Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Parenting

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

No milk for breastfeeding

32 replies

haidri · 08/02/2022 02:55

Hi lovelies, my first born is just five days old.

I had a quite a traumatic birth which included a blood transfusion due to heavy blood loss & plenty of IV through labour too.

When I gave birth, I was unconscious for around 9-10hrs & therefore my partner had to bottle feed her first thing as I had no colostrum [apparently it’s due to how bad the birth is???]

I’ve now experienced severe engorgement yet my milk just won’t come through despite me doing the compresses, showering & even pumping 🤦🏻‍♀️

Any advice for a FTM? 😭

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Fupoffyagrasshole · 08/02/2022 03:16

Are you putt By the baby on your breasts and attempting to feed ???

Lots of skin to skin with your baby too

Sorry you’ve had such a traumatic time

TwoAndCooPlease · 08/02/2022 03:20

I agree with pp - putting baby on breast will stimulate milk flow
Hot water bottle/ persistent warm flannel with a gentle massage and baby oil

Poppins2016 · 08/02/2022 03:33

Please can I check, when you say the milk won't come through, what exactly is happening? E.g. do you get any milk at all when you hand express or pump? Or does the engorgement go down and your breast(s) start to soften when you feed your baby?

The engorgement means your breasts are producing milk which is a good sign. However, you'll want/need to work on relieving that engorgement for your comfort, to avoid mastitis, and to stimulate milk production (supply is all about demand... you won't produce milk unless it's removed). You could try massage along with the hot compresses just before a feed or pumping session (and if you notice any lumpy areas, focus on them and massage towards your nipple so that you relieve the blocked ducts).

Don't worry too much about what you produce when pumping or hand expressing... babies are much more efficient than a breast pump. The key thing is to put your baby to your breast as often as you can - I'd recommend lots of skin to skin and opportunity to feed. You can judge the input by the output (i.e. wet nappies).

Have you had any advice from the midwife about pumping/feeding? A common technique to boost supply is to feed your baby and then pump immediately afterwards. This works well (even if you don't produce loads of milk when pumping, it helps to stimulate milk production), however it is labour intensive at this newborn stage and you'll want to balance doing that with sleeping and eating enough, so it's worth asking someone else to sterilise/prepare your equipment while you rest/eat, etc. Your job should ideally be to rest (when you can) recover and feed your baby at the moment.

Are you still using formula? There's no issue with that in itself, but it's worth saying that giving formula can cause supply issues, because every bottle you give equates to a feed that you haven't stimulated your breasts to make (so it can become a vicious circle of worrying your baby isn't getting enough breast milk, giving formula to compensate, then your supply diminishing because baby isn't stimulating your breasts to make more milk).

It's early days and breastfeeding takes a while to establish. Go easy on yourself (especially while your hormones are raging!) and remember that you're doing a great job (especially following such a traumatic birth experience). Flowers

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

PineappleVision · 08/02/2022 04:04

If you decide to bottle feed instead, then that is ok. Formula is life saving wonderful stuff.
I had a traumatic birth with DS1 and we both struggled massively in the first few weeks with me trying so hard to breast feed unsuccessfully. He lost too much weight. I felt like a failure and nobody slept. I was losing my mind. When I began bottle feeding I felt terrible thinking I was giving him something awful. But everything got better. We all slept, he put on weight, my body began to recover, I got my sanity back a bit. I realised formula was wonderful stuff. It is ok to bottle feed and I needed someone to tell me it was ok.

alfreddo87 · 08/02/2022 04:06

Have you put baby on to the breast OP? Pumping and compressing won't always make milk come out, put baby skin to skin close to the nipple then let them find their own way and suckling should happen naturally.

Speak with your midwife first thing in the morning for help and support. You are doing great after a traumatic birth.

BabyQuestions · 08/02/2022 04:22

This might sound bonkers, but two things that helped me when painfully engorged with nowt coming out (on day 3) were:

  1. Visualising a fountain while feeding
  2. Gently massaging acupuncture point Ren 17 which is in the centre of the chest (between the nipples on a man.)
Also eating loads, sleeping whenever possible, taking breastfeeding vitamins, warmth and relaxation. Trying to express didn't help me, literally like getting blood out of a stone! I always felt my milk was scarce and baby wasn't getting enough, latched on for hours, but baby didn't lose weight after birth and went from 50th to 90+ centile without a single bottle in the first 6 months so there must have been enough. If I could look back I'd tell myself trust, relax and pamper yourself. Good luck.
haidri · 08/02/2022 04:45

@Poppins2016 it's rock hard solid. But when I'm massaging it, it's as if the milk can't go anywhere so it's built up solid towards the nipple but there's not a drop of milk coming out.

Upon pumping, it's relieving the pain and the nipple is stretching and poking out yet there's no actual milk being released?

I was referred to the infant feeding team who came over today & they've advised to pump every two hours to stimulate the nipple in hopes for even a drop

But I don't understand... if I'm so painfully engorged with milk and I'm massaging/warm compresses/pumping.. why is the milk still solid and not being released from the nipple?

