Breast feeding

[May37]

Hi all. I was seriously ill after birth, heart attack, now got pneumonia. Its been 3 weeks since birth has anyone started this later, or shall I forget it. She's currently staying with a friend and OK on the bottle.

[Seb9]

Hi sorry to hear you've been so ill, congratulations on the birth of your baby.

I would definitely advise speaking to a lactation consultant about how best to go about getting breastfeeding started.

If you're still producing milk I would definitely recommend lots of skin to skin contact with baby and see if they latch on, any amount of sticking and latching on will increase production of milk. Also you could try pumping regularly as you could feed this to baby especially if they take a bottle well and this will increase your supply too. You could also see about a prescription of Domperinon to help increase supply.

Lots of luck x

[roxannacar]

That sounds like a rough start! Hopefully things will.settle down. The question is if you're still lactating or not firstly. Will be tricky to restart your body to lactate if it stopped.

I would not touch domperidone if I were you are they are safety warnings re. This with heart conduction issues so far a heart attack it's a no no.

I think you need to liase closely with your doctors. You will need to be on a lot of meds after heart attack some of which could pass into br eastmilk so you need to.ask about these. Ultimately as long as baby is being fed and making sure mummy is healthy having the treatment she needs is the most important thing.

[May37]

Hi thanks. I haven't lactated, maybe just shock and blood loss. So maybe too late. Midwife has not been v helpful

[Hidden]

I hope you are recovering ,what a traumatic time. Try NCT breastfeeding helpline or national breastfeeding helpline, I don't know if they have the specialist knowledge you need having been so ill, but they are lovely helpful people if you want some emotional as well as practical support! Most important thing is your recovery so you can look after your baby when you are ready. So don't put pressure on yourself. Good luck x

[claire16c]

Hi May. I would definitely advise contacting an IBCLC. They will be best placed to help.

lcgb.org/find-an-ibclc/

[Octoberbaby2019]

Hey there,

I'm so sorry to hear that you've been so ill, I hope you're better now and can enjoy your child. Big virtual hugs!

It's good you want to try and breastfeed but if you can't please don't stress yourself out because there isn't anything wrong with formula, the most important thing is that you are both happy and healthy x

And as the others said best to contact the lactose helpline or health visitor x

[Gloria_B]

Hi there! Sorry about that and happy that you are now feeling ok. It is definitely possible to breastfeed, many mothers are able to re-lactate. Please contact La Leche League via phone or email or find a zoom group laleche.org.uk/find-lll-sup...

I know they will be able to point out to the right direction!

Take care!

[Dal2020]

Hi May, I really struggled with starting to breast feed it took probably around 6 weeks for it to even start to work for me. I saw a lactation expert after 3 weeks of no luck at all, I met her a few times and she was really helpful. You can get your supply to restart even if you haven’t been breastfeeding from the start. I was never very successful with expressing and couldn’t get very much even though I tried many times daily but despite this after spending time learning the technique (watching you tube videos) and persevering with continuing to offer the breast I was successful. It can be harder once they have got used to the bottle but you can do it. Mums who adopted can also produce breast milk so I don’t think it’s too late for you if it’s something you are passionate about. In time my daughter started preferring breast milk and I’m still breastfeeding 2 years on. I hope this info helps, I created an account just to reply to you when I saw your message as I remember being in your position. Formula is also amazing if you decide to go down that route and my daughter was combi fed until she went onto cows milk. Good luck xx