Breastfeeding - no milk!

[1990fran]

Hi all

Gave birth on Sunday, first baby
I tried to bf from then with the colostrum i had however had issues with it hurting despite midwife confirming a good latch, we have had to introduce formula between feeds because my nips were in so much pain to carry on, i have tried manual pump and expressing by hand but nothing is coming out, any reason for this? I read by day 3 or 4 after birth milk should be there to come out but no jot for me :( any advice? X

Babies are often a lot better at getting milk out than pumps are, which helps supply.

Has the midwife checked for causes of pain, like tongue tie?

Have you tried positions where you lie back and let baby find the breast?

It's a supply/demand situation so you'll likely make more milk once baby feeds more, but formula might interfere with appetite a bit.

I think it can take 4 or 5 days to come in so hopefully you will get some soon. Congratulations on the birth of your baby

If you search for 'laid back breastfeeding' you should see an NCT factsheet. It's pdf so I don't want to link but let me know if you can't find it.

Also recommend nipple shields to get you through the ouchiest bit until your nipples get used to it

Are you using a good nipple cream (Lansinoh saved my life, I had NO idea until I was in agony..)?

Also, drink plenty and plenty of skin to skin. As other posters have said though, this bit can feel really tough. Google cluster feeding etc.

My milk didn't come in till more like day 7/8. Probably because of losing lots of blood in labour. We gave formula to keep her fed and did lots of skin to skin and I breastfed as much as I could.. Over time (like about 2 months) we could phase the formula out. I also tried to express and never got much, but you have to keep expressing and breastfeeding as much as possible to encourage your body to make more milk.

Definitely try some nipple shields. Your pump might not be working if you don’t have the right sized parts. I exclusively pump now and had to buy smaller shield. With the standard shields I got terrible pain and not much milk. Which pump are you using?

I never got anything out with a manual pump and also way less with an electric one than normal feeding. So maybe try an electric one? Also recommend nipple shields to get over the first painful bit. It can be super painful at first and doesn’t mean you’re not doing it right unless it persists.

@springdale1 thank you im using the tomee tippie manual one it was recommended by a friend to me x

Congratulations on the birth of your little baby! I have breastfed my 4mo from birth and can remember clearly the pain and difficulty in those first few days whilst waiting for the milk to come in. As PP mentioned, Lansinoh was a huge help. Trying to breastfeed and express whenever you can will help your supply, maybe try to do it when you can relax e.g. put your fave tv show on? Maybe see if you can get some support from La Leche, I got some telephone support from our local LLL leader. Here’s the link to the page which has contact numbers for each area.

www.laleche.org.uk/call/

I don’t think they Tomee Tippee one is that great, it doesn’t come with different sizes. I have two, a spectra S1 and cosytots hands free one. They all come with 24mm shields but they were far too big for me so I have 17mm adapters for them.

Yes your pump may not have the right size flanges. I had the same issue with the bellababy but recently switched to Medela swing and it is soo much better. Google : how to correctly fit breast pump flange . You need to measure the diameter of your nipple ( not the length) have you tried massaging before you pump and warm flannel on breasts for 5 mins before you pump? I had a manual pump at the beginning and got nothing out. The pain can be really severe at the beginning, for me it eased off about 6 weeks and yes it was so bad sometimes it made me cry especially at night as you are exhausted and sensitive but once you get through the initial hard stage it's really worth it . Keep going you are doing brilliantly and it does get easier

@Keha

My milk didn't come in till more like day 7/8. Probably because of losing lots of blood in labour. We gave formula to keep her fed and did lots of skin to skin and I breastfed as much as I could.. Over time (like about 2 months) we could phase the formula out. I also tried to express and never got much, but you have to keep expressing and breastfeeding as much as possible to encourage your body to make more milk.

I was exactly the same as this, I could have written it word for word!

People used to say to me, don't give a bottle because then your baby will be confused, it'll lower your supply etc. But I'd lost so much blood and took ages to come round from my general anaesthetic c section, so her first feed was a bottle before I woke up. I kept topping up after that for the first few weeks. I also had to do a thing the first few days, like the opposite of topping up, where I gave her a sip of formula before latching on, just to take the edge off her hunger. But I gradually reduced the amount I was formula feeding, and now at 6 months she's almost exclusively breastfed. It's ok, just give her bits of formula until your supply increases. I realised quickly not to let her get hangry at my breast and hurt my nipple in starved frustration hehe, nobody deserves that!

Fwiw I found nipple creams too thick and solid, they were painful to smear on, so I just tried to protect my nipple from hangriness in the first place. I haven't used nipple cream in months now.

Ps I never express, for me it was always easier and more comfortable to latch my baby. I'll be going back to work soon so I'm going to have to learn at some point, but if you're at home with your baby then there's not really any need!

Congrats!
Keep going. Mine didn't come in for probably a week x

Despite having a very smooth time of breast feeding, trying to express just didn't work. It'd take about an hour to get 60mls! Keep doing what you're doing and you'll get there... wherever there is... formula or breastfeeding. Fed is best 👍🏻

First birth it took 5 days for my milk to come in.

Second it took 2 days. However I could never pump a drop but successfully fed for 2 years.

A double electric pump. There’s one for £30 on amazon which while not perfect is much better than the tommy tippee manual one. If it hurts then something isn’t right, keep asking the mw for further checks. It felt like I was feeding a ruddy baby crocodile with DS in the early days and it turned out to be a tongue tie - the pain disappeared completely within days of his getting it snipped.