Breastfeeding

[AHBM2020]

Hey guys, I'm having my first baby and I would really like to breastfeed, as well as pump into bottles for my partner to also do the feeding. I feel like feeding is a really good place for bonding, and I'd appreciate the extra feeding help 😂 is it naive of me to think I can do this as a first time mum? I worry that the baby may prefer either breast or bottle, and get attached on only one.

Plenty of women mix feed successfully 😊
But lots dont take to a bottle (mine!)
And lots prefer the bottle, so supply dwindles and more bottles are needed etc. Pumping would help I think.

I'd look up your local breastfeeding support group and go along for a chat before the baby arrives.

Often the advice is that you shouldn't introduce a bottle for a few weeks until BF is well established. Anecdotally quite a lot who do that end up with bottle refuses like me! So it's hard to know what's best sometimes!

I did it as a FTM. I’d recommend joining a pumping group. It is intense but you learn SO much compared to what you’ll be told in the hospital. For BF make sure you see the lactation consultant.

I was really unwell after the birth of DD so we did this. In honesty whilst it’s totally possible, it’s bloody hard work and the worst of all worlds as the rest I thought I’d get was spent regularly pumping to keep supply up and constantly washing and sterilising pump parts and bottles.

Read this, it’s great:

https://amzn.eu/d/ik7lJ1s

This is an extremely helpful website:

kellymom.com

Good luck!

Definitely doable and not naive at all!
I breast fed my baby, and pretty quickly replaced the bedtime feed with a bottle of expressed milk. It worked really well, and my husband would do the feed whilst I pumped.
Best of luck!

I pumped and breastfed with my first, it was fine. Personally I'd ignore the midwives who will tell you not to try pumping until 6 weeks or so. Everyone I know who waited that long ended up with babies who flat out refused to take bottles. I started at around 10-14 days with no issues and she took both happily. I breastfed/bottle fed pumped breast milk pretty much exclusively to 6 months when she became so distractible it was unbearable to feed her, and switched to formula over the next 1-2 months with a gradual reduction in breastfeeding. It was lovely seeing my husband feed her, and so helpful we could share the load. Hoping to do the same with our second.

I mix fed after 6 weeks with my first no issues. My second only took boob for 3 months. I will say the only thing I was naive to was pumping- awful, hated it. After hours of breastfeeding the last thing I wanted to do was hook myself up to a pump. I mix fed with formula.

So I have done just this! 4 months in currently, it’s not been too hard to be honest. I don’t know if it helped that initially I only planned to express so the BF bit happened with little stress as I had no hopes pinned on it. I have 2 friends with babies similar ages who have successfully fed them between bottle and breast too although they are combination feeding with formula where as I’m only bottle feeding DD with expressed.

Tips I would suggest is watch loads of YouTube’s about expressing, you really need to understand that if your baby is drinking milk, you need to be expressing to maintain your supply (unless you’re literally pumping for your partner to feed there and then).

Invest in a good pump. Do your research on this, hospital grade is a good place to start but also look at the reviews. Lots on YouTube and insta!

Youll get so ahead of the curve if you manage to get a decent amount of colostrum harvested. My DD was still on mls of colostrum when my milk came in so managed to get ahead with pumping. Milk is on a demand and supply basis. So supplementing with formula will hinder your supply, it’s hard but try avoid in the early days if you can as it’ll cause more work to catch up when you want to stop with formula, hence the colostrum being so helpful!

Thoroughly recommend lansinoh bottles, test is super soft for easy transition between bottle and nipple plus they double up as milk storage containers for the fridge and you just pop a teat on. Also can then be used for food when weaning!

Good luck, it’s very possible as long as you start well educated and are prepared for a bit of extra admin!

Not naive at all. I exclusively pumped first time for 6 weeks then breastfed until 8 months when I went back to a mixture of pumped milk and breastfeeding. She finally self weaned at 2 years 8 months. I never really planned to bf, it just sort of happened.

I think the key with having any kind of plan for feeding is to be flexible and go with whatever works best for your baby but also you. If you put too much pressure on yourself to breastfeed you might find it more difficult (I did!). You might find it tougher than you think or perhaps you'll find it a breeze but just remember in the end you need to do what's best for all of you.

Honestly it is a million times easier just to BF. I tried it a few times and whilst my DH fed my DD I had to pump at that time anyway to keep my supply up so it was twice the work! Then having to wash & sterilise pump parts. Yes exclusively BF is very hard work but so worth it. I BF my DD for 16 months & I miss it so much.

It was for you. It's not for everyone. I didn't find pumping that much faff, you get into a routine with it the same as anything else and the sterilising all the bits takes no time at all - just chuck them in a bucket of Milton. For us, the benefits of her not being solely dependent on me for feeding far outweighed the mild inconvenience of pumping .

