Planning to breastfeed?

[evenprimrose]

Just wondering who is and isn't planning to try breastfeeding?

I'm due Feb 2023 and I had to spend some time in hospital last month. I was in an antenatal ward being used as a postnatal overflow so there were lots of mums with very cute newborns.

I saw all of them bottlefeeding rather than breastfeeding. I'm pro breastfeeding but also know it's not easy and there are loads of social and physical factors why mums might not do it, but was surprised that the choice seemed to have been made already.

Don't give how others feed a second thought. I breastfed both of mine well into toddlerhood as it suited us and our lifestyle.

Both my children are in school, I have no idea who was fed what and it doesn't matter.

You don’t know their reasons or even if they tried to breastfeed. I wanted to but couldn’t get baby to latch in hospital despite asking for help from numerous midwives so my DD was already being formula fed in hospital due to concerns about her blood sugar (I had GD). Wasn’t because I didn’t try and it turned out my DD had a tongue tie that wasn’t diagnosed for ages. Instead of looking for reasons the midwives just said I was doing it wrong which was readily discouraging. Some women staying in the wards might have had difficult births and delayed milk.

Of course lots of reasons why they might have chosen to FF which is perfectly fine too. After a negative experience the first time round I’m not sure whether I would try again and probably wouldn’t get into pumping again if things didn’t go well initially, I’d much rather spend the time cuddling my baby.

I'm still filled with feelings of guilt 4 years on that I had to give up breastfeeding my eldest after 5 weeks of static weight gain despite constant feeding, pumping and topping up with both expressed milk and formula. I felt shame when I saw other mums breastfeeding as I pulled out a bottle.

In my case I'd had a massive PPH which affected the quality of my milk supply.

I pretty much decided from the off to formula feed DS2 but did breastfeed for 2 days in the hospital to give him colostrum. It was just too triggering for me to continue, but I'm happy he got colostrum at least.

For me personally I want to at least give it a good try but if it isn't working for me and/or baby I'm not going to get upset over it, we just need to be happy and healthy in whatever way works best.