On the ward (after your baby was born)

[MrsBandEgglet]

I am just wondering what your situation was after your LO was born and what your thoughts are on this, I really don't want a debate etc, it's just as my due date draws closer I'm keen to make my BF experience as successful as I possibly can and get as good a start as I possibly can.
So, I was wondering, were you the only one on your ward breastfeeding? There were four beds on my ward and all three other babies were FF. My LO was born a little jaundiced and he wasn't feeding very well, my milk took a couple of days to come in and I was definately stressed out. The woman next to me was a hell of a snorer who kept popping out for a cigarette every couple of hours (apparently she was only allowed to go for twenty minutes every two hours or something ) and she had countless visitors. She made loud comments, when asked if she was going to attempt BF, that she didn't want to because she wanted to know that her "baby was getting fed". This made me feel awful, I was in emotional turmoil as it was because my baby was jaundiced, not feeding and they kept having to come round to take his blood to check his levels of bilirubin. We cracked it after nearly three days but I wonder if being on a ward with like-minded mums would have been more conducive to establishing BF.

What do you think?

 

[littlestar85]

My experience was that there is little support from staff or other Mums. I was in a ward with 3 other women, 2 FF and 1 other BF so it was 50/50. The environment was stressful and not really conversation-friendly so I felt pretty much alone! Staff were useless and really didn't help at all. My LO was jaundiced too and my milk took 2 days to come in and I found out 10 weeks later that LO was tongue-tied - luckily I perservered with BF despite this but am still so annoyed that no one in hospital checked for this cos we had 10 weeks of sleepless nights and two-hour feeds every 3 hours!

My advice would be that if you want to succeed with BF don't rely on your hospital experience at all, just buy Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding (this is how I found out about tongue-tie!) and read it cover to cover and keep it with you in hospital!

I know it sounds negative but I'm just so put off by the NHS approach to BF that I just think they're totally useless and don't care enough about helping mums anymore.

 

[madge]

I spent 7 days on the ward so I'm a little bit of an expert on this one!! Of all the women that i shared my little 4 bedded room with (many came and went, whilst i stayed!!) only 1 was FF (and she seemed a little ashamed that her LO was ff). All the rest were attempting and annoying succeeding with BF. The nursery nurses are amazing patient and supportive, don't worry you will be fine. Good luck xxx

 

[JA1988]

Sounds very similar to my experience, I was on a ward with 4 ladies and I was the only one breasfeeding and my LO was jaundice AND I had a c-section so because of these two things I was in hospital for a week which ended up being a nightmare as LO was often too sleepy to even attempt to latch on properly and I was in huge amounts of pain from the section so was struggling to even find a comfy position to bf, they kept trying to force me to give him formula, cup feed him, feed him with a syringe, even suggested tube feeds!! I refused all of this and demanded a breast pump, I expressed like crazy every2 hours and fed lo with a bottle but also offered him a breast every time aswell. He slowly got the hang of it and as his jaundice improved he was less sleepy and feeding more each time and then as soon as I was home and in less pain, I tried bf him again and it just clicked (probably as I was more comfy in my own surroundings etc) and he has been bf no problem ever since and is gaining 15oz a week!! Just stick with your instincts and what you wanna do, mum knows best xx

 

[katy1310]

Slightly O/T but kind of related - my situation was a little bit different in that my baby was taken straight to neonatal, but I had to start expressing. I was in a room on my own, and seriously EVERY time I started to express, someone would barge in wanting to empty the bins, refill the handwash, collect a tea cup....!!! I am quite shy and it was really putting me off! I ended up in tears on the midwife on day 3, after I'd been barged in on 3 times before 6am and it had put me off so much that I couldn't produce any milk. She made me a sign for the door saying "Do not disturb, see midwife in charge" - which worked for about 85% of the time, lol! A few people clearly couldn't read!!!!!

But the good thing is I went on to express for 10 weeks and BF for 5 months, after thinking on day 3 that I wanted to give up expressing because I couldn't do it!

ETA - it was hand expressing that they were barging in on, which is possibly even more embarrassing and undignified than using a pump!

