Bottle feeding at hospital, on the postnatal ward?

[Penguinpinata]

I realise this might sound a really stupid question but I’ve got into a panic this morning over feeding my baby at the hospital. I’m likely to be staying in for at least a few days after birth as our baby has a cleft palate so is probably going to struggle with feeding; the cleft also means we can only bottle feed and only with special cleft bottles that the hospital will apparently provide. So I know I’ll need to bring formula with me and can’t take in ‘normal’ bottles but I don’t know what else. If you bottle feed are there facilities on the wards for you to clean and then sterilise the bottles? Do you need to bring sterilising tablets or do the hospital supply some of that? And do the midwives help at all with that at first or are you just left to sort it out? Our trust currently only allows partners on the postnatal wards for 2 hrs a day so it’ll largely just be me and the baby for the first few days.

I don’t really know anything about bottle feeding as all my close friends have breastfeed which is what I’d hoped to try before the cleft so am feeling a bit clueless and panicky about the whole process, as you can probably tell! I currently have visions of my poor baby starving waiting for the cleft nurses to get out to us (apparently it might take them 48 hrs to get out to us) while people serenely breast feed around us....

I doubt any new mums will be serenely breast feeding around you, even experienced breast feeders can have trouble with their newborns.

I would ring the ward that you will be staying on, they will be able to tell you about all the facilities available. Getting small ready made formula may be easier in hospital. We had the small 70ml bottles for our twins but I don't know if the special teats would fit those. They are perfect size and individually sealed so less faff as can be stored at room temp. As for sterilising you can get a Milton starter kit with tub and cold water tablets which keep things sterile for 24hrs which may be a good option.