Confused about the boob!

[Heulyn]

My MW told me that you can't express for 6-ish weeks after birth, but some ladies have said they're putting pumps and things in their hosital bags?

I wanted to let baby have the first few days / week of booby-juice, so it's getting all the good stuff from it, but I want to switch to or at least combine with formula.
I haven't ever really been keen on the actual breast part of BFing, and I asked if I could express, or express when baby got home at least, and she said no!

What's going on?
Can someone explain?
Sorry if thats all a bit gibberish xD

 

[Emmamb]

I don't see y u can't express from the start cos mothers of prem babies r often asked to express milk from day 1. Although baby suckling will help ur milk supply come in quicker,usually takes about 3 days to come in but at that point is difficult to express cos boobs r so ginormous lol xx
I wouldn't bother with pump in hosp bag either cos if u did need to express there then the hospital usually have pumps xx

 

[flexilexi394]

im completely new to all this sort of thing, i wondered whether i should pack my breast pump but really want to breastfeed so might not, as far as i know expressing can be done straight away, i think they just like to encourage breast feeding straight away as it may take a few days for it to establish so like emma said you probably need to breast feed from the beginning in order to have enough milk to feed baby. i guess you express successfully when your baby has suckled enough so that you have a good flow of milk. x

 

[JJ Mum]

Leah, don't worry t will be fine.

The only reason I am popping a manual pump in my bag , (hosps do have them), is two out of 3 of my kids have ended up nose tube fed , elective sections are nto the greatest way to pop into the world.

I want to make sure I can give my milk, as not gonna buy bottles this time, (well two came with the expressing things to catch the milk, but not feeding that way). I won't use it to start with unless nose fed again, just wanted to be ready. (Hosps have all the stuff should you need it, I just wanted my own options this time)

 

[Zazu]

I think if you arent going to breastfeed, you can express straight away, they encourage you to express if the baby wont latch on, so i dont see why not. I think some babies will get lazy if you give them a bottle an then try to get them back on the boob unless you have established breastfeeding first. I introduced a bottle after 3 weeks, and he was fine going back on the boob, although my milk supply has reduced quite a bit now (might have something to do with the lack of comfort feeds after introducing a dummy as well!), so i am probably going to stop breastfeeding soon.

Good luck xxx

 

[titch]

I used a breast pump in hospital as my baby couldnt suck for the first few days and ended up being syringe fed and he then went onto bottle feeding, although i realy wanted to breastfeed. my milk wasnt coming in very well so the breastpump helped me establish a reasonable flow of milk without using the drugs they were gonna give me. we persisted with breastfeeding alongside expressing and botte feeding and formula topups. he now combination feeds, using a nipple shield, and today has breastfed without the shield at all. they dont like you to bottle feed in general if youre going to breastfeed as they say babies will get confused as the way they suck from a bottle is different to BFing, but my baby has coped fine.