Do you express in hospital?

[LaurenAnneP92]

I am planning on feeding my baby exclusively with breast milk, however I want to express to allow my partner to bond (and give me a break) but I'm not sure how it works...

I've been told that the most efficient way is to make sure you empty both breasts after every feed, so, once baby is full express the rest. I have a few questions surrounding this...

Can I start doing this in hospital if I am kept in more than a few hours after birth?
If I sterilise my pumps in advance will they stay sterile inside a sterilised container?
Is there sterlising facilities in hospitals? (I'm delivering in the Princess Royal Maternity in Glasgow)
Or do I just breast feed until I get home? and if I do that, will affect the way my milk comes in? Will enough milk even come in at first to express??

I feel like this is such a minefield and I am totally lost!

You can't empty breasts, they make more milk as long you continue to stimulate them.

Immediately after birth you'll be producing colostrum which is small quantities of thick yellowish fluid, not like mature milk at all. It is hard to express this, as the quantities are so small. You would need to hand express and collect the colostrum in a small syringe (in quantities of a few ml at a time). Over the next day or two (sometimes up to 3 to 5 days) this gradually turns into mature milk.

If you're only in hospital a few hours or a day or so, I wouldn't bother to try and express at all. Just concentrate on directly feeding your baby. Adding hand expressing etc into the mix is just a total hassle if you don't need to do it. Plus you'd have to be expressing on top of feeding your baby directly and that can be exhausting.

Dads are able to bond with their babies in a myriad of ways beside feeding. It is a myth that somehow giving a bottle changes the relationship between a father and their baby.

Perhaps your DH could just do some skin to skin in the early days to bond with baby? Establishing BF can be tricky, so I wouldn’t overthink it and start needing to buy extra supplies and sterilisers.

I expressed in hospital as my baby wouldn’t feed properly from the breast. The hospital provided a breast pump for me and we then bottle fed her my e pressed colostrum.

I’d breastfeed in hospital and do so for a few days to really establish it without having to worry about also expressing. In those days, skin to skin with the Dad is a lovely way to bond.

I'd concentrate on getting breastfeeding established first, before you start to think about expressing.

Sorry, meant to say - I had to express after having DS2, because he was in the neonatal unit for a couple of days immediately after birth - and it was really difficult.

Best way to establish milk supply is to directly breastfeed for the first week or so. Both my children took bottles of expressed milk with no problems, bottles introduced around 5/6 weeks.

You can't pump until you have milk, you'll need to hand express colostrum and it's a faff. You can also cause problems with oversupply and blocked ducts leading to mastitis if you express before your supply settles down (a few weeks). So, assuming you don't have any issues feeding directly from the breast, I'd really leave expressing until later on. You'll have enough going on without adding that into the mix as well! Dad can have lots of skin to skin though :)

My milk hadn't properly come in before I left hospital but they did give me some small syringes so that I could express colostrum and collect it that way, the amounts are so tiny at the start, literally a few ml.

As others has said, establishing breastfeeding first will be the main event, expect the baby to be at the breast often. Do not think that it's starving and be put off, this is what starts the process and allows your body to produce what it needs.

Colostrum is very thick( like treacle ) and is will be impossible to put in a bottle then feed through a bottle teat. If you absolutely must, try hand Exspressing into a plastic cup and feeding baby this way... but it's really best to have the baby at the breast.

Please be aware that your boobies/nips have been sheltered most their life in pretty bras and the sucking will cause them to be sore- it's inevitable, but I promise this will pass over a week or so. I breastfed my last exclusively for 18 months... I absolutely still miss it and his 6 now! Dad will bond with skin to skin, cuddles, bath times.. feeding is your time.

Xx

You won't have any need to express in hospital if all is well. If your baby is very sleepy, struggling to latch, premature or ill you may need to hand express colostrum and cup or syringe feed. In this case the midwives and infant feeding specialists will show you how and provide you with sterile cups/syringes. In the hopefully unlikely event your baby is poorly and needs kept in some time or is in NICU or similar, the hospital will also talk to you about expressing your mature milk with a pump and how to do this, and potentially loan you a hospital grade double pump.

If all goes well, however, you'll have baby with you in hospital and will be home before your mature milk comes in, and all you need to focus on is feeding baby at the breast. Honestly, while it's helpful if baby will take a bottle so you can leave them for a few hours further down the line, dads bonding through feeding is 100% not a necessity and expressing is a hassle and much more work in the early days. You will also need to feed through the night to get your supply established in the early weeks. There's really no need whatsoever to worry about expressing until AT LEAST a few weeks in. Just focus on getting baby feeding well from the breast.

Do not start expressing for at least a few weeks. Believe me.

