breastfeeding directly after birth

[laxobellavida]

Hello! I am due with my second baby in about 2 weeks and I have a question regarding breastfeeding immediately following delivery. With my son, I didn't produce milk until a few days after, which one of the doctors I was seen by told me it was completely normal. Because of this, my son didn't leave a wet diaper for several hours. Every article I read mentions how important it is for the baby to latch on right after being born. I'm worried that I won't be able to breastfeed my daughter at the hospital. Can anyone recommend any tips to help? Thank you

 

[noon_child]

Immediately after the placenta is delivered your body will start to produce colostrum and will have a chain reaction of hormones necessary to produce 'proper' milk at about day 3. Colostrum is very important as it does hydrate babies and delivers a highly concentrated shot of antibodies and other great stuff. Because babies tummies are small and colostrum is only produced in small amounts, often we can't tell if a baby is weeing at all! However poo should be happening - first meconium and quickly this should start turning to brown then green then yellowy/orange by about day 5.

 

[LDC]

I didn't even know that the body didn't produce shed loads of milk right after birth! I breast fed my daughter and she latched on right away (although with an emergency section I didn't actually put her on the boob until about an hour after birth) and was on the boob every ten minutes. I was so exhausted, come night time I just didn't understand why she was crying so much when I was constantly feeding her. The nurse told me the milk won't come in right away, but that it's important for baby to be on the boob as they stimulate milk production.

I put her on the boob every 20 minutes and gave her formula in a bottle at night time. Then as soon an my milk was in properly, dropped the formula xxx

 

[justplay91]

At the hospital, just have her on the boob as much as possible. You will be producing small amounts of colostrum, but yeah, she will probably be hungry. When we got home from the hospital, we syringe fed her (to keep her from getting nipple confusion) small amounts of ready made formula after every breast feed to keep her blood sugar up. That pretty much kept her happy until my milk started coming in on day 3.

 

[Twinmum87]

Like said above, colostrum comes in tiny amounts. There is no need at all to suppliment formula thou and that can actually cause some ladies not to produce enough milk. Newborn abies have tiny tummies and really do not need much at all and colostrum has everything they need in it. They nurse so much as they are encouraging your milk to come in. Supplimenting with formula will make them nurse less an can have a major effect on milk flow. Yeah some ladies might be OK but a lot will end up (and seriously I know a lot of mums personally who did this) having to combi feed or switch to formula completely because they end up not producing enough. It's supply and demand. Less baby demands due to being fed formula, less you supply. Babies loose wight at first no matter what they are fed. As long as they regain birth weigh by 2 weeks, do not loose more than 10% of birth weight, soft spot doesn't look sunken and baby has saliva in their mouth, they are getting plenty to eat and are well hydrated.

My milk began to come in a bit on day 3, fully came in on day 4. Day 5 he was weighed and he only lost 50 grams, by day 10 he was 5oz above his birth weight.

 

[Twinmum87]

He was put straight onto my chest, had a 5 min feed right after birth then about an hour later he latched again and fed for about an hour then fed every 3 hours after that.

 

[jessmke]

Like everyone else has said, you won't start producing actual milk until day 3 or 4 after baby is born, before that it is just colostrum and it will just come out slowly in drops. That is ok because your baby has to learn to coordinate sucking and breathing, if baby got lots of milk right away it would give them the opportunity to practice how to suck and breathe at the same time. Also, a newborn's tummy is only about the size of a fingernail, so it only takes a few drops of colostrum to fill their tummy. All babies lose weight after birth, so long as they regain their birthweight within 2 weeks they are fine. Just put your baby to breast immediately after birth and as frequently as possible in the hospital so he/she learns a proper latch and encourages your milk to come in, and get the nurses/midwives/lactation consultants to help you as much as possible before you take baby home to make sure you've got a good handle on feeding.