Breast or bottle feeding?

supermaiden

I think it is definitely worth trying to BF! It has a lot of benefits and if it works for your OH then that is great. At least if they get the first stuff then it is something. (cant remember the name lol)
My LO had trouble latching on so would have screaming for an hour before he got on and I had to stay in hospital for 5 days since I couldnt get him on on my own, in the end I was more than ready to go home and I decided to express rather than have him crying to be on the breast. I expressed while in hospital and had a LOT of milk. I was getting a good 150mls and had a nice little stash in the hospital fridge lol. Came home and expressed until day 11 when I just finally had enough. It was very time consuming with my little express machine and I was too stressed to go out incase we didnt have enough milk with us.
Now we are on formula and it is just a lot easier in that sense. We can go out and know we have enough milk with us! Ok there is the sterilising etc but Im finding it much better to not be so stressed.

I know people who have taken well to BFing though so I do think its a personal choice. No one will think any different of you whatever choice is made

Ravenlady_2

Every 5/6 days pop £8 in a jar and watch it add up, that's how much the Breastmilk is worth to your wallet.
The initial breastfeed's help seal the babies gut as well as passing on immunity, also in maternity wards they've made it pretty damn hard and awkward to bottle feed, some unit you have to bring your own in and pay to use the steriliser or the midwives make you literally beg for baby milk only to make you feel about an inch tall (i swear they get off on it sometimes)

I think its more important to try bf first than make a decision before baby is here, its harder to try bf 2 or 3 weeks down the line.

gratefulforhelp_2

OP you will be doing right by your family if you encourage your OH to breastfeed, support her when she does, and support her if she really can't continue.

Good things you can do are - offer to fetch her a drink and or snack when she sits down to feed, put the radio/tv/book on or in reach, make sure she has some decent nursing bras, and be very calm about the fact that it can take a lot of time to start with, and she won't have time for a lot else.

If she does manage to keep going, she will feel very proud. If she doesn't then you can support her so she doesn'y feel bad.

dantheman2010

Thanks for the masses of replies, all much appreciated.

She has said she will try BF and then if she doesnt feel comfortable or if little'un doesnt take to it then switch to bottle feeding. I have said I will support her in both.

Scorpio_girlie

Hi
When I was pregnant, the thought of breast feeding made me shudder, however, I felt that I should give it a go. When my little one was born I was consumed by this desire to breast feed him . . . wow! what a turn around!!! It didn't come easy, but I persevered, and won the day. It was so easy, we didn't have to prepare milk to go out, or worry at 10 o clock at night that we had run out of formula etc. From somebody who felt slightly repulsed by the idea of having something attached to me like that, I went on to breast feed for 2 years!!! Ultimately, your OH needs to do what she feels comfortable with, as a stressed Mummy means a stressed baby! Good luck with making the decision.

Scorpio girlie x

LegalBlonde

I am very early on in pregnancy but have always wondered about this.

When people say bottlefeed, I assume this is like formula milk from birth.

Are you not able to breast pump and then just put that in bottles?? Or is that only for the odd occassion, does it not come out on demand?? LOL sorry but I am pretty confused :cool:

At this stage I don't think I would want to bf, but if I could pump it into lots of bottles isn't that best of both

I must be missing something

Gillyx

Legal Blonde, your milk gets into a pattern, as and when your baby feeds, so it's like supply and demand if that makes sense. I think to pump exclusively from birth would be an awful chore, you'd have to spend some amount of time expressing, aswell as all the sterilising of bottles etc.

borokat

I would definitely give the BF a go, then if she doesn't like it at least you've had a try.
I would have thought it would be more convenient to BF as you don't have to mess about with bottles etc and can just pop baby on (assuming it all goes well of course). My sis is BF at the moment and her baby is so contented and thriving, he has put on nearly 3lbs since he was born mid August.
Whatever you do don't discount one method based on a very limited comparison of 2 babies.

LegalBlonde

Gillyx wrote: »

Legal Blonde, your milk gets into a pattern, as and when your baby feeds, so it's like supply and demand if that makes sense. I think to pump exclusively from birth would be an awful chore, you'd have to spend some amount of time expressing, aswell as all the sterilising of bottles etc.

Thank you Oh I see. So I think those pumps are probably just for one off occasions like if mum is going away or something.....hmmm.

Lirin

For much the same reasons as Gilly, I plan on trying breastfeeding when Hitchhiker makes an appearance in December.

However- it's everyone's personal choice, and if I struggle with breastfeeding, I refuse to be badgered into continuing, and will happily switch to bottle. At the end of the day, as long as baby is getting fed whichever method is the least stress is surely best?