Don’t start expressing until you’ve established feeding (maybe a couple of weeks).

Oh and you can’t really empty your breasts. Suckling stimulates milk production, so the more you feed/express, the more milk will be produced. The most efficient way to do this is by feeding, feeding and more feeding.

In your shoes I would just focus on getting the breastfeeding established between you and the baby. That is enough of a challenge to start with. Leave the expressing at least until you have a full supply, baby knows how to latch on, you have worked out your comfy positions etc. I would leave it st least a month. Your DP can do lots of cuddling and nappy changes in between feeds.

I delivered in the same hospital. Chances are you'll be in at least one overnight so longer than a few hours. Definitely try to establish breastfeeding first. I was hardly producing anything. They tried to get me to hand express and it didn't work so moved to formula. Don't run before you can walk!

What everyone else has said. If you are planning to breastfeed then you need to establish your supply. Bottles/expressing are usually best left a couple of weeks otherwise it takes a bit longer for your supply to settle down.

Breasts are factories not warehouses when it comes to milk production so don't worry too much about trying to 'empty' them, if everything goes well the baby will just take what they want during each feed..

I had no idea how hard breastfeeding would be, and was completely unprepared for it. I had some idea I could just waggle the baby at my boobs and nature would take care of it. In fact it took weeks to establish the latch and the rhythm of it.
We did combination feeding (ff and bf) because we had to for baby weight reasons - it was exhausting. You have to feed every three hours or so, pumping and sterilising is not something you want to do when you're barely getting any sleep.
As others have said, I'd focus on getting breastfeeding established then move onto express feeding a little later. Your partner can help with settling the baby and supporting you for the first bit.
We also planned to have a 50/50 split but your baby may have other ideas! DD wanted me because I was squidgy and smelled of milk. Hard for DH but there it is.
But yes, if you're in hospital for any length of time they will have milk, sterilising stuff and people on hand to tell you how to use it. Be prepared for midwives to give inconsistent advice on breastfeeding though!

Also, there’s a chance your baby won’t take a bottle. Mine didn’t, though we had success later (after 6 months) with more of a sippy cut.

That was a bit of a shock to me. I knew that it was possible for some babies not to be able to breastfeed but somehow didn’t know that refusing a bottle was also a thing.

Ew. Sippy cup, even!

I expressed with a hand pump antenatally and managed to express 70mls of colostrum the first pump whilst baby was in nicu.
Hand expressing is good for learning to massage your breasts which helps the milk flow but takes a bit of practice to get right/comfortable.

Your milk supply won’t come in for at least three days post birth. To begin with it’s colostrum and your baby only takes small amounts at a time. I’ve never expressed in hospital and don’t know anyone who has bar mum’s of preemies who have no choice.

@LaurenAnneP92. Here's a suggestion for you. If your partner wants to bond with the baby, and you need a break, ask him/her to do all the nappy changes for you!

Nappy changing is actually a great time to bond with the baby, because you are so close to them, and will be looking into their eyes, and can talk to them, play with them, etc.

And this will need doing probably almost as often as the baby will want to be fed

If your partner wants to bond with the baby, and you need a break, ask him/her to do all the nappy changes for you!

Yes I do find it interesting that fathers, grandparents, etc. seem to insist that the only way to bond with a baby is to feed with a bottle. When as you rightly point out, nappy changes are just as frequent in the early days!

I'll also echo previous comments that there are good reasons NOT to express early unless necessary. One of my friends expressed early - started in the hospital - because she wanted to know exactly how many ml baby was drinking. Led to oversupply causing two rounds of mastitis. Really - your partner's desire to "bond" ranks far below your physical needs in the early weeks, if you plan to breastfeed.

Hi! I love that you want to mixed feed from the start, it's what we did and it was a saviour, baby took two bottles a day and I breastfed the rest of the time. It meant we could share the jobs, I could get longer rest periods and my DH loved being able to have feeding cuddles too.

You won't want to express in hospital unless you are in for more than 5 days. Your milk won't properly come in for 3 days (ish) and you need to just focus on putting baby to breast as often as necessary to stimulate milk production.

My first dd ended up in nicu suddenly (no signs of problems until 2 hours after birth - strange anomaly which resolved after a week). And so I had to express straight away to try and jump start breastfeeding without a baby. I had to hand express and suck tiny amounts into syringes for the first 2 days. Day 3 my milk came in and I could use a pump, the hospital lent me one and I expressed at her bedside.

Basically I would say unless you are in for a longer period of time I wouldn't worry about expressing in hospital and if it is necessary they have lumps their you can use. To be honest the hospital machine was immense! It was powerful and top of the line loved it!