breast feeding

[rdk]

hi ladies just wondering when my baby is born can u express right away or do u have to wait 6 weeks.

well, not straight away as in within minutes... but within a few days I think.

The more you feed/express, the more you produce, so once you have established the feeding side, I don't think expressing would be a problem.

U can express right away, well, if you can express at all. Some people can't, even if they have tonnes of milk their letdown reflex doesn't respond to anything but a proper baby.

I expressed to relieve engorgement at about 3 days, I was pleased about that because it was partly orange colostrum that went to a milk bank.

I was told by the breast-feeding counsellor that it wasn't much use to express for the first few days as colostrum (sp?) is very nutrient-dense and only produced in small amounts. So if you tried to express into a breast pump then you would only get enough to cover the top of the pump, and not enough to go into the tub at the bottom (I hope that makes sense). I did express a little bit though when I was in hospital, into a syringe, to encourage DD to latch on.

Once the milk proper comes in then there is no problem, as long as you don't go overboard and convince your breasts that you've had twins and end up with milk pouring out of you!

you can express right away - I did this when dd in special care

You can express as soon as you like. For colostrum you are best off hand expressing as MTM says else it will get lost in the pump workings due to the small amount you can express.

However I have read on here (from a Tiktok post) that in the early weeks whilst you are still establishing your milk supply, if you bottle feed your baby the milk you have previously expressed. You will need to express at the same time that the bottle is given to keep your milk supply up. If you didn't there could be rather a wide gap between breastfeeds which is not good for your milk supply.

But if you were wanting to express milk to freeze for later use, go for it. Personally I would just enjoy being close to your baby and not worry about expressing until later on when your baby was older and breastfeeding was established.

you can but the thing is, you are ideally not meant to give a bottle for about-is it 6 weeks? Otherwise the baby can get confused as to the correct way to suck (teats are v different to nipples)

and milk changes as the baby gets bigger.

People certainly do it, but I'd really speak to a mw here

I also expressed at day 3 like onehandtypist - to stop my boobs exploding!

Fillyjonk, I use to think that about bottles but I read this from Tiktok on another thread.

"As long as you are working on the breastfeeding, there's no reason to assume the bottle teat will cause confusion. The disadvantage of the bottle and teat in the very early days is that it can get unnecessarily large amounts in to the baby, and that if it is colostrum in the bottle, precious drops can stick to the sides and be lost. After the first days, a bottle is just fine and usually a lot easier than a cup or a syringe."

Interesting isn't it.

Thank you babieseverywhere - you put it much more clearly than I did. I blame the pregnancy hormones.

I was interested though, rdk, why did you want to express so early? Are you worried about attachment?

I used a hospital pump & the colostrum went fine into the collecting bottle. I would lean forward to help it drip in.

thanks ladies, only asking as my first dd had trouble sucking and i was only 18 and not ever wise didnt even think of expressing milk but really wanted to breast feed, so this time round im tryin to be open to different options, x

sorry meant very wise

rdk, Breastfeeding wise there is some great reading material on Hunker's Blog You might find the four breastfeeding support numbers on the right hand side of the website useful.

HTH