9 months finished,my 15 days of happy... - Fertility Network UK

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9 months finished,my 15 days of happy ending

fancyface13 profile image
16 Replies

Hello ladies I'm sure some of you remember me I posted a while back after my successful embryo transfer. My baby was born on the 9 March. Born with jaundice and was treated for it. He only came home last week. While on treat mentioned Dr said I must not breastfeed and only last week he said I can breastfeed

My problem is that I have flat nipples and baby is unable to such. I have been expressing milk in a bottle now my mik is less and It's like drying out.what can I do do increase my milk again.im very frustrated and want to breastfeed my baby at the moment he is getting formula because when he was on treatment he was given formula milk.please assist.

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fancyface13
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16 Replies
Amanda86 profile image
Amanda86

Congratulations on the birth of your baby boy 🙂

I’ve no tips on how to get baby to latch, might be worth calling your health visitor to see if they can offer any advice?

I plan on expressing but not breast feeding and I asked my Midwife the best way to keep the flow going and her advice was that I should express every 3-4 hours everyday and this should help encourage the flow to continue. Are you expressing regularly?

Hopefully someone can give you some more useful advice 😘 xxx

fancyface13 profile image
fancyface13 in reply to Amanda86

Hi I'm expressing twice a day...and I am drinking rooibos tea as I was advised that it also helps. I'll try every 3-4 hours as well.

Amanda86 profile image
Amanda86 in reply to fancyface13

Hopefully if you express 3-4 hourly this might help your flow increase. Good luck xxx

fancyface13 profile image
fancyface13 in reply to Amanda86

Thank you

gemma36 profile image
gemma36

Why did the doctor tell you not to breastfeed? My daughter had jaundice and I was told I could still breastfeed without any problems. I did just that and my daughter was absolutely fine

fancyface13 profile image
fancyface13 in reply to gemma36

Hi I'm not sure why Dr said I must not breastfeed for the whole of the week.i only expressed milk the first 3 days and had a lot of milk. They nurses said I must still continue to express milk ..did that twice. only.and when I got discharged and my baby stayed at hospital I only expressed twice at home.my breasts were getting ful and leaking then I would express a little bit to get relief of leaking milk. But didn't store it.

gemma36 profile image
gemma36

I think you need to express more than 2 times a day. Just think if you were breastfeeding your baby would be feeding more than twice a day. You have to keep expressing to make your body realise you need more milk. Expressing in the middle of the night is meant to be good as this is when you make the best milk so my midwife told me.

Tugsgirl profile image
Tugsgirl

Not advice re; breastfeeding but congratulations xx

gemma36 profile image
gemma36

Also do you have a breaststart group near you. I used to go to one and they normally have volunteers and a health professional there ready to give you help and advice on all this breastfeeding related. Sometimes the groups also have a Facebook page where you can get advice

Elynn profile image
Elynn

Call LeLeche League or NCT breastfeeding advisor. Keep expressing and put baby to breast to suckle. Your midwife shoul$ be able to help. Huge congrats on your baby.

Scarlett13 profile image
Scarlett13

Hi, please ask for advice from your health visitors or go to your health visiting baby clinic, or a breastfeeding support group. Try and express as regularly as possible. Having your baby near you when you express will help you to get more out as it will alert your hormones to send more. Having a warm bath beforehand, being relaxed as possible will all help. X

Kempton profile image
Kempton

Porridge is very good for milk production, so try eating that for breakfast each day. You could also try having a hot shower before expressing or try holding a warm flannel on your boobs before expressing. Fenugreek supplements are also meant to help milk production but beware these will make you stink, and could make you and your baby very windy! Also, easier said than done but try Not to stress about it because that has an affect on thee body's ability to make milk.

Hope it works out for you!

Allieollie21 profile image
Allieollie21

Hi

I have one flat and one inverted nipple (I didn't know this was even a thing until I started breast feeding!) so breastfeeding was challenging for a while. I would recommend nipple shields and I bought the lanisoh latch assist - both really helped my baby to latch on. Fenugreek is supposed to help milk production and nipple stimulation.

Good luck and keep trying to get your little one to latch on, this will be the best thing for milk production if you want to breastfeed.

Flimzee profile image
Flimzee

Congratulations on the birth of your baby. I had about a week’s delay in breastfeeding with my daughter as she was in NICU. I was told not to give her formula and to put her to the breast every two hours. I am not sure whether your baby is taking anything from the breast but if not, this might not feel possible for you. If you do give formula it would be helpful to express anyway and you can give this to your baby in a bottle or freeze it for another time. Lots of skin to skin contact will help. With milk production. I would also recommend going to lots of breast feeding clinics and getting advice from different people - different people have different ideas/advice. Keep up your fluids too as this will help. A breast feeding counsellor advises the following website which I found very helpful: kellymom.com/hot-topics/low...

Good luck with it all xxx

Lynnr54 profile image
Lynnr54

My little one had tongue tie when he was born so couldn’t latch. I spent the first 2-3 weeks pumping before his tongue tie was treated and I got him feeding properly.

Your breasts are really clever things. They make milk on a supply and demand basis. So the more you feed/pump, the more they produce. As you’ve only been pumping twice a day to relieve your fullness they will think that it isn’t needed and will stop producing as much. If you are wanting to breastfeed full time again then you need to start pumping a lot more often - to your baby’s feeding schedule. For the first couple of month's of life my LO fed every 3 hrs so I would suggest trying that to start with to get the flow going again. It might take some time but stick with it and you’ll get there. If you massage your boobs for a bit before and during pumping they that should help too. If your OH is still on pat leave then I’d get him to feed the baby whilst you pump and then you will get a bit of time in between feeds to do other things.

I read that oats were good for helping you to produce milk so I ate loads of those. There was other stuff as well but it was a long time ago so I can’t remember exactly what it was but there’s loads of advice out there.

Re getting your baby to latch I don’t have any advice other than keep trying every feed before offering the bottle. Mine wouldn’t latch to start with after his tongue tie was cut and then suddenly one day he did it and we went from there. There are loads of breast feeding support groups out there that are worth checking out. If you can find one with a breast feeding councillor attached then even better as she can watch you and give you advice. Or if you did NCT then contact whoever did the breastfeeding session there and ask them. I also second the Kellymom website that someone posted about below - I found that really useful.

The other thing I would suggest is to give your little one your milk rather than formula (or top up with formula if you’re not making enough milk). The reason I say this is that your breast milk tastes different each time you feed depending on what you’ve eaten. Formula always tastes the same. There is a risk that if the baby just has formula, he might reject something which tastes a bit different as it will be strange for him. By bottle feeding him your milk you’re getting him used to the different tastes so when he eventually does latch it won’t be strange to him.

The first weeks are difficult until you both get used to it. You sound like you’re doing a great job so far in what can’t have been an easy time. Stick with it and I’m sure you’ll get there x

DianeArnold profile image
DianeArnoldPartnerNurseFertility Network UK

Hi fancyface13.. Well done with little one, lovely to hear. If you had been my patient, I would have encouraged wearing nipple shields to encourage your nipples to come out and play! Expressing milk every 3-4 hours and also at the hospital to give baby. Hope all works out OK. Diane

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