Forum : Pregnancy

it is possible to combine breastfeeding with expressing milk to give to your baby. however, you should not express at all within the first 6 weeks after birth. this is because it takes 6 weeks for breastfeeding and your milk supply to establish. the problem is, after allowing your milk to establish for 6 weeks you run the risk that your baby wont accept the bottle - that is not to say that baby wont as many a baby will combine feed quite happily but you need to be prepared that it can take many months for some babies to accept a bottle after being breastfed.
it takes several days for your milk to come in so when you come home from hospital you wont have milk to express for several days. therefore, expressing and not directly breastfeeding so early on may prevent your milk from coming in at all.

i breastfed my first baby for 2 days before she became ill and she had to be readmitted to hospital. on the 3rd day my milk came in and i expressed and topped up with formula until she was well enough to start breastfeeding again but unfortunately having to express so early on had already begun to cause problems. my milk was low so she had to have more and more formula and i was pumping like a cow to get my milk back but by the time she was 3 weeks old i had no milk left.

similar story with my 2nd baby (now 9 weeks old). it took 5 days before i got milk so i had a starving baby so had to give her formula as top ups but i put her to the breast as much as possible to encourage my milk. i was expressing as well to help with my milk. however, circumstances went against me and i ended up with various infections and on antibiotics so was having to express only and throw my milk away due to the medication. i had the intention of going back to giving her milk when i was off the medication but my milk went again.

as i say though, it is possible, you just should not really express for the first 6 weeks. if you do choose to express then you wiill need to continue to breastfeed your baby for every feed and express between feeds so that you have got milk to give by bottle.

on another note though, feeding is not the only way to bond...cuddles, playing, bath time - all these things provide time to bond. if you want to breastfeed, then dont express immediately, give your milk time to establish and get your partner to do the other things with the baby.

It is possible to do both although you will get told all sorts and it can get confusing!! I had lots of milk so found expessing easy then some I also put it in the freezer which is handy if you plan a night out or even just a couple of hours to have you hair done or go shopping!!! Also used frozen EBM for weaning ( mix with rice cereal) my baby took both breast and EMB so didn't have a problem with not taking a bottle I think its all trial and error and the best advice I can give is go with the flow , and try not to stress, if you can't express then your parnter can help with every thing else changing bathing lots of cuddles he won't miss out, if you can breast feed its so good for both you and your baby although it does take 6 weeks to get a good routine and get the hang of it. Good luck!!!! X

Thank you both for your comments. Alot to think about.xxx

oh my god... Livi's Mummy... I'm just going to post on here what I wrote on another thread because it describes what I'm doing. What I don't understand is why your baby starved for 5 days?! Mine starved for 3 and the midwives behaved as though he was about to die, putting us under a lot of stress - how much weight did she lose?! It seems mad that the milk could take that long to come in. My baby didn't feed and yet my milk just pours out liek niagra falls every 3 hours if I don't express it!

okay, here's my other post:

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My boy didn't want to be breastfed, we had had real difficulties getting him attached for the first 3 days and by then he'd lost 10.4% body weight. I wasn't shown how to feed him properly before I went home and I'm now feeding him expressed breatsmilk only. Am filling up a whole Tommee Tippee bottle every 3-4 hours, which corresponds with his natural demand, which is really exhausting but it's worth it knowing that he's getting the best milk supply even if he doesn't want the breast. I would have liked to persevere with him but when I was offered help by the midwives in the hospital, rather than those at the birthing center where he was born, he was already 6 days old and I had been very ill on day 5 and quite frankly we were so exhausted we decided it was easiest to do it this way.

We enjoy the fact that we can share in the feeds but it does mean there's a lot of work when it comes to sterilising and it has taken a few days to get a routine with the washing. Now I'm about to try freezing some because I'm producing that much we're running out of space in the fridge, running out of bottles and throwing some away! My boobs are like rocks and I'm expressing to ease my pain at every feeding time anyway, so it doesn't really mean I can get some more sleep while my partner feeds him.

I'm using a Medela electric pump, as suggested by midwives, same as what they use in the hospital except it's a hand one, not a machine on a tripod...thing... which makes a LOT of noise and isn't as strong as the ones they have in hospitals so it isn't fun at all. We also got a hand expressor before but were told we wouldn't be able to keep up with all the hand pumping.... to be honest I'm finding it easier, MUCH quieter and more effective at drawing out the milk, so in a way that was _60 on an electric pump we didn't need.