 

[Rhio92]

I was in a room with a FF woman and her pervy husband. She was fine, but heee... OMG My curtains were CLOSED and he walked in without asking to see if I wanted a drink. One time - Fine, mistake. 4 times later, you think he would've learnt.
The reason my curtains were closed was because I was sitting in bed completely topless, trying to get my son to feed off the breast. The final straw was when I was massaging my sore nipples with cream,and he asked if I needed help
I would've had a better experience if I wasn't so bloody scared of getting walked in on.
Eventually though, I got moved to a private room, and things gotmuch better x

 

[kiwimama]

Well we don't stay in the hospital here, if you have a normal birth you transfer within hours down the road to birthcare which is a postnatal care place where you can stay for up to 3 days. Transfer within 24 hours if you have a section.
Anyway, they are VERY pro breastfeeding over here, there were only 2 beds in a room and the woman next to me was breastfeeding as well (very successfully and had no problem bragging about it!) I know if you wanted to formula feed that you had to take your own things and needed to make it up yourself etc.

 

[lucy_x]

After i gave birth my curtains stayed closed until i left anyway, everyones did.
I got absolutly no help, and my milk didnt come in for a futher week.
I dread to think what would have happened if i hadnt discharged myself and the community midwife hadnt weighed her and felt my boobs,
She was jaundice and no body noticed, they just assumed id get on with it. Not the case...
Make sure you get lots of help, Im sure they would have given it if i had asked, but i assumed everything was ok

good luck hun

 

[A3my]

I was really lucky with my first, my mum is very pro BF and she really supported me. With Holly I went home 1/2 hr after having her and we were fine with BF. When I had Alex it made me really sad that I was the only BF on the ward, I think the midwives can make a difference though. Sadly none of them offered me any support and I was worried because I've had a boob job inbetween babies. I was lucky it all worked out ok. My sister was desperate to BF and was on a ward with FF. Her son also had severe jaundice and she found that the support of the midwives really made the difference to her.

 

[MrsBandEgglet]

Yeah, that was the saving grace for me - the midwives were very supportive and did help me although I felt uncomfortable because I kept pressing the buzzer a lot for help in getting him latched on and I did get the feeling they were a bit frustrated with me xx

 

[Rhio92]

After i gave birth my curtains stayed closed until i left anyway, everyones did.
I got absolutly no help, and my milk didnt come in for a futher week.
I dread to think what would have happened if i hadnt discharged myself and the community midwife hadnt weighed her and felt my boobs,
She was jaundice and no body noticed, they just assumed id get on with it. Not the case...
Make sure you get lots of help, Im sure they would have given it if i had asked, but i assumed everything was ok

good luck hun

Which hospital were you at? x

 

[kmac625]

It must be different in the UK than here. The hospital I delivered at is certified as a pro-breastfeeding hospital. All staff that enter the maternity ward are trained in bfing (including the cleaning staff). I can't say what it was like in a ward as I had a private room
(mostly covered by my medical insurance from work).

 

[vaileasmama]

i had a private room at a private hospital. however the walls were very thin, and i know both women either side were bf as i heard them both in tears at some stage re:latching help!
we had lactation consultants on hand 24/7 - normally 2 per shift.
nurses were super supportive - very pro calm birth and pro bf... in fact several of the midwifes ran private classes pre birth on both of these things.
so i had a very positive hospital experience!!

 

[pinkandfluffy]

Which hospital you at hun?

Don't be afraid to use your buzzer and get it right, but if there are peer supporter volunteers available then use them, as they are less hands on. I found the midwives lovely but busy so they manhandled my nipples a lot, where the peer supporters don't.

Also look up your local BF group - the bf supporter can observe a feed and help iron out any kinks, really useful!

There were I think 2 of us out of 7 BFing but tbh I'm not sure as the midwives were pretty quick to curtain me off if I was feeding so was hard to tell

Next time I plan to push for early discharge and get the BF supporter on the phone asap lol

 

[sept2010]

Well its the same here.. 3 on a ward.. I was the only one bfing and then one woman was discharged whilst i was there and the new woman that came on ward was bfing but she had other kids.. So didnt have to wait for her milk to come in as her lo was quiet as a mouse as was the ff baby.. My lo would cry every time i put her down and was on boob literally the whole night i was in there..

