Wow, the thread is moving fast today. I was reading all the advice given to newer mums/mtbs and can't help but feel very appreciative of the mummies who gave such sound advice
Jacelyn,
Like you, I also worry that I will have low supply before I gave birth to my son. In fact, I also went through alot to establish my milk supply. Both my mum and mil were not supportive of my bf efforts and my mum even called me to scold me, cried and hang up the phone on me over this bf issue. I also suffered from under supply, engorgement twice, blocked ducts and most recently over supply. I think having a supportive hubby will be half the battle won. So if you have read and are convinced that you want to do total breastfeeding, you need to transfer that knowledge to your hubby so that two of you can work hand in hand to make it work. By the way. below are some tips that I can offer to help you :
a) Try to latch baby within 4 hours of delivery, as baby is most alert during that time since the adrenalin is still high from the birth. After that, generally, babies will be sleepy and may not want to latch on.
b) Get a good lactation consultant to help you with your first latch. A wrong first latch may cause you to have sore nipples and destroy your desire/ ability to breastfeed baby due to the pain. You also lose precious time establishing your milk supply since baby can't latch on and pumping may not be as good as latching if you, like me, don't respond to pumps that well.
c) Do not give baby bottles before 6 weeks after delivery. Babies might have nipple confusion if bottles are introduced too early. This is because bottles are actually easier to suckle and also the way to retrieve milk from a bottle is different from the way milk is retrieved from breast. Baby might get used to the way of sucking from bottle and reject the breasts. Alot of my friends' babies refuse to latch on for this reason. If you suspect that you have low supply and need to supplement baby with formula milk, do use cup feed or syringe feed. Nurses can do cup/syringe feed for you if you are still in the hospital. You just need to instruct them. But I do not recommend that you supplement baby with fm if possible, but to keep latching baby, and your body will know that there is a demand.
d) Do introduce bottles after 6 weeks or babies might totally reject bottle in preference for breast.
e) Feed baby on demand or 3 hourly, whichever comes earlier. Initial days will be very tough because you also need to wake up to feed baby. And very young babies feed for very long, ie at least 20 mins on each breast so the feeding time might come up to 1 hour(with burping). So if you feed 3 hourly, it will be feed 1 hour rest 2 hours round the clock. To save you some sanity, demand feed baby at nite. That means if baby doesn't wake up for feed (if so, your baby must be an angel
, don't wake him up for feed too..
f) Learn to breastfeed lying down. It will save you some sanity when you are deadbeat and zombie-like from lack of sleep.
g) Learn to ignore unfriendly comments/ remarks/ advice. There will bound to be alot of naysayers to breastfeeding, and taking them too seriously will cause you to be very stress and might even affect your milk supply. It is not true that if baby wants to feed hourly, you have low supply. It is normal for newborns to want to feed very often. See this link on what constitute low supply http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/low-supply.html#supply.
h) This last point is my personal opinion : Sleep with baby at nite. This is my saving grace - I would have quit breastfeeding long ago if not for the fact that I managed to catch alot of sleep just sleeping with baby and dream latching (latching baby without really waking up) him at nite. But some mummies here might not agree as co-sleeping has always been a controversial issue linked to SIDs (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). So do make sure you follow the rules on co-sleeping to prevent SIDs.
Hope the above helps. Pm me or call me ( you have to pm me your number) when you have difficulties and I'll try to help you wherever I can. Btw, my baby is now 3 months old and is on total latch on. I sleep 10-12 hours a day
Sgn,
I think the child is a very young baby..so maybe your milk is not suitable. I'll check it out
Jacelyn,
Like you, I also worry that I will have low supply before I gave birth to my son. In fact, I also went through alot to establish my milk supply. Both my mum and mil were not supportive of my bf efforts and my mum even called me to scold me, cried and hang up the phone on me over this bf issue. I also suffered from under supply, engorgement twice, blocked ducts and most recently over supply. I think having a supportive hubby will be half the battle won. So if you have read and are convinced that you want to do total breastfeeding, you need to transfer that knowledge to your hubby so that two of you can work hand in hand to make it work. By the way. below are some tips that I can offer to help you :
a) Try to latch baby within 4 hours of delivery, as baby is most alert during that time since the adrenalin is still high from the birth. After that, generally, babies will be sleepy and may not want to latch on.
b) Get a good lactation consultant to help you with your first latch. A wrong first latch may cause you to have sore nipples and destroy your desire/ ability to breastfeed baby due to the pain. You also lose precious time establishing your milk supply since baby can't latch on and pumping may not be as good as latching if you, like me, don't respond to pumps that well.
c) Do not give baby bottles before 6 weeks after delivery. Babies might have nipple confusion if bottles are introduced too early. This is because bottles are actually easier to suckle and also the way to retrieve milk from a bottle is different from the way milk is retrieved from breast. Baby might get used to the way of sucking from bottle and reject the breasts. Alot of my friends' babies refuse to latch on for this reason. If you suspect that you have low supply and need to supplement baby with formula milk, do use cup feed or syringe feed. Nurses can do cup/syringe feed for you if you are still in the hospital. You just need to instruct them. But I do not recommend that you supplement baby with fm if possible, but to keep latching baby, and your body will know that there is a demand.
d) Do introduce bottles after 6 weeks or babies might totally reject bottle in preference for breast.
e) Feed baby on demand or 3 hourly, whichever comes earlier. Initial days will be very tough because you also need to wake up to feed baby. And very young babies feed for very long, ie at least 20 mins on each breast so the feeding time might come up to 1 hour(with burping). So if you feed 3 hourly, it will be feed 1 hour rest 2 hours round the clock. To save you some sanity, demand feed baby at nite. That means if baby doesn't wake up for feed (if so, your baby must be an angel
f) Learn to breastfeed lying down. It will save you some sanity when you are deadbeat and zombie-like from lack of sleep.
g) Learn to ignore unfriendly comments/ remarks/ advice. There will bound to be alot of naysayers to breastfeeding, and taking them too seriously will cause you to be very stress and might even affect your milk supply. It is not true that if baby wants to feed hourly, you have low supply. It is normal for newborns to want to feed very often. See this link on what constitute low supply http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/low-supply.html#supply.
h) This last point is my personal opinion : Sleep with baby at nite. This is my saving grace - I would have quit breastfeeding long ago if not for the fact that I managed to catch alot of sleep just sleeping with baby and dream latching (latching baby without really waking up) him at nite. But some mummies here might not agree as co-sleeping has always been a controversial issue linked to SIDs (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). So do make sure you follow the rules on co-sleeping to prevent SIDs.
Hope the above helps. Pm me or call me ( you have to pm me your number) when you have difficulties and I'll try to help you wherever I can. Btw, my baby is now 3 months old and is on total latch on. I sleep 10-12 hours a day
Sgn,
I think the child is a very young baby..so maybe your milk is not suitable. I'll check it out
Which hospital will u b in? 