When we got home we realised the sterilier we were given was actually broken so 5 pints of sterilised water leaked out all over the kitchen side and onto the floor and my partner got into a bit of a rage, so we just use a washing up tub with a plate laid over the bottles to hold them down in the water, kinda what we used in the hospital - and what our mothers suggested to use - so we have got away with not buying a steriliser! Of course we have to leave things in there for about 25 minutes until they're ready but we're on day 11 now and we seem to have things settled.

The plan is to keep going with expressing breast milk as long as possible before moving onto formula, but because it is such a tiring method of feeding I'm aiming for the end of the month and then I'll see how I feel about going on for another month.

I know for sure that with my next baby I'll ignore the midwives and get on top of establishing breastfeeding myself, because without knowing at all what I should have been doing my boy was left too long without that initial bonding and he was always in hysterics when he came to the breast, so neither of us were relaxed.
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- I'm just amazed at how many people have had such similar experiences, I don't know what to say...

Hi all..... i just wanted to add my experience of breast feeding.... when my daughter was born (15 yrs ago) there was a really big push for breast feeeding (although i had alreadty planned to breast feed).... once my baby was born, no one helped me to latch my baby on... i was in hospital for 5 days and only once did a midwife try to show me how to lacth my daughter on.. if fact they did it for me without talking me through it.

It actually came topo the point that i was sore sore and engorged (my milk came through within the first couple of days if i remember rightly) that i rang my mum sobbing, who came straight over to the hospital.

Initially the ward wouldnt let my mum in (it was father visits) but thankfully she forced her way in and showed me hoe to latch my daughter on.... the relief!!!!!

I had chosen to stay in hospital for the 5 days so that the midwives were on hand to help me learn to breast feed (although it did feel like they were looking down on me as i was 'only 18')..
when i have this little one i dont plan on staying in unless i have to (i would rather come straight home) and then my mum can again help me feed (its been 15 years!!)

I cant believe there is such an emphasis on breast feeding and the midwives even after 15 yrs dont seem to help.... mum really does know best!!!! xx

i think it also depends on what hospital. i was very surprised that i had bad experiences with getting help with breastfeeding while in hospital as my hospital is a large university teaching hospital. with my first nobody helped me - i had to ask for help and then i got a girl who looked all of 12 come and say what to do - nobody actually showed me. just before i was due to leave the hospital a midwife came and said she needed to see her feed, she went away and said she'd come back to watch. she was gone for 20 minutes but eventually came back just as my daughter was finishing a feed! i could latch her with no trouble once at home but as i said above, she was ill etc and i ended up not being able to feed her... i stayed in hospital for 18 hours after she was born (she was born just after 1am)
with my 2nd, i remembered what to do, i reminded myself through looking at books before she was born. i latched her on perfectly well. still, nobody at the hospital checked i was ok, checked anything about breastfeeding. they just had me fill out a form of how many feeds she had during the time i was in hospital but never once checked on me. again, problems ... ended up not being able to breastfeed. i stayed in for 14 hours with her (she was born shortly before 1am).

however, a friend of mine, whose hospital is not a teaching hospital, although quite big it is not as big as my local hospital, had a much better experience with her first baby. she said she wanted to breastfeed and she got a dedicated midwife who sat with her for 2 hours before, during and after a feed to discuss things with her - positions, latching etc, you name it and she got help with it. she breastfed exclusively for 6 months and then did morning and night breastfeeds with formula in the day. with her 2nd, she was offered help but it had only been a year since she stopped feeding her eldest so was absolutely fine and again breastfed for a year!

i already felt bad for not being able to breastfeed my two even though it was circumstances and not for lack of trying, but what made me feel worse is the way the midwife looked at me when i said i was putting fully on formula still nobody had helped. i may as well told her i was putting her on a diet of kebabs and fry ups at 3 days old as the look would have been the same!

Shelly it amazes me that in this day and age we didnt get help.... and all the posters they have up around the hospital and gp surgery pushes breast is best!!!! my sis didnt have help and again my mum helped her... but her milk didnt come through at all and she was left feeling very inadequate for not being able to feed which the midwife seemed to reinforce this feeling for my sister. SHe ended up with post natal depression coz of the inadequate feeling.

What i would probably say to anyone that wishes to breast feed is that to try but dont put to much pressure on themselves.... you may not be able to breast feed, and if you cant then you cant... you shouldnt feel guilty if you cant.

Like Enori... im stunned that some many ladies still go though this now......

Altough i hope these posts dont put anyone off trying to breast feed. x