I jus sooo wanted to go home., the mw came in couple of times during the routine check ups n tld me baby was latched on fine!! I couldnt leave lo to go to loo without her crying lol.. It was a hard time.. One of the other ladies made me feel better jus by sayin iys always hard with the first one!! Lol the other woman would speak so loudly on her phone tho and was on it all night!! N not once did any1 come in to tel her to switch it off!!

As for mws promotin bfing? Yh in the community they do but on the ward the ff woman said to mw .. I feel bad cos it feels like im the only one ffing.. Mw said dont worry most of the women will stop bfing when they got home!! I found quite insultin to suggest we were only bfing cos we were in hospital!! Esp since lo would cry to come on boob all the time..n was stressed thinkin lo wasnt gettin anythin to drink!! If i was bfing jus to plz them i wouldve just given her formula jus to quieten lo!!

 

[Blah11]

I was in a 5 bedded bay. Me and 1 other girl who had had a CS BFed, the rest were FF from birth. A MW did come to me and watched me BF amelie and spent a good 30mins with us

 

[faun]

There were 6 ladies and babies on my ward and 5 of us were breast feeding and one lady was FF she did look very young though. I had all the help i needed and was very lucky that Billy knew what he was doing and was a pro at latching so i didn't need much help but the midwifes were great with the ladies that did struggle. Also the only times the curtains were shut was when people were sleeping or doc was round as the midwife said if you are breastfeeding you need to get used to other people seeing you do it from the start which i found slightly uncomfortable but was good advice as it meant i had no issues about feeding in public.

 

[lynnikins]

with Nate i had a private room as i was on the MW unit , with EJ was in a ward with 3 others one FF who ignored her baby and pretty much made the nurses do it all for her ( she had 8 other kids but acted like she had no idea how to even hold a baby!! ) another FF after trying with BF and giving up because the MW offered her FF to settle her LO and it did so she just stopped then and there, 1 BF who was finding it really easy her OH was with her alot and very supportive of her and Me lol I got transfered into the ward when EJ was about 12 hours old and he had fed solidly for hours after birth then wanted more just after i moved over, I had very little colustrum as i was very very very anmeic and waiting on a BT which didnt happen till 4pm the next day!! so poor EJ was starving as my body wasnt producing much colustrum at all caus i was so poorly so the MW's got fed up with me having him crying for food every 30/45 min when he was awake and kept trying to push FF on me, things got better after my BT and the next morning they let me go, exausting after 2 nights of no sleep following a night labour (birth was at 7am) when my milk did come in had massive oversupply issues caus had been feeding so often my body must have thought i had quintupletes or something

ETA. the MW assistant was lovely and helped me BF during the BT which was sited inside my right elbow which ment i couldnt use that arm at all so struggled with doing things for EJ in that time

 

[kelly29]

4th time round, and the last time lol they couldn't wait to get shot of me 6 hrs after birth i was gone i didn't even get to the ward i stayed in the labour ward! but tbh the mw was helpful in telling me how to latch on and how its should feel etc she was lovely but i cant say what the ward was like there? my previous 3 births, i was pretty much left to own devices ? so not sure how you feel about that? but i do rem it being busy on the ward , feeling akward about asking for help with feeding? and not to mention how dirty the place was..cleaning the toilet or bath b4 you use it!!! nice huh? i think they prefer breast these days? well they make out like they do? if you choose to bottle feed, they say that you have to bring all your bottles, sterl, etc in with you, so think they wanna make it diff if thats your choice .
i really hope your exp will be a good one xx

 

[bobloblaw]

I gave birth at an amazing mw led birth centre who provide 24 hour one to one bf support.

Unfortunately I had to transfer to hospital after my birth for surgery and ended up on a c-section ward. I was the only one bf, and I hated it. I had a constant stream of staff coming in who each proceeded to fiddle around & switch my baby to a different position to try & get her to feed. Looking back I feel like they were all just having a play with me as I was the only one bf. I ended up signing out against medical advice as I was so fed up.

I'm really angry about it now, but at the time I was in too much pain/overwhelmed to complain.