OP posts:
haidri · 08/02/2022 04:47

@alfreddo87 @TwoAndCooPlease @Fupoffyagrasshole yup I've been putting her on the breast and she's giving all the right cues in terms of latching.. but I feel so bad because

  1. she's sucking on brick hard breasts here 🤦🏻‍♀️
  2. nothings coming out
OP posts:
Chanel05 · 08/02/2022 05:32

Congratulations on the birth of your baby!

Can you get help from any breastfeeding support agencies in your area.

I had a very similar experience - huge blood loss and transfusion - and I too had no milk come in. Ever. I did everything I was meant to, day and night but it made no difference. I saw a doctor who said that the trauma was blocking that from happening when the focus was on healing my own body and I was never getting milk. Hard words but I ploughed on for weeks and nothing came of it. I grieved the fact I couldn't bf for a good 10 months.

JustWonderingIfYou · 08/02/2022 06:19

It's a hormonal response so lots of skin to skin and time with baby. If she's comfort suckling then that's great and will help, keep going.

Its very early days, day 5 is not that late for milk to come in especially after traumatic birth. Just keep at it and try to rest as much as possible.

haidri · 08/02/2022 11:15

@Chanel05 did you eventually get to breastfeed after healing?

OP posts:
Seeline · 08/02/2022 11:22

I never had any luck with expressing. DS was in NICU being tube fed and they said I could express for them to use breast milk. Never got any. I had a low supply due to bad pregnancy and traumatic birth, but after DS came of the tube I was able to bf with formula top ups. Mix fed for 6 months. Keep trying latching baby on.

minipie · 08/02/2022 11:38

It sounds like you might have blockages in the area behind the nipple? Can you get into a hot bath, submerge your boobs for a while and then massage as hard as you can (if there is a blockage this may hurt but keep going if you can)? See if you can get anything out or at least soften the boobs.

Yes baby sucking is best thing to get milk flowing but it can be very hard for newborns to latch onto rock hard boobs so the more you can do to soften them first, the better.

Good luck and as pp have said, the main thing is you getting better.

Chanel05 · 08/02/2022 11:43

[quote haidri]@Chanel05 did you eventually get to breastfeed after healing?[/quote]
No. I was told that my trauma prevented my milk from ever coming in.

My body turned its attention to healing me, not providing milk.

Caspianberg · 08/02/2022 15:26

Pumping produced nothing for me. But I still breastfed Ds for 18 months, exclusively got the first 6 months and he grow well, so was obviously getting milk.

I had a normal birth, I don’t think milk came in until day 3/4

haidri · 08/02/2022 22:39

Thank you for giving me the light of hope. I can see a little light at the end of what feels like an endless tunnel

OP posts:
PartyPlan · 08/02/2022 22:44

Good luck OP! You need as much skin to skin with baby as possible. Lie with them on you suckling all day, all the skin to skin should help you.

alfreddo87 · 08/02/2022 23:04

How did you get on OP?

haidri · 09/02/2022 01:53

The update is that it's day three of engorgement despite me pumping every 2-3hrs with not a drop coming out.

I feel so bad, baby really wants the milk but because it was so hard she couldn't even stay on long 🧐

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 09/02/2022 02:10

You need to stop pumping.

Your actual nipples need to be directly stimulated by your baby's tongue for this to work.

Get really hot washcloths and spread them over your breasts (not the nipples). Then grip your areola toward the back (where it meets the skin of the breast) with your hand making a C shape, thumb forming the upper curve of the C and fingers forming the lower curve. Squeeze hard and push your nipple and as much areola as possible into your baby's mouth. Once engaged, gently blow on your baby's face to stimulate sucking.

haidri · 09/02/2022 19:18

Hallelujah! Colostrum came through but may take time as I've got a little engorgement still left that's preventing baby from latching on comfortably. Midwife recommended nipple shields

OP posts:
PartyPlan · 09/02/2022 20:33

That’s great news! Hopefully the nipple shields help baby latch, I would still keep trying directly on the nipple too.

Kinex · 09/02/2022 20:42

Glad to hear some is coming through. Mine were really swollen to the point that my nipples were actually flat!! If you are having the swollen to point of flat nipples problem I would recommend medela nipple shields as have a teat which helped baby get my milk. In general though you are doing all the right things and staying in touch with feeding team so I hope the breastfeeding gets better for you soon. I fed baby formula while my milk came in to keep her hydrated, and once my milk came in and I was producing enough my breasts went much less swollen and it was all great from there! I am sure it will be the same for you.

Kinex · 09/02/2022 20:45

If you're not producing milk yet, you can feed baby colostrum with a little feeding syringe. Nipple shields are great and once your milk comes in nipples will be normal I promise!

Tina8800 · 09/02/2022 22:48

Do not stop pumping! If you are going to use nipple shields, pump after every feeding for least 20 minutes. I made a mistake to stop (my midwife told me to) and my milk stopped. Took me 3 days and loads of expressing to get it back.