Having tubular hypoplastic breast syndrome affected my BF journey
With DD, she was excusively BF for the first 5 days in hospital and I thought we were doing well, until she became extremely unsettled from day 3 onwards and when she was weighed on day 5 had lost more than 10% of her birthweight. The middies discovered that my milk had not come in. I was promptly put on the pump and DD given a formula feed. From then on I hired a hospital grade pump and expresed and gave DD formula top ups, but my milk never really came in. Could barely express 20mls even after 3 weeks so gave up and put DD exclusively on formula. I felt like a complete failure.
With DS was really determined to give BF another go. I did a BF course and was a lot more educated thanks to BB etc. Fed bub very regularly in hosie to try to stimulate supply but the same thing was happening, despite him being a champ at BF and sometimes being on the breast for up to 2 hours at a time, still no milk from me. He was very jaundiced, dehydrated and lost too much weight. From day 4 I was put on the pump and had to give him formula top ups. On the day i came home from hossie I hired my own LC and we put a plan into place to see what I was capable of. Every feed for the next week I would BF, then FF top up, then express to stimulate suppy (a grueling routine with a NB and a toddler!). Plus I was taking herbal remedies to boost supply plus 6 motilium per day. one week later the LC bought around her baby scale and I had to weigh DS straight before and straight after each BF and the difference in Grams indicated the number of ML's he'd just gotten from a BF. It was found I still had very little supply. I was subsequently diagnosed with tubular hypoplastic breast syndrome - where not enough milk producing tissue formed during puberty.
I continued to express (the small amount I could get) and mix feed DS for 8 weeks, before switching fully to formula.
I felt much better knowing I had done the best I could.
If I have a 3rd I think I will BF for the first week so bub gets colustrum but then switch to formula.