Advice please

[LucyBellasMumm]

I have a 2 year old who I was unable to breastfeed. I think mainly as a consequence of some medication I was on at the time of birth she was very sleepy and uninterested. She also swallowed some meconium so ended up on anti biotics. I think also I expected her to be born and to instinctively know what she needed to do - silly me! I had plenty of milk and was expressing and syringe feeding her for first day. Midwifes tried to help but to be honest they were pretty useless. I ended up feeling a failure and that I was letting my daughter down.

I am currently 38 weeks with my second and would love to give breastfeeding a go again. Any hints or tips? I know I'm going to have to stay in for a couple of days after so happy to go to their breastfeeding clinic but want to be more positive and succeed this time. Are there any ways of making sure I have the milk again? Anything I should/could be doing before birth etc?

Any hints or advice gratefully received.
Thanks in advance
xx

 

[Maud]

Best advice I have is to be persistent. It can take quite some time for breastfeeding to be properly established and it can require a great deal of will power to continue during problems. You need a really good support network to help you too. If you can get through the difficult stages it is totally worth it in the long run though. Good luck!

 

[OMGbabyno3]

I haven't got any real advice I'm afraid as I was really lucky that my two seemed to know what to do. I'm hoping this one will be the same!

I didn't go to a clinic or anything, so this may be basic, but my dr said sometimes they get baby to nuzzle and smell then put a bottle in quick so they know what they'd get if they stay on boob.

Just relax, I'm sure it'll be ok x

 

[Rose83]

My advice would be get all the support you can for from the nhs breast feeding support workers. Mine came out to my house after I came home from hospital as I was in a state and baby had lost 10% of birth weight. The first week is stressful and bloody hard work, your milk needs time to come in and meanwhile you have this hungry baby but the best thing I was told was that breastfed babies want to feed all day and all night at first because it's how they are built to tell your body to make the milk so you have to be prepared to do nothing else at all apart from feed. So your OH and family need to understand that and know that you need them to support you when it's tough instead of telling you to give up. im just pretty obstinate generally and when I set my mind to something I really go for it so I was determined to succeed even though 80% of the people around me were telling me bottle feeding was far less stressful and I should just do that.

So basically persistence is key and making sure you have people who will support you and cheer you on when you Are doing a good job -
Which I am sure you will! X