How soon can i express milk for DH to feed baby?

[Jellybabie3]

He wants to to bond. I am going to bf otherwise. I have all the pumps and bottles ready just wondered if i can do this from birth?

I wouldn't advise expressing until Breast feeding is well established! And even then, if things are going really well and you don't need to pump for an other reasons then I would really be suggesting other ways for your DH to bond with your baby. Expressing can disrupt the rhythm of your supply and demand. Obviously it's up to you but I would wait at least 4 weeks.

I expressed for both mine from 10 weeks

I think the recommendation is no earlier than 6 weeks, other wise it buggers up the supply and demand cycle

Plenty of good ways for your OH to bond with baby without feeding - lots of skin to skin cuddles!

I'd wait until at least 6 weeks but wouldn't aim to do it at all if possible. I've been breastfeeding a while but I can't express anywhere near the amount DC takes through direct contact. Plus, the direct feeding is what enables your body to know what to produce.

However, I expressed for the first three weeks whilst my DC had a feeding tube in hospital (preemie) so it can be done. It took us a long time to get breastfeeding established after that though.

I'd recommend leaving it until 3-4 weeks depending how well breastfeeding is going and how steady your supply is. My boobs were in overdrive after my most recent birth, pumping would have made oversupply worse. It settled after a month or so and now I pump after the second morning feed about 9/10am. (If I pump in the afternoon I find my boobs have trouble replenishing for the rest of the day.) Of course a health visitor or midwife will be happy to make recommendations based on your personal situation when the time comes along but you can tell DH it won't be happening in the first days or perhaps even weeks after the birth. But he'll find plenty of ways to bond . Skin to skin cuddles come highly recommended.

Honestly, if you don't have to do it, I wouldn't. It is a faff and time consuming. He can bond via nappy changing, cuddles, having a bath with baby, doing sling walks etc. See how you feel once baby is here x

We started expressing a bit of milk after about a week. Never had a problem with supply or 'nipple confusion'. It worked great for us, because I could have a solid stretch of sleep every night (DH did the first nightshift) and just felt less trapped.

I started pumping at three days after my milk came in, so six days after birth.

It is usually recommended to establish bfing for the first 6 weeks to establish your supply and avoid nipple confusion for the baby. It is about supply and demand - the more you breastfeed, the more supply you will have, eat well and stay hydrated. There's plenty your DH can do to bond - cuddles/winding/changing nappies/baths/preparing meals and drinks for you/taking baby for a walk in the buggy while you rest.

Ok i guess i was also hoping he could so i wouldnt be stuck with every night feed too.....but looks as though its not a done thing

I had a Breast feeding specialist after my little one was born. She said it's fine to pump from birth. I needed to as my milk was slow to arrive and double pumping helped it along

I expressed from 2 weeks with both mine and fed them a bottle a day.

From my experience, and anecdotal evidence from all my friends and acquaintances who did the same, not One had to deal with nipple confusion or supply issues. All those who waited to express and introduce a bottle after 6-12 weeks had nightmares trying to get baby to take the bottle.

If baby is putting on weight in the first couple of weeks and nursing is going well, there is no reason why you can't introduce a bottle from then. Newborns are far more adaptable than older babies.

I went back to work at 18 weeks with both mine and I had weekends that I needed to be away from about 12-16 weeks so it was important both mine took expressed milk early.

I nursed both mine until 10 months when they both self weaned.

Hope that helps!

Pretty much what stroke said. Leave it too long and there's a good chance they will refuse the bottle. I think you can tell yourself when your supply has settled down. I introduced a bottle after 1 week / 10 days with dc 2 & 3 and all worked out well (missed the window with dc1)

Mine had trouble latching at first so I immediately expressed and bottle fed him. He soon figured out that was what was supposed to come from my breast. He switched between bottle and breast with no issues until he was weaned. I did express by hand (literally, no machine), I don't know if that made a difference.

I expressed from 2 and a half weeks and dd had one bottle a day from that point.

It worked really well, when dd was tiny I would feed her and go to bed about 9, and dh would keep her downstairs, do the bottle, and only bring her up when she needed another breastfeed. Later he did the early morning feed so I could sleep longer.

