Hi Aricyn's Mum

I'm sorry you had such a bad time - I had an rotten time in hospital too and there were various reasons why I switched to formula but having 20 different midwives come in, grab my boobs and grab DD's head and shove them both together was definitely a huge factor. As I say to people, I'm not a delicate flower but I actually felt very traumatised by the whole thing and couldn't face putting her to the boob for a long time.

So I expressed from the moment we left hospital until she was two months old. But not exclusively, she was also FF.

I've got to say, I wouldn't do it for that long again. FF and expressing is exhausting because in the early days to get your supply up you're meant to be expressing around 8 times per day. Then that can come down to around 5 times per day. I know that doesn't sound too bad but I found as my baby got older, after I'd given her a bottle I wanted to play with her, not express. I also found myself feeling guilty every minute of the day that I wasn't expressing and I couldn't really enjoy life. If I made myself a meal I'd be thinking "I should have just had a sandwich to give me more time to express", ditto if I read a magazine or did anything really.

However, on a brighter note, at 7 weeks I thought to myself "OK, if you never put her on the boob again, you will always have bad thoughts of BF and you may not even try it for no.2."

So, I popped her on and it was a million times easier than it had been at the start. Now, I didn't persist because my supply was right down and I just didn't want to get into that whole cycle again because we were in a pretty good little routine and I didn't want to start from scratch again. But it did allow me to heal and it did show me that BF doesn't have to be difficult. So that has given me hope if I have no. 2.

But I'd say, take a "wait and see" approach. You might find that you do feel strong enough to try BF again - if not, expressing is certainly an option. And expressing will certainly allow you to keep your options open for as long as possible.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.