MSE Pregnancy Club 28

clarabell1984

Thanks Mouse and big5! Your posts have really helped.

I decided to give the Breastfeeding workshop number a call to find out some more information incase I decide to go. She openly mentioned on the phone that the midwives in the maternity unit give one to one advice advice and support on the ward post labour so this will be useful in itself

I've will be doing plenty more research online in the coming weeks! In the meantime I need to get rid of this stinking cold!!! Came home early from work with the intention of having a nap but baby has other ideas :rotfl:

Thanks again ladies xx

PinkGladioli

Were going with the NHS classes which luckily for us are half a mile up the road, like Clara I found the NCT classes were all minimum 20 miles away and I'm not keen on the idea of yoga/hypnobirthing classes.

Been feeling really really tired most of the way through and midwife has finally taken a blood test to check my iron levels, slept 3 hours this afternoon, was up for work at 3 though

Now 28 + 2, when did everyone/are planning on sorting things out for the hospital bags? Xxx

cats2012

I've picked up a couple of bits for mine Pink but planning on doing it properly at the end of the month when I'll be about 34/35 weeks :-)

Beckyy

newcook, I'm glad you've found something you're happy with feeding wise. Have you tried a nipple shield? It may help Esme latch, especially if she's having bottles. I don't know how much the midwife advised about expressing but you'll likely need to express 3 hourly, day and night to build your supply, and express in lieu of any bottles given between this. It's veryyy hard work to exclusively pump, and to get your supply to keep up as babies are more efficientand geting milk than the pump, so I would keep trying her directly on the breast if it's something you'd like to go back to. I hope you're enjoying your new arrival!

clarabell1984

I'm glad I'm not going mad and not the only one who couldn't find NCT classes locally PinkGladioli! I really thought I was doing something wrong on the website!

I've started picking up a few bits for my bag but just when I've seen them or have been on offer etc I don't think you can ever be too prepared :rotfl: we're due just a day apart

FreddieFrugal

Don't ever let anyone (yourself included) make you feel bad about how you have to feed your child.

It's so easy, with all the focus on breastfeeding, to feel like you're a failure if you're one of the many people who have no choice but to give up breastfeeding.

Our son lost lots of weight because the milk just didn't come in (retained placenta which didn't clear til 5 or 6 weeks) OH kept going trying to breastfeed at every feed then bottle. He's managed to keep having a go himself until the last week or so, but at least we know he has had some breast milk over the first three months.

Most importantly he's amazing, healthy and strong. Rolled himself over for first time yesterday.

My advice is just do not let yourself get stressed about it. Don't let anyone make you feel forced to do something you're not happy with. The breastfeeding consultant we saw would have had my OH, breastfeeding, then bottle feeding or supplementary feeding, then pumping, then washing and sterilising all the pumping and feeding equipment - 8 times a day!

That was just insane - especially when she had to go through the disappointment of seeing less than a mm of milk coming out of the pump every time.

When that didn't work she wanted her to take medication which have been linked to heart problems - because they had a possible side effect of boosting milk production....NO THANKS!!

Seriously they've gone so overboard with breast is best - it is not best in all situations! For our son a bit of breast and a lot of bottle was best.

If we'd insisted on breast is best, he'd have been hooked up to tubes in the hospital for the first few weeks of his life and still probably ended up having to be formula fed.

FreddieFrugal

Just wanted to add that I speak as a person who completely overreacted to the news that we had to formula feed. I felt awful about it. Trying to find something, anything to read that would tell me it's ok if you have to formula feed was next to impossible. any read just made me feel worse.

Luckily I snapped out of that negativity soon enough. It helped talking to people at work and finding out that at least half of the women there had to give up breastfeeding for one reason or another.


But I still feel really guilty - I should have been more positive, those first couple of days I let it get me down so stupidly much and I know that added additional upset onto my OH who was already distressed enough about it.

I kicked that stupidity away and quickly realised that the only thing that matters is that your baby is feeding and that both you and th baby are happy!

What goes into your babies stomach inf the first 6 months may be important but it's just one of a huge number of ways in which you can help your child to grow to be a healthy and contented person.

So never ever beat yourself up because you couldn't do just one of those many, many things quite the way that you'd intended.

ThinkPink

Just popping back to give you my experience of feeding and classes.

I did the nhs classes as luckily in my area they are in the evening (2 evenings in total). I found the first week really useful as it was about birth plans, pain relief etc. It really helped me decide what options I wanted to go for, including placenta delivery. The second week was mostly about feeding and was very much geared around breastfeeding, and personally the health visitor leading it did come across as quite pushy.

I went into it with an attitude of if I can breastfeed I will, but I won't put pressure on myself. So I did buy a couple of bottles, a formula starter pack and a perfect prep (as it was such a good deal I knew I could have sold it on for what I paid for it). I'm so glad I went into it with this attitude as it turned out I couldn't get him to latch and didn't feel comfortable being pulled around trying to get him to latch so I opted for bottle feeding. The midwives were actually really good at my hospital and not judgemental or pushy, in fact a couple of the support workers were really helpful in assisting us to bottle feed as we struggled at first with that too... What I found out today is that my little boy actually has tongue tie which explains the issues we had (only found out as the health visitor pointed it out as he was crying after I got him weighed!!) Not bad bearing in mind he's 17 weeks old now.

I definitely agree with Freddie that you shouldn't beat yourself up if you don't breastfeed, do whatever is right for you and your little one.

Kynthia

Some lovely and supportive posts here. Everyone knows that breast is best but that doesn't make formula bad, and sometimes the individual circumstances mean breast feeding isn't worth the sacrifices to some but is to others. Unlike my first child, Grace was really good at latching so breastfeeding felt like a real possibility. However it meant I felt like I was ignoring my toddler as cluster feeding and building your supply can mean feeding for hours. Plus she was getting jaundice so I gave some formula to keep this below treatment levels. However 9 days after the birth she refused to feed from me anymore due to nipple confusion or just a preference for bottles. I was so upset I cried a lot, including a little in the supermarket and Boots. Skin to skin helped prolong it another week or two and I started expressing and freezing, which meant once I stopped I was still able to give some expressed milk for another week. The turmoil ends once you've actually stopped but the process cam be very emotional. Some of it is hormones as even people who stop after 6 months have a hormone drop and can get a bit low. I really enjoyed the time I did breastfeed though and took a couple of pictures to remind me of it.

Thankfully not all professionals are really pushy about breastfeeding and my midwives were very supportive about stopping and said it was great she'd had some colostrum in those first days which they felt was a real positive.

My nct class was great and tge group have become fantastic friends but there's no guarantee of that and there's not a lot you can do if there isn't a class near you. As long as you read up on the stages of labour, when to go to hospital, the pros and cons of various pain relief options, whether you want a natural or managed placenta removal and vitamin K for the baby then you'll have covered mist of what the class covers.

cats2012

So today marks another pregnancy milestone...my winter coat is officially going in the loft til next year. Personally I think it has another week in it but OH says I'm going to break the zip ��!! It's ok in the morning but as bump drops over the day it's really straining by the evening and whilst I could wear it open (and may if I have to) I don't think it's going to keep me very warm if I do.

So bring on layers and my very unglamorous waterproof if needed!!