Breastfeeding after planned caesarean

[kjleddy]

I am due to have a planned casaerean a week before my due date and have been told by a (rather unpleasant) mid-wife that I won't be able to breastfeed as my body won' t have gone into labour naturally and will not know to produce milk. I am devastated as i couldn't breastfed my first baby due to an undiagnosed tongue tie. Is this true? Does anyone have any experience of this or any tips as to how I could encourage it to work for me this time?

No pumps, just baby feeding on demand...milk in day 3 or 4 baby lost less than 10% weight and fed well for one year.

As others have said that is complete rubbish!!

I had an emergency section with DD1 after 30 hrs of labour and started bf fed easily and successfully in recovery room (i.e. approx 30 mins after birth). It's all even more straight forward with an elective as you have a chance to chat everything through with the midwives before you go into theatre so you can tell the midwives that you intend to bf and make sure that they will be on hand to help you as soon as you come out of theatre and into recovery. In my experience (elective and emergency) they were super helpful and sorted out positioning etc for me as I couldn't really move and had all the drips and lines etc. My milk came in after 2 days.

I had electives at 39 weeks (no labour) with both DD2 and DS and again started bf successfully in recovery room 30 mins after birth and milk came in after 2 days (i.e. no difference at all between when milk came in after long labour or no labour). No trouble bf at all with any of them.

I would advise you to take a couple of comfortable pillows with you into hospital though (leave them in the car and get DH to bring them in after the birth for you) as when feeling a bit fragile after section it's nice to rest the baby on pillows when feeding and to have something comfortable to lean against rather than the carboard NHS pillows!!

currently typing with one hand as I feed my beautiful 6 week old elective section DD.

You need to report that awful midwife for giving out such shitty advice! Someone without MN might hear that and believe her and never try

ignore your midwife,I fed my first daughter for two years and a few months,she was a not-in-labour c-section.(I had pre-eclampsia)It was fine.The normal first baby hurdles,getting used to latching her on,(slight tongue tie)etc but by three weeks all going swimmingly.Feed as often as possible to get your supply going,you will be fine.Good luck!

three electives here, successfully bf them all. at spiteful midwife.

So glad to read all these posts. I had EMCS last time and had all sorts of feeding probs (probably not due to the section itself but various other complications). Mix-fed until 5 months but was really hoping to exclusively BF this time after ELCS - great to read all the encouraging stories.

I can only confirm what everyone else has already said - I successfully bf DS for 16 months after an emergency caesarean (I wasn't in labour) and, if anything, found it even easier than with DD1 and DD2 (not caesareans) - although that may well have been because he was my third and I was more experienced. From what I can remember, my milk came in after about two days and I had a few problems getting him to latch on then (as I did with DDs) but other than that, no problems. Don't let anyone (ignorant midwives etc.) put you off!

Another success story here. As others have said (haven't read whole thread)make sure you get babe on your chest asap. I'm convinced that the delay in my ds having skin to skin with me contributed to my problems feeding him. dd on the other hand was altogether different, we had skin to skin immediately.

Just to add to what others have said, I am yet another who is living proof that the midwife was talking nonsense.

I have had two elective C-sections at 39 weeks and breastfed them both no problems. They both latched on within an hour of birth. I experimented with all sorts of positions and they all seemed to work - lying on my side, sat upright...it wasn't uncomfortable with her lying on my tummy, they are light as a feather at first.

Best of luck.

get yourself a My Brest Friend feeding cushion - fab after a cs. GOOD LUCK and ignore that mw!

Currently feeding my 3week old who was born by elective section at 39 weeks. Fed him within 20mins of getting into the recovery room and he took to it like a pro. Much like DS2 who was also elective c-section and fed him for over 2 years, the only one I had difficulty with was DS1 who was emergency section but I blame the difficulties on DICKHEAD midwives spouting ignorant nonsense. I would say ignore her but really you should complain if your up for it - talk about setting mum's up to fail - grrr!