How early is combo feeling possible?

[YRose92]

My sister has announced her wedding for August, where I’ll be MOH. I’m due to be a become a FTM in late July. I’m panicking about the practicalities of trying to breastfeed such a new baby at a public event so early, would it be possible to combo feed to allow others to support on the day? I know it is not advised until BF is well established. My baby is obviously priority, but I can see pressure to live up to MOH duties whilst trying to feed bring v. overwhelming! Any advice very welcome

[HelloSW]

Congratulations to both you and your sister, exciting times ahead!I combi fed my 1st very early as she had terrible reflux. I BF her all day/night except 1 bottle (reflux milk) around 11pm which my husband gave to give me a bit of extra sleep.

She was fine and it helped us all get a better nights sleep. We were under the care of a consultant at this time but no issues with my supply, I went on to bf/express solely from 1-6 months. x

[NewPharma]

I was bridesmaid when little one was 6 weeks exactly. At that age you'll still need to pump any feeds that are missed (someone giving bottle) so to not damage supply or risk mastitis. I had my dress altered for breastfeeding access and just went and sat somewhere quiet to feed. I had expressed some milk and took it with bottles but because I still had to express I ended up feeding rather than bottles. Sorry it's not the advise you wanted but I tried and it was just too problematic. X

[Flora631]

My midwives suggested i express and give an extra feed to see if she was lazy I think. So different reasons to you, but this was after only about 2 weeks. She still has one expressed feed per day, so I can have some extra sleep, and it hasn’t put her off the boob. I got one of the hakka suction pumps (but a cheap Aldi version) and get a little at a time from the boob she isn’t feeding from throughout the day, which gives enough milk for a feed but then doesn’t require any time to do (as it’s just milk I would have leaked from the other boob while she’s already feeding)Hope the wedding goes ahead as usual, lovely to have an outing to look forward to!

X

[Claireeeeeeeeeeeee]

There are things you can do to help avoid confusion like pace feeding and having a teet that is similar to a nipple. As others have said that early on you will need to express when you would have fed otherwise you can get quite ill. You can get some nice dresses online that allow for breast feeding and at my wedding we made sure there was a room just for feeding always available as one of my close friends was breast feeding, so might be worth checking if something is available.

It's also worth thinking about how you might feel, depending when your due (as here they let you go to 42 weeks before inducing) and when the wedding is you may have only just given birth. I know I wouldnt have been up for even attending a wedding the first 2 or 3 weeks after giving birth let alone being MOH. I am sure it will be a great wedding but just being aware you might not be up for all the usual MOH duties.