. She used them for a few months, no problems at all with them reducing milk supply and eventually weaned him off them at about 3 months (I think) and he would feed from her boob without them in the end. Was always a fussy feeder but at least something helped.
Anyway hopefully this will be irrelevant info for you and all will be fine this time.
Hope all goes well x

Sorry, didn't answer your question!
Phone the postnatal ward and ask, but I should think they will have a stash of formula in little glass bottles. They certainly used to where I worked.

I breastfed but if I wanted to bottle feed, I'd take into hospital the cartons (and can you use steri bottles? or whatever they are called from birth) [ignorant emoticon!]

Just to say, my 2nd baby virtually fed herself - my 1st baby took an hour to latch each time, so you might be lucky.

Yousaidit, I could have written your description of b'feeding, it was so similar to my experience when i had dd1, I went on for weeks trying to feed, expressing etc until someone noticed dd1 had a tongue tie, and that we both had thrush ( hence excrutiating pain!).

The ward I was on provided everything to bottlefeed.

I discharged myself after 3 days, because it was such a crappy ward, and any bfeeding help I was getting consisted of the 'shove a boob in the babies mouth' technique.

Can you find out if there is a bfeeding clinic/cafe near you?

Also I would get in touch with the ward, and see if you can find a sympathetic midwife who you can talk to about your experience, I did and because she happened to be on duty when I went into labour, my stay with dd2 was a lot better.

Good luck