Formula milk

jellyhead

i thought the blood pressure drugs affected my milk, i was also very anaemic. it might have just been one of those things, it wasn't just poor milk supply it was none at all.

my hospital has won awards, with all of the midwives having been extensively trained in breastfeeding advice recently. they told me that the first few days are important for building up supply, so you shouldn't use supplementary bottles, and that shields etc. confuse the baby, as does using expressed milk. it is no doubt true, and there are probably people who feel that being pushed into using a supplementary bottle affected their supply. but with a baby who couldn't suck and a mum with no nipples to speak of, a shield would have helped push his tongue down and then maybe he'd have latched on properly. i also think expressing in the early days before leaving hospital would have helped my supply as it was pretty poor and just dwindled. my body seemed to behave as if i wasn't breastfeeding at all. the hospital said i had to choose one way - breast or bottle and he was starving. he hadn't slept, he was screaming and his face was awful, he seemed to be begging with his eyes and when your hormones are all over the place (on day 3, i got the blues and was in floods of tears asking the midwives to just give us a bottle) giving a bottle seems to be the kindest thing. it may not be the best solution in most cases, but if the baby won't suck then it just looks hopeless, as if you'll never be able to feed him.

this was the first time i'd breastfed though, as you say when it's the first time you don't really know what to do yourself. if i ever have another i think i'll be able to breastfeed and will also be gobby about the delivery, i'll refuse induction, or at any rate i'll refuse the drip.

just an aside - a bunch of mums of special needs children were talking during a course put on at school and all of the dyspraxic children couldn't latch on as babies. i don't know if that's significant, but it was as if their tongues were clumsy. the other mums managed to express, it was just me who didn't. they could all fill a six ounce bottle within a couple of minutes and the baby not sucking didn't seem to affect their milk supply. i must be an oddity lol!