Expressing - 1 bottle a night/day

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Hi everyone

I have a newborn. Shes 1 week old just wondering if i express and give 1 bottle at night maybe 2 times a week or maybe even just once a week, will it interfere with breastfeeding? Just struggling with postpartum migraines atm and could do with husband doing a feed sometimes, thanks x

Nope you'll be fine. I did this so DH could cover early morning shift. It might be hard to get a full feed in one day... but however much you get the pumping will also increase supply

Nope it shouldn’t. It’s better to introduce a bottle sooner rather than later. Expressing is not always easy though.

Ah great! Thank you for the replies xx

I planned to do this. I could never pump enough though so we just went with a bottle of formula every day. Worked really well as I got the convenience and health benefits etc of breastfeeding, but meant baby would also take a bottle if I ever needed to leave her, and also I could get a block of sleep on an evening as DH would feed her around 10/11pm

Usual advice is to wait until bf is well established before starting to express or introducing bottles - ie you've both got the hang of it, and your supply has settled down - usually around 6-8weeks. But some mums successfully express and bottle feed alongside bf from birth - up to you!

Another thing to bear in mind is that night breastfeeds are best for stimulating and maintaining your milk supply, which is particularly important in the early weeks - so ideally, you'd be expressing at the same time the bottle of expressed milk is given! But then that defeats the object of getting more sleep, of course!

Congratulations on your baby!