Breastfeeding In Hospital After Debacle First Time Around - Tips

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I'm one of those breastfeeding success stories *despite* the breastfeeding nazis, not because of them.

DD#1 was very sleepy when she was born (blame the peth) and they came along, manhandled me, shoved boob in mouth, insisted I express, then complained about how much I expressed. The usual, I'm sure you can relate. They didn't want me to leave the hospital until BF was established. Of course, after I got home, drugs wore off, baby woke up, my milk came in, and everything worked just fine.

DD#2 was the ultra-heavy-duty sucking model of baby. She'd suck a tennis ball through a hose, and she had apgar 9 and 9. So of course she latched on enthusiastically as soon as she was let loose near a boob, and wasn't keen on being un-latched so we were giving her fingers until we got a dummy. My milk came in on day 1 she was sucking that much. I didn't get any BF advice at all with this baby, come to think of it ...

DS is sort of an average of the other two. Wasn't sure what to do with nipples (you just lick them, right?) so it took until he was 6 hours old to have more than a cursory suck each feed. He kept falling asleep. Midwife said I wasn't feeding him often enough to get my milk in and supply up and that I should express. Pft. He got a touch of jaundice for a day or two, my milk came in on about day 3, baby worked out that boobies are the best thing EVER when that happened, jaundice cleared up, and now he's well on his way to being a roly-poly little barrel of lard like babies should be.

Bottom line - don't let anyone rush you or hassle you or get you stressed. If it is hurting to feed, change positions or try and sneak more boob into their mouth so it doesn't hurt. They really do need that bottom lip folded down like all the brochures say. If you've got an existing crack it'll hurt like hell as they latch on and then settle a bit later in the feed, and if you're not using the same angle that made the crack it WILL heal in a few days. Once they fall asleep on the boob and you can tell they're not actually sucking for milk (they don't swallow, or their tongue vibrates in this really freaky way), lick your finger, slip it in the corner of their mouth and get them off or you'll get sore nipples from oversucking. And don't bother with schedules, feed them when they're hungry, not by the clock.

And of course, try and relax and get in the mindframe that you're going to succeed by default, not fail Breastfeeding nazis make you feel like you're going to be a failure. If they do that, tell em to go away.

[MantaRay]

RE, I'm sorry you had such a difficult start. The rough, hands-on approach really is not the best way to be going about things. I do think though that the work "nazi" might be a bit strong. The midwives have good intentions but sadly many of them do not have much training in helping mums to breastfeed so they do the best they can. It would be great if they all had proper lactation training and were taught "hands-off" ways to help mums. But in the meantime at least mums can empower themselves with knowledge before hand as Fiona is doing, and understand their right to ask to not be touched.

[Mak]

Fionas - apologies if I missed something in your post I was wondering if they can they let you try and BF bub before they do the BSL. This was what happened with DD2 - it was a much more relaxed affair than I had imagined and they let me feed prior to doing them. When they did it was literally next to me and took about 5 secs. xxxx

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I do think though that the work "nazi" might be a bit strong.

I'm not sure where I picked that phrase up, another forum maybe? Seems to be in common useage in some circles.

Not the sort of person you want around when you're new to BF but they seem to be in abundance. Sit down, shut up and do what I say school of thought ... I think Fionas has had a very similar experience to me with them.

[MantaRay]

RE hun, I have certainly had experience with them also. I just wanted to point out that there is a definite problem with lack of training in a lot of cases, but that I think they are genuinely trying to help. And of course there are some fantastic midwives out there also.

Your post was very helpful BTW, thank you for sharing.

[fionas]

Mak - my ob's midwife said that they'll probably let me have a go but that theatre is so cold that it may not be v successful. Obviously I'll ask for blankets and all of that but I'm not going to stress TOO much about the first feed. I know in an ideal world it would happen, but if I can't control that situation then there's no point me getting het up about it too much and thinking it's the end of the world if I can't. That's exactly the mindset I had last time (if I give ANY formula, we're doomed) and I just got more and more stressed, upset and anxious which I think played its part in my milk not coming in until Day 6. Sorry getting off track a little, but that's why I'm aiming to be more relaxed about it this time because although the "I can do it, I'm determined to do it, I WILL do it," attitude works for a lot of people, it just doesn't work for me. I'm determined enough as it is, I don't need to put that added pressure on myself.

RumpledElf - that was VERY helpful, thank you and kind of reiterates what I'm aiming for which is to follow my instincts more and to relax rather than following what other people tell me to the letter and thinking I'm doing something 'wrong' if I don't.

I am a lot more relaxed this time. Although DD1 and I never got the hang of breastfeeding, I did try to attach her in Week 7 (when I'd finally calmed down ) and she went on a lot easier. That, plus reading lots of stories on BB, I guess has taught me that whatever problems we may encounter in the hospital (and hopefully we don't) it really isn't the end of the world and most are fixable. Rome wasn't built in a day. Of course, I'm still hoping I come home with lots of milk and a BFing bub rather than leaving the hospital sore, tired and in tears en route to the chemist to buy a bloody expressing machine.

[Mrs Jak]

Just wanted to say good luck for Tuesday and thanks for the post! I have had some similar experiences as you and need all the help I can get for this time