Breastfeeding- exclusive pumping

[ChicaMomma]

Hi mums

Interested to know if any of you have exclusively pumped from the start, and if you have feedback.

My friend said she did it and while it was more work (ie you still have to steralise bottles and what not!), it worked for her, she never had pain, mastitis or nipple cracking.

i have v v v VERY sensitive nipples so seriously considering this- for 12 weeks anyway- i'd rather it be more work than have myself fail miserably at 2 weeks due to pain/mastitis and cracked nipples by nursing the normal way..

It should make no difference at all. Babies don't feed from nipples or areola - nipples are where the milk comes out, but babies don't attach to your nipple. Areola is just pigmentation (or not). Baby needs a big mouthful of breast.

If you get out of the mindset of nipple feeding, you're half way to a good latch. Baby beastly makes contact with the nipple at all.

I agree with Danny - the areola is used as a visual guide sometimes, but shouldn't make any difference to feeding.

There are some great videos by Dr Jack Newman on YouTube (not sure if I suggested this already). Seeing babies latch is good.

It's natural to fret that your body somehow isn't suited to breastfeeding - it's a cultural thing that leads us to compare ourselves with "normal" and then to worry that were not up to the job.

The fact is that women's bodies come in all shapes and sizes and almost all women can breastfeed. Seeking out support is essential though. Many women blame themselves when feeding doesn't go well, but so often problems with the baby go undiagnosed (tongue and lip ties are so common, but can really make feeding difficult and painful). It's essential to keep getting help and support with latch and positioning. If you're told your latch is good, but you're not feeling improvement, seek second and third opinions and demand that someone checks for tongue tie (posterior tongue tie is harder to spot than an obvious tie).

Watch videos demonstrating the perfect latch. Share them with your partner - he's the best person to help and observe at home when you can't get to a group.

Believe in yourself and your body and your baby.

And if you find that it isn't what you were expecting, you don't enjoy it or it really isn't working for you, trust yourself to make the right decisions for you and your family - pumping or formula are valid ways of feeding a baby.

I exclusively pumped for my little boy until he was 5 months old. It was hard work to have his feeding routine plus a pumping routine but I felt it was worth it and of course my partner was able to share the load with feeding, which he couldn't have done had I breastfed. I didn't find the sterilizing etc to be any bother, I used a Milton cold water sterilizer. We even went away wild camping in our campervan for 3 weeks to the Outer Hebrides when he was 3 months old.

I started pumping when he was in special care as a newborn and was lucky in that I seemed to have loads of milk so built up a stockpile for the freezer from birth. I always managed to keep a good supply up but different pumps worked better on different days for some reason. In hospital, I used a Medela hospital grade pump, then bought a Medela Swing and a Phillips hand pump when I got home. I used to get about 80-100ml ok milk from 20 minutes of pumping. Routine was feed baby approx every 3 hours and pump approx 1.5 hours after feeding (so also every 3 hours). Can't quite work out how, but yes we did get to leave the house and meet friends, go for walks etc!

Hope this helps, let me know if you need any more info

Ros.

Hi Chica,

I just wanted to say that I totally understand your concerns. I felt the same. But luckily with good support from bf consultant bf was great for me. I used lanisoh and had no soreness, cracked nipples etc... The hardest times were 'growth spurts' when she wanted to CONSTANTLY feed so I don't know how that would work with pumping. I did pump enough for my DH to give a 10/11 pm feed from about 4 weeks and although I hated pumping it was worth it to get a bit more sleep.
I found getting enough milk through pumping very hard but best tip (although a FAFF) was to pump at first feed in morning while feeding on other boob! It really did get the most milk - altho tricky and I did cry over spilt milk a couple if times!
So anyway - what I'm saying is you may just be lucky like me. Xxx

Just wanted to add my support. I think its great you're trying to get prepared and I think its great that you're open minded about it all – if you have issues with the BF, then you have a Plan B.

My experience, for what its worth, is that it was do-able. I pumped exclusively for 8 weeks because my twins were premature – produced lots and lots of milk (although was eating pretty much non-stop) and didn't have bottles etc to worry about – the babies were fed my milk via a tube. At the end of that 8 weeks, they breastfed (and I also used shields to start with). I'm sure someone will have said the same thing but there is nothing like a BFing baby to toughen up your nipples! I also think the key is to have a routine of sorts and agree that expressing quite soon after you've given a feed is good. The advice I had when I was in Special Care with the babies was that the middle of the night is the optimum time to express – 2am/3am – it will really stimulate your supply. I was quite religious about keeping to a schedule – every 3 hours during the day and every 4 hours in the night. Of course, the babies were on the ward so in some ways it was easier, but just wanted to say it's do-able.

Good luck.