Breastfeeding/pumping/formula help - FTM

[Baberinos]

Hi all,

Looking for some feeding advice as we are currently doing breastfeeding, pumping and formula and it's predictably become unsustainable. The (not so) short version of our story is: baby born via EMCS, couldn't get him to feed in the first day and by day 3 he lost 12% of body weight so we had to top up with formula. I lost a lot of blood in surgery so I've been told this could have affected my milk coming in. He was then admitted to hospital with a virus in his second week and needed a feeding tube with formula. I was really keen to get back to breastfeeding which I managed to do, and HV advised to wean him off formula slowly so we did. He also had tongue tie which we got sorted after coming out of hospital.

In hospital baby had gained weight and got above birth weight, but at his 6 week check he had lost it again and was under birth weight, which ofcourse we were so upset about. HV made us make up a formula and sent us to GP, who said to breastfeed less, Pump what I can and top up with formula. We've been doing this for about a week.

Went to a lactation consultant who helped me first latch him in the early days, and we discussed saving breastfeeding for cuddle times when my son wanted it, and not to worry about expressing as this would just add stress to our lives. I'm not really ready to let go of the idea of giving him breast milk so have been pumping until I can decide but she was right, it's taking up so much time. Because I'm pumping around the clock, my husband does most of the feeds in case my son knocks the pump off, so it's unfair on him really. I'm trying to pump in between feeds but again that just means my husband has to take the baby and he should be working.

With pumping I'm only getting approx 250ml per day and it goes up and down. I'm going to try power pumping but wondering if my supply will ever increase? I'd love to reduce pumping sessions but obviously need to keep it regular to increase supply.

My son is breastfeeding for quick sessions when relaxed but it's not enough to fill him up so he's having approx 7 bottles of formula and 1 breast milk bottle in 24 hours too, and we can see he's gaining weight now which is lovely.

I'm having trouble letting go of the idea of giving him breast milk, particularly with me getting flu jabs and my last covid jab soon and wanting him to get the antibodies, but its also very emotional for me to not give him. I think I have a lot of guilt about his initial weight loss and him getting ill, and now him losing weight again.

TL;DR

• is it possible for my expressed supply to increase from just pumping? It goes up and down each day and pumping every 3 Hours.

-ive been recommended domperidone by the lady who sorted my son's tongue-tie, but not anyone else. Any experiences with this? -any advice for pumping and feeding formula time-wise? I need to do more so my husband can sleep more and work! I'm using the Elvie pump so considering getting a second one to do both boobs at once but this is so pricey!

• could I ever get back to exclusively breastfeeding? I'm thinking probably not, as I don't think my son has ever got what he needed from me. This is so naive but when I saw he should be having 750ml in 24 hrs my heart sank, it was like the realisation moment that there was no way I was giving him that when breastfeeding.

Thank you in advance for any advice, I've turned to Mumsnet many times in pregnancy and it's been so reassuring!

I’m not sure why the GP advised you to breastfeed less. Pumping in between breastfeeds would increase your supply, but I’m not sure that just pumping alone would increase it.

The hormones of feeding your baby make you produce a lot more milk than if you pumped instead. A lot more.

I would breastfeed as much as you can, keep feeding formula in between and not worry about pumping too much.

As your baby starts to take more breast milk, your supply will increase.

Sounds tough!

One suggestion from me is to use a silicon breast pump, which catches the let down, while breastfeeding. This way you get the cuddles needed to potentially help you make milk, while also doing some pumping. Lots of women don’t do well with normal pumping, because their body responds better to the baby and not a machine.

Sorry, just to add to the above, if he does go a long time between breastfeeds it might be worth pumping to maintain your supply. But if he can breastfeed a bit then I would say the best way of increasing your supply is to have him breastfeed as much as possible.

Thank you @GemmaRuby, I completely agree and was really frustrated the GP advised this. Most health professionals have gone straight to formula and not helped me sort out breastfeeding.

I think the issue now is that baby isn't breastfeeding often enough so I don't think my supply would increase. I offer the breast before every bottle but he often rejects it and we have to give him the calories with formula :( there was no choice here - we were told a baby's weight should never go backwards (which I completely understand!)

It’s really difficult isn’t it.
I did combination feeding. My DS would get frustrated breastfeeding because it wasn’t as fast as the bottle. Sometimes I would start him on the bottle and then halfway through when he wasn’t as hungry/angry, tried to switch over to breast.

The other thing that worked for me was breastfeeding him during naps when he was asleep - the sucking reflex is stronger sometimes when they’re asleep - you can try that too.

It sounds like you’ve had a really rough time.

Ideally you need to soak to an IBCLC as they are the best qualified to support breastfeeding. If you’re lucky you’ll have an NHS one available but if not you might have to go private. GPs have very little bf training so often give advice that isn’t up to date (especially if they haven’t bf themselves)

In the mean time I think you should try to put baby to breast as often as possible as this is what will up your supply.

Have you heard of switch feeding? It’s basically where you keep swapping breasts to encourage new let downs and get as much volume as possible into baby. Don’t worry about ‘fore milk’ and ‘hind milk’ as this way of thinking is now thought to be unhelpful as ALL bm has fat in it and total volume of milk is what will support weight gain, not tiny bits of fattier milk.

You can also do breast compressions whilst feeding (or pumping) to remove more milk.

The more milk you take out of your breasts the more they’ll produce but your best bet is to speak to a specialist trained in lactation (which many/most midwives, HVs and GPs are not!)

Oh this was me with my twins.

I gave it 6 weeks and slowly weaned as I didn’t want to regret stopping feeding. Plus I was terrified and as there were two just didn’t think I could do it! It’s really scary when they lose weight.

If you don’t pump, do your breasts get sore and full? You probably have more milk than you think. Have you tried nipple shields? Do you feed through the night?

I would say putting them on as much as possible would be the way to go. Lots of skin to skin and plenty of night feeds.

I understand though, once they seem to get on the bottle their latch goes all funny. My twins used to feed on me for a minute and then scream as they were still hungry so I always gave in and made formula.