Waters gone early...no breast milk yet?

[Boomerwang]

I'm going to have my baby in the next day or two as my waters have broken, but I'm worried about how I'm going to feed him or her as I haven't started producing anything from my breasts yet.

I'm 35+6. When is it supposed to start? Will it happen after the baby is born? Has anyone ever had a baby and milk wasn't produced in time?

I really don't want to formula feed if I can avoid it.

How exciting! You will produce colostrum to begin with then milk after a few days. I didn't leak at all pre birth but fed both to toddlers. Good luck for labour :)

I am sure somebody expert will come along but I think that it is quite normal not to produce breast milk until the baby comes along. I didn't with either of my two and had no trouble feeding them. Your body is clearly gearing up to giving birth so there is no reason to assume that you won't produce milk when you need it.

Besides, although you can bf from the birth, as I understand for most people your breastmilk production doesn't go into full swing until a day or two after the birth.

Best of luck with the birth and your new baby.

Loss of placenta and suckling from bubba will trigger colostrum production. Just make sure you get lots of skin to skin time once baby's arrived.

It's a wonderful time! Congratulations! xxx

Your breastmilk doesn't turn up until a few days after birth, so don't worry. Your breasts will firstly make colostrum in tiny amounts. It's a sticky clear substance that is so amazing your baby needs just a teaspoon worth to keep going until your breastmilk turns up. Even then, your baby only needs a few ml of breastmilk each feed.

There is great advice and lots of scientifically-backed up stuff over on kelly mom. If you have a bit of time between now and baby turning up, it's worth you and your OH reading around a bit as experience has shown that HVs and MWs often give very bad advice about breastfeeding so it pays to be prepared.

I hope you have a great birth and we'll see you the other side. There is lots of support for bfing on this forum (the poster tiktok is great) - it doesn't come naturally to everyone and some women need quite a bit of support to figure it all out, so don't worry about that. We're here for you.

Even then, your baby only needs a few ml of breastmilk each feed. Should have added - only needs a few millimetres "for the first few days" , obviously babies grow fairly quickly and their need for more milk increases so the amount of milk your breasts make will increase too.

What the others have said.

Good luck boomerwang, we're all rooting for you on the April thread!

Thank you very much for putting my mind at rest. I've always thought my nips were just odd. Until I got pregnant they never even stuck out .

At least all the itching has stopped, although there's been no tenderness or swelling for weeks, that's why I was worrying.

All the best for your birth, boomerwang! I hope you have as lovely and perfect a labour as possible. I didn't get any milk in at all until after the birth, I did need a quick formula top up the first night as DD was a relatively big baby and screaming the mat ward down all night so I think they were very keen to get her to be quiet and let everyone get some rest . In retrospect she would probably have been fine without it but I did feel very embarrassed after hours of it when all the other babies were quiet, not to mention exhausted and wanting some sleep myself! That said it was just a couple of mls and lo and behold my milk was fine the next morning and I bf successfully for 6 months until I went back to work with no further formula at all. Looking forward to hearing of your LO's arrival!

I had nothing for the first 4 days or so. Formula it was, abd then the milk came flooding...oh boy! Exclusively breast fed for 6 months. Enough milk for DS to climb weight charts (rather fast). Don't worry about it, milk will come in, eventually!
Good luck and congratulations in advance!

I did have a csec if it matters or impacts milk let down in any way..

Can I just reiterate that it is normal to only have colostrum for the first 3-4 days. Your baby doesn't need anything but colostrum so you definitely don't need to give formula whilst waiting for your milk to come in. Just put baby to breast as often as possible and do skin-to-skin too. I have heard a lot of mums say they had to give formula whilst waiting for their milk to come in, it's unecessary and can put the establishment of breastfeeding at risk.

Wonder how op is doing