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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

Silly question about breast feeding?

13 replies

Lou0219 · 09/03/2019 23:38

It’s probsbly a really silly question due out first baby in a month. Does pump & bottle feeding stillhave all the benefits breast feeding does? I think I will prefer to pump milk & bottle feed. Thank you in advance x

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sirmione16 · 09/03/2019 23:40

Nutritionally, yes - it's the same milk. Emotionally there's an argument about bonding/skin to skin contact etc that comes from physically breastfeeding is the only other consideration.

seven201 · 09/03/2019 23:56

Also bear in mind some women just can't express much but can breastfeed fine. I would only ever get about 5ml out with half an hour pump! Other women it happens really easily for though. It's very restricting though - my sister exclusively pumped as her daughter had an undiagnosed tongue tie so wouldn't latch, even after it was eventually snipped. She was either feeding the bandy or pumping for the baby. Rarely had time to do much else.

seeingdots · 09/03/2019 23:57

Not the same benefits for the mum in my experience - pumping can be a real pain in the ass. For me it took ages to get even half a feed's worth, and you don't get the lovely oxytocin rush as baby looks up lovingly at you (which helps the flow as well). And there's the extra faff of sterilising bottles etc as well.

However others will have different experiences and have found pumping easier than BFing a baby with latching issues etc so I guess it depends on what suits you. If you decide to go the route of exclusive pumping it might be worth investing in a hospital grade double pump to save time.

WaddIelikeapenguin · 10/03/2019 00:17

You miss out on the bonding/hormone stuff for you & waste a lot of time
You’d both miss out on the extra feeding to bring supply up before a growth spurt feedback loop (your body is primed to produce enough milk just when baby needs it)
Baby would get less immune advantage & baby misses the muscle strengthening from BF

Also the faff factor - baby, nappies, boobs & you’re good to go

Movingtoplanetclanger · 10/03/2019 00:35

It's a lot lot harder to do. Obviously, if you have to do it that way then that's what you do.
I would've preferred to do it too before I had my 1st baby as I was very squeamish about breast feeding beforehand. However, I think it would just be too exhausting. Instead of 'sleeping when the baby sleeps' you would be pumping. You need all those tiny bits of time for self care that you can get.
I pumped once a day, so that I could go out and sit in a cafe as I didn't want to breastfeed in public (apart from mum's groups). But eventually I knocked that on the head too and just got on with it.

Btw, re: squeamishness, you get over it. In the early days you're so obsessed with getting it right you don't think about it. Then you just take a week at a time. After a while it's just what you do.

If not formula feeding is always available, and don't feel guilty if it doesn't work out for whatever reason.

ICJump · 10/03/2019 00:40

No it doesn’t. There are few things that happen at the Breast. One is that there is feedback from the baby in terms of bacteria and this helps customise the breastmilk. Breastfeeding also is a unique process in terms of jaw development.

Breastmilk changes at each feed so if if it’s hot the milk will be more water to help meet baby’s thirst.

That doesn’t mean expressed milk isn’t valuable and worthwhile but its worth noting there are differences.

Choccywoccyhooha · 10/03/2019 00:48

Just to warn you OP, pumping is HARD work. The hardest thing I have ever done, but my youngest didn't /couldn't latch until she was 10 weeks old, so I expressed for her. Basically it meant I did nothing but feed for ten weeks: express for up to 60 minutes, feed to baby for another 40 minutes, settle baby, wash up equipment, put it all back together, then it was time to express again. Utterly exhausting and demoralising. 10 weeks of that nearly broke me. It was blessed relief when she finally latched. If you can feed I would highly recommend it over expressing. It's so much easier and convenient.

AssassinatedBeauty · 10/03/2019 00:57

If you want to bottle feed it is very much more straightforward just to give formula. Or perhaps mostly formula and one or two breastmilk feeds.

Expressing, as others have said, is hard work. It's time consuming and in the early days it can seem endless. I did it because I had to, due to poorly babies and them not being able to latch to begin with. It was a huge relief when I got to the point where I no longer needed to express.

EnchantingRaven · 10/03/2019 01:00

Nobody can ever ask a silly question OP, I’ve been thinking the exact same thing.. I’d prefer to pump too however interesting to hear other people’s thoughts. Thanks for posting as I can follow with interest too

Rtmhwales · 10/03/2019 01:37

Nutritionally, it's the same milk.

I didn't find pumping an issue like any of the previous posters, so it's really an individual thing. I wore a double handsfree pumping bra and let it do its thing while I fed DS a bottle. My best friend fed her DS on one boob, and drained the other with a single breastpump in a handsfree pumping bra. She was an overproducer of breastmilk so saved up 1/4 of her milk for her DH to do midnight feeds and donated the other 3/4 to a hospital who accepted breastmilk for preemie babies.

For me, I much preferred pumping as the nursing sensation really bothered me, although DS latched no problem.

Graphista · 10/03/2019 02:15

No such thing as a silly question.

However, as pp have said its not the same. Baby's saliva and how much they feed affects supply in many ways, some people can't pump at all (I couldn't) but can bf fine, pumping doesn't stimulate supply as much.

Personally having done bf and ff (milk dried at 9 months) I found bf so much easier and more convenient and ff a total pita with all the bottle washing and sterilising etc.

Why are you considering this?

AuntMarch · 10/03/2019 07:31

Thank you for asking this!
My initial thoughts are to do a combination, baby's dad and I are not together and I thought it would be easier to do this from early on so that he can have contact time without relying on me. (But actually the more I think about it the more I don't think I'll be having him go far for a while anyway, and he won't be here to help with night feeds so that would be easier to breast feed!)

Cookit · 10/03/2019 07:44

As PP have said, your milk is tailored to the baby and their requirements and your body knows what to make because the baby is at the breast. So the milk of a 1 year old is very different to the milk of a 2 month old and the milk for a child who is a bit sick will have way more antibodies than normal.
But that’s not to say expressing the odd bottle is in any way bad, and if you end up exclusively pumping (this is hard work, harder than just feeding at the breast) the milk is still nutritionally better than formula.

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