It all depends on you. I was able to easily breastfeed so I had no need to pump.
Pumping wasn't at all worthwhile for me.
If you want to, yes of course do it.
But only do it if you want to.

You're not naive BUT one big thing to know is that some people CANNOT pump. My baby had great weight gain and got lots of milk from the breast directly, and yet I could barely pump anything no matter what pump I tried. So I think plan to BF and pump if able, but remember it's not possible for everyone. And also, the other thing is there are so many other ways to bond with a baby without feeding it.

And yes for most people it's easier just to BD.

*BF

Another thing worth noting is that babies get slightly more immunity benefits if you feed directly but if you're just planning on replacing one feed a day or so then that won't make any difference.

I have 2 DC and breastfed both - I never considered bottle feeding as I knew the benefits of breastfeeding cannot compare with bottle feeding and that kept me going. I used a pump at the beginning to help increase the milk and after 3-4 weeks it became seamless. It was tough to begin with but if your mindset is for breastfeeding you will succeed. The most useful product for me was a lanolin cream to help with nipple dryness, a lot of perseverance and a good midwife in the first few days. Just find the right support and it will work out! It's the best start you cam give your baby. I think mixing with formula might not be helpful. Stick to breastfeeding.

I never found it inconvenient to breastfeed and did not mind doing all the feeds. I believed that if I chose to have a baby then I am responsible to provide them with the best start. If I was a bird there would not have been a bottle available to me! I saw it as a natural process.

I've breastfed both my two, second currently nearly 1 yr. If you want the flexibility of baby taking either, then I'm my experience you do need to start getting used to bottles fairly early on, from 8 weeks or so. Also to be honest I've ignored the no pumping advice and started with it almost straight away. Pumping is different somehow it takes time for your body to adjust to it. Just be aware that if you create the demand with pumping last thing at night (for example) you have to keep that going. Exclusively breast fed is amazing but I'd take the risk of baby preferring a bottle any day if it meant being able to leave milk with other caregivers for a day to work or just enjoy some time to myself. Since mine was 5 months old ish she's had a pumped bottle most evenings with dad, and now that I'm back at work, nursery or grandparents are able to give her Breastmilk during the day and it works well.
With a bottle refuser you are somewhat tethered and that gets real difficult once baby gets a bit older.

Also giving pumped bottles is breastfeeding, don't let anyone make you feel bad about that.

You could, but having been through the process (I had to pump due to inverted nipples in the beginning) I really wouldn't bother. You spend just as much time pumping as feeding so you're not saving any time, and you run the risk of developing an oversupply. Every feed is the baby putting in an order for the next meal until your milk is well established.

And if dad can't think of any ways other than feeding to bond with the baby then he needs to give his creativity a shake to be honest.

Personally I didn't find it difficult having a bottle refuser, in contrast to PP. OK I could only leave her for a short while until she was on solids etc, but tbh, I didn't really want to. My DH still helped loads without needing to feed her.

Do remember that your partner can bond with the baby in ways other than feeding; baths, nappies, tummy time etc.

If pumping doesn't work for you then your partner and your baby can still form a lovely bond in other ways.

If you struggle with pumping, look into a Haakaa manual pump, you can collect the let down on one breast while feeding the baby on the other side, it takes some getting used to but is an easy way to build up some milk for a bottle or freezer stash, you need to look into how to safely store it then, I used to use the Haakaa during my feeds for the day and combine it all at the end of the day. Also utilise all the support in the hospital, I was lucky I got lots of feeding support from midwives and feeding specialists in hospital, they let me stay an extra day for additional feeding support as a first time mum and through this we found out my little one had a tongue tie which once it was dealt with my baby's latch was like night and day in the difference. Most hospitals should have a pump on the ward to try out also, we used a medala pump in the ward, realised it worked then my partner went out to buy one before I went home, he picked one up from boots but you could order online from Amazon. No one told me not to pump from the start, the midwives encouraged it for us actually and worked out okay.
I had a very open mind before birth, was worried I wouldn't be able to breastfeed due to hearing stories from others who struggled, so I had the mindset of if it doesn't work that's ok, but I am still breastfeeding my little one at 9 months now. My little one had occasional bottles from the start, as we needed to use them whilst the tongue tie was sorted, then later on around 3 months they did go through a period of refusing bottles, that was stressful but we just remained persistent with offering every day until they accepted again, we didn't force it if they were very distressed, so wasted some milk but in the end they took it and now have bottles of formula during the day at nursery and I feed them before and after. Good luck, I hope it works for you as breastfeeding has been a very special experience for me and my little one!

Also very helpful to go to local breastfeeding support services if you can as they can give you lots of advice on how supply works with pumping and feeding from the breast

I don't find it inconveniencing at all, I'd just love to give my partner the same opportunity to feed and bond with our baby that I can get. It'd also be great that in any certain scenarios (like for example I'm in the hospital) the baby is still being fed and safe.