Breastfeeding supply question - FTM

[Babygray2020]

First time mum, so this may seem like a daft question but I really don’t know. I really want to breastfeed, and I’ve herd your milk comes in a few days after baby is born, this is probably so silly. But does that mean you can’t breastfeed for the first few days until your milks in or you can ? I’m very confused ... pregnancy brain clearly

You make colostrum for the first few days which is very thick and full of nutrients. So yes you can. Baby suckling and placenta detachment is what brings your milk in x

The first few days your boobs produce something called colostrum which is like a golden syrup-type of liquid. It's very very good for the baby and contains all sorts of good things they need when they are born. Once the baby has been on the boob for a day or two, your milk will come in - the golden syrup stuff will start turning more milky and you'll get more of it.
The body us pretty amazing - it knows exactly what the baby needs and when!

Wow thank you both, was probably a silly question but thanks for helping . Amazing how our bodies work!

No worries, it's all a bit weird and wonderful the first time! Good luck!

It's actually not a silly question at all.

In fact, people not understanding about milk supply is one of the reasons why so many babies swiftly get put onto bottles, despite the mothers' original intentions to breastfeed.

Wishing you well with your baby.

You make tiny amounts of colostrum, which I assumed wasn’t enough because all the bottle fed babies were drinking huge bottles of milk. But colostrum is very rich and babies only need tiny amounts, nowhere near the volume that a bottle fed baby gets. I expected to be able to pump out large quantities and panicked when I was squeezing my boobs like mad and getting nothing. But just because you can’t get any out manually doesn’t mean the baby isn’t getting any. And the baby needs to suck and suck even if nothing is coming out because that’s what stimulates the milk to appear. Thy don’t tell you this stuff so a lot of mums think they have no milk and switch to bottles.

You produce colostrum in the first days, which is amazing stuff. See the La Leche League info here www.llli.org/breastfeeding-info/colostrum-general/

It's really important to feed or express regularly in the first few days (and weeks) as this tells your body that baby is here, baby needs milk, and how much milk baby needs.

Does your trust run antenatal classes or breast feeding information classes? Both would cover things like this!

As pp have said, first few days you will product colostrum, which if you try and express it, will seem like not very much, but it is packed full of everything your baby needs to start off with. Let your baby feed whenever they want to (don't try and follow a bottle feeding timetable). You body will react to the baby suckling on you and will produce milk in response, so it's really important to let the baby 'feed' even when you think they're not getting any/enough. A lot of people stop breast feeding because they think the baby is hungry or not getting enough milk, but generally your body will respond to the baby's sucking and produce more. If you're anything like me, until your supply settles down, you may produce lots and have it leak (or squirt) out of the other nipple while your feeding from one. All this settles down over time but sometimes your baby will feed frantically for hours, upping your supply for their needs. All perfectly normal.

Thank you everyone it’s so helpful . I’ve actually just signed up to go to an antenatal class which covers breastfeeding so I’ll learn a lot from that. Thank you all !