Pumping at hospital

[BEO]

ladies who wanted to Breast feed and express feed- what did you take to hospital? Do you take milk bags/ pump/ bottles/ steriliser or just rely on breast whilst in hospital and express when home? Did you also take formula or ready to drink bottles incase there was a supply issue with breast milk? I guess you don’t know how long you’ll be in for so it’s best to be prepared.

It's worth asking your midwife what your hospital will give you - I didn't take anything extra as I was planning to EBF. The hospital had pumps they could let you use if it was necessary and would also supply formula if you intended to BF but were struggling and baby needed it. But I don't know if that is the case everywhere!

I've not heard of anyone expressing at hospital unless you're producing a huge amount of milk. I'd save all that stuff for home. I was in hospital for 3 days and baby was struggling to latch. I always felt like if I'd have got a bottle of formula out, I would have been shamed!! If you want to breastfeed, stick with it if you can, so again would leave the formula at home.

My DD was in NICU so slightly different in that i hadnt planned to express in advance, but i was advised only to pump from around day 5? Before then i just hand expressed into syringes, which were then labelled and stored in the hospital fridge / freezer.

We ended up combi feeding as DD was gaining enough weight to be discharged, so next time I'll probably take some ready to drink formula with me just in case so that we can get home quicker.

I wouldn’t plan to take anything for pumping. You only express later on assuming baby is with you/ not in nicu, to let your supply regulate.

@xyz111 im hoping to express feed from bottles, I don’t want baby to get too attached to the boob that they won’t take a bottle but guess that shouldn’t happen for the (hopefully) short amount of time your in hospital. And I would like to try feeding from the breast too.

I just know a few friends who have EBF and not been able to get their baby onto a bottle weeks/ months later when they wanted too.

I gave my son bottle straight away. You'll be able to express. I'm planning on taking my pump but I know if I forget I'll be able to use the hospital one as I did with my son x

My baby had tongue tie so couldn’t latch. Hospital gave me a pump and I fed him with bottle. They were very helpful just ask them/midwife. I did pack these starter bottles too incase breast feeding didn’t work out out my mind at rest having them https://www.boots.com/aptamil-1-first-milk-starter-pack-ready-to-feed-6x70ml-10175040

@Slipknot89 you gave your son bottle of pumped milk? Or formula? X

Pumped milk. X

Thanks girls. Just trying to be prepared because I know things don’t always work out how you want them too. Like I say hoping to get into a express feeding routine with baby but happy to have her on breast at hospital if it’s easier . Will definitely get some of them @2021mumma incase baby can’t latch or my milk doesn’t come in or any other eventuality lol 🤣

@Slipknot89 thank you. It’s good to know that’s an option as I plan on express feeding x

You never know until the baby arrives how long you'll be in hospital for, whether baby will latch or if you'll have milk/ be able to breastfeed etc

Do whatever works for you and not everyone is able to breastfeed. I had milk but my baby couldn't latch. My hospital were great and provided everything whilst we were in.

I was given good advice to bring a couple of bottles ready mixed formula in case of emergency in case there were problems with breastfeeding.

I didn't need them as we were supplied with formula during our hospital stay but were handy immediately after coming home. Was also provided with a great breast pump during the week we were in. Had to rush out and buy one for when I got home though

Yeah that’s what I’m going to do , just have everything incase something doesn’t work @TimeToStopLurking . Like you say you don’t know what’s going to happen so I’m not dead set in ‘I want to do this and I’m not doing anything else’. As long as baby gets fed I’ll be happy x

Both after birth and then when we went back in a few days later, the hospital was able to provide a pump and formula with bottles. I think this was possibly because I was trying to breast feed and the formula was something they advised when he was struggling to latch. I saw other women who seem to have planned formula feeding bringing their own formula. But if you are happy to start baby on the boob (or try at least) my experience is the ward will be able to supply pump/bottles/formula. By the way I gave bottles and breast from very early on and neither baby had problems switching between the two, and was useful for someone else to be able to give a bottle but also helpful to breastfeed in the middle of the night!

Ash thanks so much for that @Keha i would love to do both bottle and breast but have heard so many stories of babies preferring one or the other and struggling to take the other! It sort of feels like you have to do one or the other but would love to do breast and bottle if I can. Do you have any tips? What bottles did you use? Thanks xx

You can defo do both OP.

To get breastfeeding off to a good start, get the right P&A support in the hospital, and bring baby to your breast within 30mins of giving birth. Ideally skin to skin contact (to regulate baby's heartbeat, temperature and breathing) but also to relax baby to know baby is safe with mum. Usually breastfeeding is initiated right away.

Plan for what you WANT to do, not what can go wrong; hospitals take care of that.

Hand expressing after day 3-5 is best to get things flowing at first, as you won't have milk established. It is colostrum at first (gold, sticky, small in volume) baby is best suckling this from your breast directly as colostrum doesn't transfer using express pumps very well; most of it gets stuck in the funnel etc.

