Can I grab some advice for my friend (new baby neo natal expressing etc!!)

[anna matronic]

Hiya ladies, I am posting on behalf of a friend of mine, she doesn't come on this site, but I am going to give her the link

She had her little girl 11 days ago (Saturday before last) she was born at 36 weeks due to pre-eclampsia. She has been in pecial care for the past 10 days due to being severly jaundiced. I am not sure if their are other issues.

My friend has been expressing but has just posted on fb saying that she is barely getting a dribble out of the pump.

she is pump every 3 hours day and night though.

What advice can I give her? xx

Edit: She hasn't been given a proper opportuniy to breastfeed because the midwives want her daughter fed every 3 hours and they can't monitor how much she has if she bf's and they want to get her fed to flush out the jaundice.. (bloody hospitals )

 

[anna matronic]

How easy is it for her to have skin to skin, they have even restricted that...

 

[CeriB]

They don't seem very helpful! Has she got a hospital grade pump? Maybe up it to every 2h?

 

[DazedConfused]

When I was in NICU I found visiting my son before pumping helped, or pumping in the room with him was good.

The hospital grade pump was brilliant I only had to pump for 30 hours or so I believe before he was able to be fed from me again

 

[anna matronic]

She has a swing but the hospital have leant her one. So maybe to pump as soon as she has seen her, but she's not getting much skin to skin contact so worried about her supply x

 

[Cazzyg]

Ok, it sounds like the unit aren't being the most helpful.

Can she express next to her baby? I found I got loads more when I expressed next to the incubator. And is she using a hospital grade pump?

The main thing is to get the baby feeding directly. My daughter was tube fed, but around feeding time, I was able to get her out of her incubator and try a breastfeed. TBH, if the nursing staff aren't allowing that I would be seriously questioning why (obv we don't know if there are any other issues)

Bliss also has a section on feeding premature or sick babies

https://www.bliss.org.uk/page.asp?section=580&sectionTitle=Breastfeeding+your+premature+baby

 

[Cazzyg]

She has a swing but the hospital have leant her one. So maybe to pump as soon as she has seen her, but she's not getting much skin to skin contact so worried about her supply x

She needs better than a swing pump. She needs a hospital grade double pump. The hospital should be able to provide one for her.

 

[anna matronic]

Sorry she had a swing herself but the hospital have leant her a differnt one

 

[summer rain]

Oh dear sounds like the rubbish neonatal unit two of my boys were in; is there a lactation consultant at the hospital she can see?

 

[Cloberella]

Oh dear sounds like the rubbish neonatal unit two of my boys were in; is there a lactation consultant at the hospital she can see?

This ^

She needs to ask why she isn't getting skin to skin, and tell them it's affecting her supply. See if she can express next to her baby, or next to a photograph of her baby, can she have an item of clothing the baby has worn as well for when she's expressing at home? Has she been shown how to hand express?

Give her from me!

 

[summer rain]

Unfortunately in my experience most neo-natal nurses have NO knowledge of BF whatsoever and often they see BF as an unknown quantity so they would rather have all the babies on formula ASAP; sad but true. They don't know that if BF is going well and your friend can get her supply up; that BF is the best thing to flush out the jaundice xx

 

[nullaby]

She could pump in the room like others have said, that helped me and made me relax alot more as well. In the beginning she needs to pump more frequently if possible. The first few days i was pumping every 1.5-2 hours around the clock. My LC said mimicking the frequency of feeds would help the milk come in. Good luck to her and baby!

 

[todteach]

And being stressed out won't help her milk supply either. Poor thing.
The hospital grade pump that I was using while in the NICU I ended up renting for two months at home. It worked wonders for us.

Hope this is just a small little bump for your friend, and she gets to snuggle up to her little one soon.

 

[anna matronic]

Hi ladies thanks! I am going to tell her to try and pump at least every 2 hours when possible. Also to ask at the hospital (It is Kingston) if their is a lactation consultant. I will suggest for her to give LLL a call aswell.

She said something about being difficult having skin to skin because of a blanket that her lo is having to wear in SCBU?

I am annoyed as I thought they would be getting her to do that kangeroo hold where they put the baby down your top!! she was so adament she wanted to breastfeed and she also suffers from bi-polar so this situation is really hiting her badly x