Question about hospital

[jo jo]

Hi All

Hope you are all well.

I just wandered if any of you know if you have to take your own bottles and formula to the hospital to have the baby, im planning to breast and bottle feed but i would rather get the hang of breast feeding in my own time and preferably at home, i k now you have to take all of your own nany clothes and nappies but not too sure on milk.

Also is your partner allowed to stay the night with you after the baby is born if you have to stay in, i hate being on my own in strange environments and i am especially nervous about hospitals and also i find the thought of staying on my own with a tiny new baby rather daunting??

Does anyone else worry about this or is it just me again being silly??

xx

 

[tracyM]

I expect it's different in some hospitals but at ours they provide pre-made formula milk in little glass bottles and pre-sterilised disposable teats. There's no facility to warm the milk, and the teats are not what I'd call 'nipple-like'. I bottle fed our first and third and it was a nightmare getting them to feed on those things while we were in hospital

I wouldn't wait until I got home to start breast feeding. If you have a stay of a couple of days, the breasts become engorged by that time and feeding becomes difficult, and baby misses out on the colostrum, which contains all the antibodies. It's not something that comes naturally to most women, the midwives will make sure you're both positioned correctly so your breasts don't get sore - cracked nipples are agony!! The midwives will probably give you advice about not mixing breast and formula milk, instead, express milk to give in a bottle. I had to combine breast and formula while our second was in neo-natal and it became really hard for him to get anything from the breast. Eventually, I had to express extra milk in between his tube feeds and throw it away so my breasts realised they were still meant to be producing milk for a baby.

At our hospital, partners must leave at the end of visiting (think it's 8.30pm) if you're in a normal ward, or they can stay with you in the day room. If you have a private room, they can stay as long as they like, but everything gets locked up at about 11ish and they make you fell really guilty if they have to get the porters to unlock the main doors. They're not allowed to stay overnight.

Most hospitals have a nursery where the baby can be put overnight. The midwives keep an eye on them and they'll come and wake you if baby needs feeding / changing, and they're then on hand to help. The midwives I've had in hospital after the birth are always loads nicer than the ante-natal midwives

Try not to worry to much

Tracy xx

 

[Urchin]

You will probably be very tired when it comes to bedtime so won't mind so much that you're in hospital.
I would definitley try breastfeeding straight away, as not only is it important to start early for the baby and the milk supply, but there will be lots of helpful midwives around, and it's not that easy to start with.

If you are very concerned, talk to your midwife, and ask to go on a tour of the ward. They are very secure places, and most wards tag the babies too to be extra safe. Good luck!

 

[Lyn_no3]

In our hospital the policy is that your partner can come and go as he pleases but can't actually spend the night... with my first my partner wasn't leaving til midnight and gettin back for 8 am lol
I felt like you about staying on my own but it wasn't as bad as i thought the low lighting and calm feeling was relaxing after giving birth, and knowing i had midwives and medical experts at hand really helped me relax around the baby. I would of been a bundle of nerves at home.
They have the same bottles as Tracey mentioned tho in our hospital, they aren't the nicest things and seem far too cold, if you want to breast feed then i'd definately try it whilst in the hospital with all the extra support because as mentioned correct positioning takes a little work and i found it really useful having help at hand.

 

[jo jo]

Thanks very much for your replies.

I just wandered about my partner staying the night because the maternity section at my hospital has recently been extended and my cousin had her baby in Feb and she got her own private room so i thought they may let him stay. But ill speak to my midwife on my next appointment.

I think ill breast feed straight away i dont like the idea of feedign the baby cold milk. Im worried about breast feeding though as im not going to know how much the baby is getting, does that matter or not?

 

[sasha715]

no i dont think it matters. my midwife has advised to feed on babys demand. that way u know they are feeding when they are hungry.
natures designed that way! we must have been able to cope with just breast feeding b4 bottles were invented!

 

[-Cat-]

jo jo ask your midwife if they run a breaast feeding workshop? I went to one last night and found it really usefull. There is quite a lot to it and its not as easy as you might think and many women struggle with it at first. My midwife recomends puting the baby straight to breast and not giving a baby a bottle of even expressed milk untill its latching at the brest fine, as this can inhibit the baby from breast feeding properly. if your baby has to be in a special care unit for some reason its recomended that its fed via a spoon or cup, so it dosent get used to a bottle before the nipple.