Breastfeeding - late to the game.

[Olivia199]

Hello!
So I wondered if anyone had started breast feeding a little later and how to go about making it work.
My girl is 5 days old and was born via C-Section. The day she was born I was able to hand express a fair amount of colostrum and she latched well.
The first night/second day however I stopped getting anything! Didn't matter what we tried at the hospital, I couldn't get a single drop. So little miss had some formula as a necessity..
I kept going try to feed but she wasn't interested at all. I got a breast pump from the midwives and used that to feed her expressed milk. This is where I made an error - I stopped putting her to breast at all and just pumped a few times.
We have since, however, discovered the MIRACLE that is nipple shields.
She is a lazy baby and now that milk has come in and is easier to get and I have the shield helping her latch, she's finally feeding from me.
However this only started late yesterday and overnight noticed that she couldn't get enough to be satisfied at all. We have had an unsettled night which resulted in expressed and formula top ups and now I'm just wondering the best way to help up things.
I'll be putting her to boob at every opportunity to try and build supply but does anyone have any advice as to how long it may take us, whether formula top ups are a help or a hinder, what to expect type thing!!

Thank you!

Skin to skin will help. When I gave formula early on (for the sake of my bleeding nipples) I’d pump every time I gave a formula feed and I’d try to pump as much as I was giving in a bottle so my body knew how much to produce. Also, eat flapjacks and porridge, a neonatal consultant friend tells me oats are good for milk supply and she recommends it to mums of premmies. Good luck!

Please call a breastfeeding helpline for real life support. Yes it is totally possible at this very early stage to become fully breastfeeding. Lots of skin to skin contact. Feed 8-12 times in 24 hours.

Have a Google of feeding a newborn la leche league and also restarting breastfeeding

Congratulations on your new baby 🥳 As PPs have said deffo call LLL to ask about if and when to formula top up. Nipple shields are gods work, I think mine would have fallen off without them.

Ignore this but if you already know but incase you don’t: Your baby isn’t ‘lazy’, milk - whether formula or breast - comes out of the bottle a lot easier than at the breast so they don’t need to put as much effort in, formula also remains in the stomach longer because it’s harder to digest.

I definitely found my baby to be more ‘unsettled’ when BFing but that is something to think of when deciding which you want to do. You could also combi feed too if you want beat of both worlds.