I expressed until 6 months, when we swapped that bottle to formula with no issues for dd or my supply. It was mostly just that one bottle, but moving to formula meant I could go out for longer occasionally because dd was quite happy to take as many bottles as needed.

Give it a go, it won't hurt the baby or your supply to try one bottle and if it doesn't work you can always leave it a bit longer.

On advice from breastfeeding support I expressed from when DD2 was a few days old. She was left overnight (literally overnight) when she was 2 weeks old with my parents and I exclusively bf so had a good stash of expressed milk for then to feed her the couple of times she needed until i picked her up the next morning. I was also back working by the time she was 6 weeks old so she was with DH all day one day a week and he was able to feed her expressed milk the whole time. She never refused a bottle and we had no problems. Breastfeeding support advised me the sooner I started the less likely she would be to refuse a bottle and that seemed to ring true for us.

Oh this sounds hopefully. DH will be over the moon just to try

My LO didn't gain weight well so has had a bottle of formula alongside breastfeeding since about 15 days old. She also had a dummy too early and I used nipple shields as she butchered my nipples at first. So basically I broke a lot of the rules/guidelines but everything is going fine for us.

She still has one bottle of formula a day and in terms of sleep this was amazing because my DH could do one feed and I could get a little longer sleep. (No reason why this couldn't be expressed milk instead.)

She switches between bottles and boobs with no problems. At 4 months she now has 5 breastfeeds and 1 formula feed a day and is gaining weight really well. (It's really nice because hubby can feed her but also so can other family and friends who want to.)

Dummy hasn't caused us any issues either.

There are loads of guidelines and recommendations but you need to do what works for you. I have friends who didn't do anything but breastfeed and then when they weren't able to feed for a day the baby refused to take a bottle and was in great distress.

I expressed from about 5 weeks, it was more to give myself a break as was finding bf so painful. It was great because DH could help and I never had a problem with bottle refusal but it was a faff and at 12 weeks I switched to mixed feeding for the same reasons. I'm pg now again and hoping bfing will be easier but think I'll probably do the same regardless as found it so helpful have the evening feed as a bottle as we could both do bedtime (and still do now he's 13 months)

First thing I did when I got home from the hospital was send dh out to buy a pump! Nipples were so painful and ds was feeding every hour and a half so I needed the break. DH also really wanted to feed him to bond so this was good for him. However, as others have said skin to skin is also a really good way for dad's to bond.

Ds was 5 days old and no nipple confusion or supply problems

Thing about the night feeds is those are the ones that really get your supply going, so if you skip regularly you risk supply issues. In the early days particularly, you will need to express every time you give a bottle.

Like pp says, expressing is a pita. For me, it was far easier to just feed than piss about sterilising, expressing, feeding, expressing again. Dh bonded just fine without feeding.

I had one that did have nipple confusion. Well not confusion exactly, but one she'd had a couple of bottles she definitely decided she preferred the immediate, easy access, and couldn't be arsed working for let down, so that was the beginning if the end of our bf journey.

So my advice is always this; if you really want to make bf work, bf. Don't take the risk of messing it up with expressing and bottles. If you're not so bothered, and it's no biggie if introducing bottles starts you down the bottle feeding road, give it a try.

Bu honestly, expressing is such a pita i'd avoid it unless you really have to! All the downsides of breast and bottle feeding, and none of the benefits of either!

I wouldn't avoid it at all, if your husband really wants to feed your baby I think that's brilliant and I'd ask your midwife when it's safe to start expressing. It would be nice for him to do some night feeds for you or get up with the baby so you can rest, you can't do this if your breast feeding every few hours. Good luck.

reallyanotherone nailed it

• dads don't need to bottle feed to bond with their children
• dads don't need to bottle feed to help you with caring for your baby or to give you time to rest. there are plenty of other things they can do.

if you want to try expressing then do it but if you want to establish bfing then the best way to do this is to spend as much time with baby on the breast as possible in the first few weeks not to faff about hooking yourself up to a pump for your DPs sake

We did it from 3 weeks. We'd had a rough night and it bought me a couple of hours sleep. Did one bottle a day from then on. It was good because DD was low birth weight and a monster feeder!

You probably won't want to pump initially because establishing feeding is enough on its own but after a few weeks you should be okay.