Best way to build your supply; baby suckling on your breast. Their saliva stimulates your breast through hormones and messages to produce more milk. The expressing plastic machines can't do this. The idea is to build up your supply by 'feed, feed, feed' in the first 6 weeks. By 12 weeks feeds begin to regulate and settle down (this is when you notice your boobs lose the 'over fullness' as they self regulate). Interestingly, breasts always have 20%-30% milk remaining and never 'empty'. So even if you feel flat, if baby has all the feeding signs (see UNICEF or Breastgeeding Network), you have milk.

You can defo do both breastfeed and express; this can be great for some families. And you can choose to have days when you solely BF and days where you give expressed.

I would say keep the night feeds EBF as this is when prolactin levels are at the highest levels; (amongst other things) this is what encourages your body to produce milk.

www.laleche.org.uk/breastfeeding-at-night/

I EBF and then from 6m, my daughter didn't need a bottle, she had water in a 360 sippy cup. Skipped bottles. However you can introduce a bottled when the suckling reflex is at its strongest (around 4-6 weeks) and they only have to have done it a few times to 'remember' what to do. Waiting past 8 weeks some mums find the baby has finished the suckling practice phrase and is moving to another oral skill hence why some mums say they won't 'take' it. It's because they haven't learnt how. I currently breastfeed and express while at work.

I would defo say getting the correct P&A support and info regarding building supply (bring baby to breast often in those crucial few days - you won't see the milk per say as it's colostrum and tiny in volume) but bringing baby to breast loads (every hour Ish) will establish your supply. Then you're off to a good start. Hope this helps.

@HVPRN thank you so much for this very helpful/useful . Will save for when the time comes 💖

To be honest, that just sounds like a complete faff. It could make it much harder to establish a supply, it’ll be very inconvenient (surely one of the major benefits of breast feeding is the convenience of it).
Most mums I know who breast fed had no trouble getting their babies to take a bottle later on. In fact, most of those babies never had a bottle!

Unless you are in hospital ages you will only produce small amounts of colostrum for 3 days until you milk comes in so you won’t be able to pump til them anyway. If for some reason you are in hospital longer they can give you a pump. But also to bring the milk in properly baby need to attach to the boob regularly for the first few days or you may struggle with supply. So I would just wait til you get home.

You’re unlikely to be able to pump in the first 2-3days as your milk doesn’t come in until then, hand expressing would be necessary in to a cup or syringe to get off 0.5ml/1ml etc.

My suggestion would be try and breastfeed in hospital, get your milk in then when at home and milk is in, start introducing pumping to put in a bottle if that’s what you want to do

I only pump, I don’t breastfeed but I did colostrum harvesting. It might be useful for you then you take the frozen syringes in with you. It’s a bit of a back up too, even if you wanted to try breastfeeding first. I also took the pre-made formula bottles though and I’m glad I did as baby had finished all the syringes way quicker than I’d planned!

I didn’t pump until day 3 when I got home. I was really surprised that there was actually milk there, I assumed it would just be a tiny bit of colostrum. I struggled to find some sort of step by step guide for starting pumping and didn’t know whether I should have been taking it to hospital. The nurse who came out to the house on day 3 just told me to put it on and see what happened

Speak to the midwife and see what they have, it can vary! Here we have plenty of hospital grade pumps women can use, and also some bottles of ready prepared formula which come with the teats so don't require bottles. Also worth being aware though that if you know you want to use something it's invariably easier to take your own as you could be waiting a long time for a member of staff to be able to sort it for you. If you have a pump/know you want to get one maybe take your own in and then the MSW can help if you have issues with it which might help when you're home; i personally wouldn't bother with formula if the hospital says they have some (they should but never know these days ..) and someone can always bring you some in if needed.

We just used standard tommee tippee bottles. The bottle feeding alongside breast was a bit of a necessity as I have a relatively low supply and both needed some extra to put on weight to begin with. In the first month or so I did try to breastfeed loads but gave a bottle 3 or 4 times a day. Maybe my kids are just unfussy! You will get people telling you not to use a bottle early on if you want to establish breastfeeding. I think that sometimes it can get in the way because it reduces how much time you spend breastfeeding. Prepare that in the early weeks you need to feed or express really regularly to build your supply, like every couple of hours. You may feel like you spend all your waking hours feeding in some capacity. That does settle down after a couple of months. I remember sometimes having to make a few attempts to get DC to latch properly if they'd just had a bottle but was just persistent with it. The experience of people I know is where babies haven't accepted bottles when introduced later on ie at a couple of months. Look into pace feeding and just generally read and research, but if you want to bottle feed I'd say start using one straight away.

Hand express colostrum syringes rather than taking formula, they don’t needs much and hospitals can provide formula if absolutely necessary. They will put the syringes in the fridge for you. You’ll probably need at least 1 every 2 hours that you’re in (at least I did when DC1 didn’t latch). I would probably try to breastfeed until your milk comes in but you could always hand express those feeds. “They” recommend waiting until breastfeeding is established to begin pumping but I would hand express in hospital (or maybe use a Hakka) if that’s what you want to establish. Remember babies suck for comfort too so may wish to consider a dummy.

Feel like adding that when I gave bottles in the early weeks it was quite frequent bit small amounts like 60ml.