Milk coming through

[user1465146157]

Hi I've been reading a lot about skin to skin and how the baby will immediately head for the breast soon after birth, but then reading other things about how milk doesn't usually come through for 2-3 days after labour.

What is actually feeding the baby then in those first few days? I know colostrum comes through first - is that guaranteed to come out immediately? and does it last for those whole few days before any milk appears?

thanks

For some women they start producing collestrum in pregnancy. If you do, you can collect some from ~37 weeks as a back up in case there are any feeding issues in the first few hours.

Collestrum is all your baby need for the first day or so. It is richer than the later milk making it energy dense and perfect for a newborns tiny stomach - it can typically only hold 5ml on day one the equivalent of a teaspoon!

When you deliver the placenta this triggers the body to start or up its collestrum production.

^ This milk production is tiggered by a number of things the most obvious one you will notice is the baby feeding. Breast fed babies feed lots in the first few days. This is not a sign that are not getting enough milk but they are ‘putting their orders in’ for the amount of milk they will need tomorrow.

@superscientist thank you - so where and how would you store any early colostrum and does it 'keep' ok for a number of weeks? I dont have any yet by the way just checking!

@lockdownseperation - thank you! good to know - I wasn't sure what they are feeding on in the first few days if there's no milk to be drank. I guess the latching encourages production?

You can get tiny syringes to collect and store colostrum in - your midwife can often give you some, or buy online. It's quite hard work - took me 20 mins hand expressing to get 1ml at first! Keep them in the freezer, and take to hospital in a labelled cool bag, they should be able to keep in the freezer for you too.

In the first few days they are just feeding on those little amounts of colostrum. They will feed frequently as a) they need to learn how to do it and b) there's only small volumes there. This is all to encourage your milk to "come in" around day 2-3.

If you're keen on bf, I strongly recommend attending a class/group (RL or online) beforehand, to find out a bit more what to expect.

Yes that's absolutely correct. It's not a hard transition between the two, your body changes what it makes over a few days. I think by day 4 my milk proper had come in. Just let baby feed as much as they want for the first few days, it's the feeding process that triggers milk production.

I wouldn't worry too much about collecting colostrum now unless you really want to. I didn't with my first and won't bother this time. Baby can just feed directly.

Colostrum is like dehydrated breast milk, it has less liquid in it and it super concentrated.

Colostrum is enough for the baby until the milk comes in. I've always produced it from about half way through my pregnancy. There isn't any need to collect it though.

Babies experience weight loss in the first few days because of the delay accessing milk. I think they can lose up to 10% of birthweight without it being a cause for concern. They live off stores they got in the womb until they start to feed from milk.

Colostrum doesn't run out, you probably have some now. It's got loads of antibodies and stuff in. When my milk came in, I felt weird and feverish for an hour or so, I thought I had some terrible infection!

I recommend Food of Love by Kate Evans all about breastfeeding, it's a comic book style with tons of info. It's not always plain sailing, don't beat yourself up if it doesn't go according to plan!

My milk didn't come in till 4 days (first baby and traumatic birth). The colostrum (which started in late pregnancy) sustained my baby just fine till then. She did want it pretty much constantly but she had plenty of wet and dirty nappies. The more you breastfeed the quicker the milk should come.