Re lactating

[~*familyof3*~]

Hi all.
After a bad birth I had started to breast feed. Then got going was going fab till week 2. Bubs has had a bottle for a week what are my chances of re lactating?
Im desperate to feed my bub. Would I have any chance being its only been a week?
And how do I go about it

[Em_325]

I looked into relacting after I had trouble with DS ( I had stopped for about 6 weeks at this point) the lactation consultant told me to express with a pump every 1.5 hours to boost my supply and take motillium if needed and basically put DS on the breast as often as possible and only top up with formula when needed. I didn't end up sticking with it though as unbeknown to me at the time DS had a bad upper lip tie which is why he couldn't latch properly and I was still recovering from PND so it all got a bit too much. If you check out the BB articles there is one on re lactating that I remember reading. Good luck I'm sure if it's only been a week you have a great chance of making it work

[~*familyof3*~]

Thankyou ima give it my best try

[onthefly]

Congrats on your baby. Sorry things haven't gone smoothly. It is often possible to relactate, yes. Do you have access to an LC through your hospital? If not, I would suggest getting on to one in your local area (Lactation Consultants Of Australia And New Zealand | LCANZ) to help work out a plan that will work for you. Please also give the ABA a call - 1800 686 268 - or get in touch with your local group for in-person support and encouragement (if you haven't already).

There are a few key factors which will affect the likelihood of success.
1 - how long it's been. Roughly speaking, the length of time it takes to fully relactate will correlate to the amount of time since you stopped. So a week in this case.
2 - will your baby feed at the breast? At this age, it's fairly likely that they will, but if you need help with this, again, the LC or ABA counsellor will be able to give you some ideas.
3 - why did you wean? Sometimes the reasons for the weaning will make relactating difficult, also. It's useful to bear this in mind when you set plans and goals for yourself. If, for instance, you had a low supply then, it's likely you will still, so you may not get to 100% breastfeeding. It's still worthwhile and every drop of breast milk your baby gets is a good thing. If you had a bad latch, this needs to be addressed. If you lacked support and care for you, then again, your 'people' will need to get onto this.

To begin with, you might just see if your baby will feed at the breast and take it from there. The more time they spend there, the better, but to start, you'll still need to give formula, as it's unlikely you have a full supply of milk after a week (though you may not be *that* far off it). If you're able to take time out from other things and just feed and rest, then that can be a great way to start.
Pumping may be helpful if your baby is not so interested in being at the breast and you're able to get more milk out with a pump. Baby is better, however, so if your baby will suck , then don't feel you have to fit pumping time in there as well.
You can also talk to your health provider about drugs that may help to kickstart things.

The key to increasing supply is removing as much milk from the breast as possible - either directly by baby or via the pump. You can feed, feed, pump, feed EBM, feed again and then, if baby's still hungry, give a small amount of formula. It can be quite time intensive to begin with, but once your breasts get the message that they need to make more, then you'll find that you no longer have to do all this.

Here are a couple of articles that may be of interest

https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfi...-breastfeeding
https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfi...la-supplements

Good luck!

[~*familyof3*~]

So I thought I would come and update you,
I HAVE MILK!!!! Wooohooo
We extra help and advice from some lovely ladies from dd1s bellybelly group we can say we have successfully re lactated!

Buns is back on and my milks growing everyday. She is now having more breastmilk than top ups and soon will be just my milk.

Im so so proud I didnt give up

[Peace]

That is awesome! Good on you and your magic boobies! What a lucky lo you have

[Em_325]

You are awesome! You should be extremely proud of yourself well done

[onthefly]

Fantastic news!

[~*familyof3*~]

Thanks everyone. I honestly don't think I could have done it without the awesome help and advice I got xx

[OceanPrincess]

That's wonderful!! Well done you!!

[Frangipani Lou]

That's fabulous! Good on you!

[BellyBelly]

Wow, congratulations!!! I bet it was a really uplifting moment for you when you saw that you were making milk again Maybe you'd like to contribute your story to the BellyBelly article: 3 Inspirational Stories Of Relactation? There's always room for more!

Anyone else curious about relactation can find a BellyBelly article here.

[Joeve]

Awesome! Go you

[~*familyof3*~]

Thanks everyone
I'd love to be added to that

Were still going strong, have plenty of milk, so much that I've now got about a litre frozen spare too! Very pleased and proud I gave it the extra effort. But again I couldn't have done it without the advice a support from another amazing mother x

[BellyBelly]

Awesome - can you drop me an email at info@bellybelly.com.au? Would love to hear from you