**One For Mums To Be & Those Already Mummies...Breastfeeding Advice**

[bther]

When I say my milk didn't come in - I had milk, but it was only fore milk, I wasn't producing the calorie rich hind milk which is the important part. I demand fed round the clock for three weeks, it made no difference. She lost 15% of her birth weight, and no one could explain why I wasn't producing anything of decent quality. Her stools never went through the change that happens when your milk comes in and they start receiving the calorie/ fat rich full milk (going from green to yellow), I never leaked or felt full or had anything come out in a stream like all of my breast feeding friends did/ do have.

I've done the UNICEF baby friendly breast feeding course, I know the biology behind it, know what a correct latch looks like, know how to hand express, know all he benefits etc. But that was of no use to me when the quality wasn't there. Switching to formula was the best thing I ever did, my baby was satisfied, content and thriving, I was no longer stressed. I felt guilty at the time, and no mother should feel guilty for feeding their baby, which is why I always try and tell people my experience, because a lot of the time all you get is how breast feeding is the only good way, and if you do anything else you're failing your child, or simply 'weren't trying hard enough' which is just wrong xx

Your story is similar to mine. Was your little girl ever checked for tongue tie? My boy had this and getting a good enough latch was near impossible. My milk was extremely slow to come in & after my boy losing 13% I was told to top up with formula. Fore milk would have changed babies poo yellow as it is still milk just a thinner consistency (unless you mean colostrum?). I will definately be getting this baby's tongue tie snipped if I need to.

 

[lovelylaura]

With both of my girls i tried and failed to BF, i had little support from professionals and knew no one who BF. My advice to you is get a much information as possible. Its not as simple as put them on your boob and of you go. And if you are doing it for the benefits of BF then definitely think about expressing, from what ive read its hard work but its definitely worth it. This time i will try again and hope to succeed, however if it doesn't work i will be expressing.

Sounds like you had rubbish support be persistent with hp's and seek the right support before you have the baby maybe? I think its criminal how little support some midwives and health visitors and even doctors give. They are clueless a lot of the time.

No one had time to explain why my girls wouldn't suck, which was the main problem. They latched properly but wouldn't do anything while latched!? Both if them were the same. The first time i was in hospital one lady really did try and help but after she had done everything she just said that theres nothing else she could do and that formula was probably the only way. And with no experience of BF i just accepted this but looking back i wish i hadn't i wish i'd have kept putting her on the boob even topping up with formula after if needed. I'm sure we would have got there. Then with my second i had no support at all. In hospital they didn't have time i presume that there was an emergency as she kept coming to me and saying i'll be back in a minute so after buzzing every 20 minutes for over 2 hours and freya not having a feed since being born and was around 8 hours old she had a weird fit thing and i just caved and told them to give me formula. I'm not holding out any hope this time either as i had my booking in app the other day and she told me that there isn't any support workshops in my new area! I'm going to do my best again but its very frustrating. It's very clear that there is little or no support in some parts of the uk.

 

[MissingBubs]

For me breastfeeding my Daughter was very important. I breast fed her for 13 month when (unfortunately for me) she self weaned. Of course to her I was her food source and she liked to be close to me, but she also adores her Daddy. In the early weeks he would get up during night feeds and make me a cup of decaf tea. Then we realised it was better for us if he slept through the night and let me sleep for an extra two hours after her morning feed. Also meant that he got some one to one time with her.
Don't get me wrong, it wasn't always easy and we had a really really tough start, but thanks to some incredible support from a breast feeding support worker (NHS) we got there. And seeing my friend who bottle feeds having to carry all those bottles around and you can't even pre mix the formula anymore, well I don't envy her. With a bit of practice we even learnt to feed whilst walking around with the use of a stretchy wrap.
There is also the option of expressing your breast milk so that Daddy could do a feed or so a day?? Or night?!
Good luck, whatever you decide. You have to do whatever you are all comfortable and happy with.

 

[Celesse]

The foremilk/hindmilk thing is a very over stated. It seems to imply that there are 2 different types of milk, a watery milk and a thick calorific milk. This isn't the case. All milk has some fat in it. Over the course of the feed the water content decreases and the fat content increases. This post explains it well and the graph shows just how subtle the actual change in composition between foremilk and hindmilk actually is.

Sun_Flower I assume you were expressing the before feeds to get the most watery milk off since you were told too much foremilk? It sounds much more likely there was a hidden milk transfer issue. Sometimes babies can be latched on in what appears to be a perfect latch but just can't get the milk across properly. As bther suggested tongue tie is a possibility. My daughter needed craniopathy to loosen her skull before her suck strengthened enough for her to gain weight without top ups.

Linz, if your breasts were hurting that much there must have been something not quite right with the latch, even if it looked right. Latching can be very uncomfortable in the first few days, but not to the extent you need to stop. Sounds like baby got nipple confusion. I was able to overcome this with my first baby by always offering the breast before feeds. It took a long time, before she would latch. No bottles for a month sounds like an excellent plan, maybe invest in some Laninosh as well if you have super sensitive nipples.

Laura, that sounds like two crappy lots of support really. It seems as if you were guided into using far far formula too early, with very little factual basis behind the reason for doing so. My initial thoughts are they would have sucked eventually but were both so new, 8 hours is tiny! I hope you get better support next time if you choose to breastfeed.

And I agree no one should feel guilty for using formula. I don't think its ever a case of "not trying hard enough", I think what is far more common is being given the wrong information, believing that information and that information being passed on from woman to woman. There are so many perpetuating myths regarding breastfeeding amongst women today that act as a barrier to many women breastfeeding. Women as a whole have "forgotten" how to breast feed.

When your pregnant with your first you often hear 2 things. "Breast feeding is a wonderful natural thing that everyone can do"...... or.... "Breastfeeding is really hard and loads of women can't do it". Neither of these are correct. Breast feeding is bloody difficult in the early days and can take a lot of hard work, but eventually it always gets easier, a lot easier.

 

[Sun_Flower]

Yup, expressing before feeds, and she was checked for tongue tie and didn't have one (I made them check three times). We''ll see if I have similar issues this time, but I hope not xx

 

[Elephant13]

Thanks very much for your replies and sharing your experiences with me! Much appreciated!! xx

 

[T8ty]

Me and my partner felt the same. I however wanted to establish breastfeeding so I fed her and he did nappies for the first couple of weeks. He bonded with her whilst changing her nappy.. It was daddy daughter time! However strange that sounds.

Once I started expressing daddy would do most of the feeds after he came home from work.. Then I would do the bedtime feed, and he would do the morning feed.

It worked so well as he kept track of how much she drank etc as with the bottles you can measure it etc! But when we were out I tended just to bf for ease!