Going home from hospital still no milk - will it ever come?

[AliasGrape]

Had my baby girl Thursday evening, was EMCS in the end. Still in hospital but thinking I’ll be discharged this evening. My milk hasn’t come in, tried hand expressing colostrum- I can’t do it at all and when midwives have tried it’s only produced a few beads. I’m trying pumping on hospital machine at moment and still putting baby to breast/ for skin to skin etc, but have had to accept some formula to keep baby going in meantime (paediatrician insisted on cup feeding at first due to infection in me and risk in baby so he didn’t want her getting dehydrated- now not allowed to go home cup feeding so have agreed to bottles whilst I keep working really hard to establish a supply). I’ve ordered a pump for home use and I’m going to keep trying the hand expressing. I’ll keep offering her the breast -she’s sometimes interested in sniffing and licking but she doesn’t really latch and increasingly just gets upset. She does have a bit of jaundice but below threshold for treatment.

What do I do now? Is it hopeless? I feel she’s already missed so much. Has anyone had this happen and still manage to establish supply? Is there anywhere I can get help? I’d love to get some 1-1 support at home but can that still happen in Covid times?

Congrats on your DD!

It took 5 days for my milk to come in after an ELCS and like you I was producing colostrum one bead at a time.

Hospital pump just about produced tiny amounts, home pump was utterly useless, so don't be put off if it doesn't work. Just give your DD as much opportunity to feed as she wants (and think about mixed feeding if you have worries about her not getting enough in the mean time - DS was tube fed while we were in hospital while I pumped like crazy to get my milk going).

Are the hospital monitoring DD's weight? They shouldn't let her weight fall by more than 10% (less if she was low birth weight to start with), specially if there are signs of jaundice.

Thank you all. I was discharged last night we got home about 11.30.

Similar to Shelby - had a propess induction Tuesday am, contractions started fairly soon after in my back and right between legs, waters went that night, contractions on and off all Wed, admitted in ‘active labour’ late Wed night but eventually discovered baby’s head in wrong funny position, she was back to back, stuck in cervical lip, I got an infection, failed epidural - the works basically and eventually a section due to failure to progress, her position meaning she was stuck, my infection markers worsening and her distress. I went into a bit of shock after. Don’t think blood loss was too dramatic but enough to need iron tablets still.

So I guess it’s not hugely surprising it’s taking me a bit longer. We just went with the formula through the night last night - ready made bottles from the hospital, and I didn’t try expressing or pumping or anything every time - still lots of skin to skin. The relief was huge just to feed her and rest a bit in between instead of having to do all the other steps. I’ll get back to it today when the pump I’ve ordered comes - or I’ll read the links here and see if I can track down any in person support and maybe there will be a better way.

So reassuring to know others have had it and milk can still come a bit later.

I feel like a lot of the advice assumes you are still able to give your baby something from the breast even if the proper supply isn’t there. The other women on the ward getting help with feeding were still breastfeeding a bit or at least expressing the odd syringe of colostrum. For me there’s just nothing there. All the hand expressing or getting midwives to squeeze painfully at me was just to try and even get half a drop to encourage her to latch/ be interested and 9 times out of 10 didn’t manage so much as that. The pumping isn’t even producing a drop, but they told me it’s just to encourage my flow to start. Still soul destroying to have to do it every 3 hours after every attempted/failed feed, then failed attempt at expressing, then giving formula and settling a by now frustrated and distressed newborn and finally getting on the pump to not even end up with a wet nipple from it.

Just hoping it comes itself the next few days 🤞🏻🤞🏻

I think there are two things here, it is fine to give up and just go with formula, absolutely fine. And I’m starting with that as the next message is harder.

When you’ve had a trickier start, to build up enough milk supply you really need to be pumping/attempting a latch hourly-2 hourly and especially at night when prolactin is higher, It is really really hard, but 3 hourly is not enough to bring in your milk when your baby isn’t really latching at all. I don’t know why that advice is given. I know I did it and it was an awful 2 weeks but you need to try and emulate what your newborn would be doing if they were latching and that would be at least every 2 hours feeding for 15-20 mins. For me it was worth it as I would have been destroyed not to breastfeed, however for others they wish they had just switched to formula so they could relax and enjoy their new baby - both of these mindsets are fine. Try and work out where you are on this as it will help you to keep going, or make your peace with a good decision.

You did better than me - four different midwives failed to get any colostrum from me. It turns out that the hormonal issues I have that led to needing IVF to conceive also affect milk supply.

There is medication that can be prescribed, I believe, if you need a boost and all else fails? GP offered me some, but I was happy to formula feed.

I’m sure you will be fine though, if no underlying issues.