Breast feeding questions

[ForeverHopeful21]

Sorry if these are stupid question, I've not attended my classes yet...

1. Can you use a beast pump before baby arrives? I bought a pump last week and curious to try it out.

1. How do you know when your milk has come in? Does it literally just start leaking out or do you only know once you try feeding baby?

1. Does inverted nipples impact the chance of being able to breastfeed. If it does can you solely pump your milk rather than getting baby to latch?

TIA

Hi. I didn't breastfeed, ds wouldn't latch, so I expressed instead.

Pumping before baby is born can increase the risk of premature labour, so the advice is not to.
My milk came in day 3 post birth, it is a lot different to colostrum, but I knew because I was pumping, so no advice on knowing when you are exclusively bf

You'll know when your milk comes in. Your boobs get really heavy, hot and full and it can be painful. It also comes with some big hormonal changes so a lot of women get very emotional (I certainly do!).

Not sure about the inverted nipples but if it is a problem for any reason, nipple shields may help.

Good luck :)

Nipped shields are useful if you have inverted nipples. Trust me you will know when you milk had arrived! 😂.
No need to pump before hand!!

I fed with an inverted nipple with little problem once initial soreness had subsided, and baby had no problem switching between breasts. I did stock up on nipple shields to help, but managed fine without

Shouldn't pump for 6 weeks after the baby is born ideally!
I did (crap advice from my midwife) and completely mucked up my supply and it took months to rectify it

And you'll know! Your boobs get massive and rock hard! And i vividly remember standing in the shower and milk just pouring out at one point!

I think as long as you’re sensible with pumping and don’t over do it you can pump before 6 weeks - I had to and was advised to by various midwives as my baby wouldn’t latch. I then went on to BF for a year which wouldn’t have been possible without pumping. The issue may be baby preferring bottle but mine never did in the end.

I am pregnant with my second and plan to express colostrum before birth and store so he can get some of this if he has the same latch problem as his big sis! I think it’s a personal choice really. From my experience hand expressing is better with colostrum but it’s quite hard to do it to yourself and hurts!

Boy will you know when your real milk comes in around day 3! I HAD to express at this stage as boobs were about to explode and my baby wouldn’t take the milk straight from me.

Not sure about inverted nipples but have heard nipple shields can work with this. You could express exclusively but I did this for 2-3 weeks and it’s exhausting and you basically express and feed constantly 24/7. Good as a means to an ends though and I was so happy I did it when baby eventually latched

I didn't know when my milk came in - I haemorrhaged after birth and had a blood transfusion which is why I think - but I never had the boob-exploding, milk-spurting thing! Mine was much more gradual and I only really knew as DS began to be more satisfied and 'milk drunk' after feeds. Just wanted to say in case it doesn't happen and you feel like you're doing something wrong. I actually had to ask a midwife in the end if mine had come in as I didn't know!

Your first milk (colostrum) is a bit thick and sticky to get through a pump - I had a little go out of curiosity!

When my milk came in it looked like I’d had a boob job - big perfectly round solid boobs.

You shouldn't use a pump before baby arrives. You're only making colostrum then and it's such a small amount that you can damage your breasts pumping so early. But you can hand express and collect colostrum (hand expressing is much more gentle than a pump), as long as you're 37 weeks.

For me, I got engorged when my milk came in both times. It was pretty obvious because it's painful. But either way, it doesn't matter if you know. You just feed on demand as usual. You'll have several days of colostrum to start, which will just be drops really, not loads, and then suddenly you'll make proper milk. With my first milk came in on day 5, but 2nd time around on day 2/3.

You definitely can feed with inverted nipples, but it's a bit trickier. I have flat nipples (which I didn't know, had no idea other people's weren't like that!) and I struggled a lot with my first without much support. 2nd time around I got these things called Supple Cups, which are nipple extenders. There are several other brands, Nipplette is another. They use suction to pull the nipple out before a feed. I used them before every feed for about the first week. I'm now on day 9 and I don't need to use them any more as my nipples have pulled out enough and my baby has gotten the hang of latching to them. They were a lifesaver though. I can't recommend them enough. I used nipple shields with my first, but they caused problems eventually and I couldn't feed as long as I would have wanted (though certainly I was able to feed longer than I would have without them, so still glad I used them). I've not needed to use the shields once this time.

I hand expressed some colostrum from 37 weeks into syringes and froze them. They were handy in the days before my milk came in as I had a big hungry baby!
I also have flat nipples. I had to sort of pinch them and stuff them in his mouth to start with but it didn't take long until he'd sucked them into a more normal nipple shape.
Don't be disheartened if it's painful and hard at first. I found it awful for a few weeks, fine by 5 weeks and now at 10 weeks I feel sorry for people who have to faff with bottles.

I woke up on day 3 to my boobs looking like I'd had a boob job- they were huge and the skin do taught it was shiny and my nipples looked like maraschino cherries on a Chelsea bun!

Inverted nipples should be fine, you could try nipple shields or you could try gently pumping to bring the nipple out.

A one off try of your pump won't do any harm. I hated pumping, made me feel like a cow but also DS wouldn't take a bottle!

You can antenatally express.

www.laleche.org.uk/antenatal-expression-of-colostrum/

Interesting about the advice not to pump early on . I had a premie and pumping after every feed and then supplementing w bottle was essential for making the whole thing work and him getting enough. Nipple confusion didn’t seem to be an issue. I guess it’s one of those every baby is different things OP!

Where I am (US) you can get a private BF coach who comes to your house early on and helps you feed. Best money ever spent. Recommend!

Interesting about the advice not to pump early on

It's more that if your baby is feeding successfully from the breast, starting to pump as well risks a) bottle preference and b) inducing massive oversupply (many people already have some degree of oversupply in the first few weeks).

If baby is struggling to extract milk from the boob for whatever reason, expressing and bottle-feeding expressed milk is definitely preferable to stopping, but the priority should always be to get baby and boob working well together.