When can you express

[Victoriap]

Hi All,
I am 23 weeks with my first so am new to everything.
I do plan to breastfeed and try to pump so my partner is involved in feeding.

I have had a read of a lot of the posts and got advise from a friend who breast feeds.

I just wonder how long after birth can you start to express and bottle feed.

(all being well of course)

 

[El1en]

The recommendation is 6 weeks so you have a chance to establish your supply and so baby is less likely to develop any latch issues through bottle use.

I do however know people who give a bottle a day from birth with no problems and in honesty my girls have always refused bottles at 6 weeks and I often wondered if I'd tried sooner if it would have been better.

 

[Victoriap]

The recommendation is 6 weeks so you have a chance to establish your supply and so baby is less likely to develop any latch issues through bottle use.

I do however know people who give a bottle a day from birth with no problems and in honesty my girls have always refused bottles at 6 weeks and I often wondered if I'd tried sooner if it would have been better.

Great thank you, so good to know and have something to go on before the arrival!

 

[MissKW]

I had a friend pump right away and sadly it didn't work out and she had to stop BF as her supply diminished.
I have not been able to pump as I don't get along with the pump we bought, so make sure you find one right for you!
I would say as above, get into a routine with BF before pumping, just because of my friends experience with it
I have managed fine just EBF and still haven't used a bottle 8 months in. I secretly enjoy being in charge of night feeds lol. To start with when DS was born hubby would change him through the night and I would feed to get him back to sleep so we worked as a team and took turns having naps the first week as we adjusted to parenthood.
It's now a doddle, hubby works away through the week so I'm alone mostly but it's been great, and hubby gets quality time with DS on a weekend.
I haven't found it to be difficult like people told me it would be, although we are very lucky to have such a content baby!

 

[Victoriap]

I had a friend pump right away and sadly it didn't work out and she had to stop BF as her supply diminished.
I have not been able to pump as I don't get along with the pump we bought, so make sure you find one right for you!
I would say as above, get into a routine with BF before pumping, just because of my friends experience with it
I have managed fine just EBF and still haven't used a bottle 8 months in. I secretly enjoy being in charge of night feeds lol. To start with when DS was born hubby would change him through the night and I would feed to get him back to sleep so we worked as a team and took turns having naps the first week as we adjusted to parenthood.
It's now a doddle, hubby works away through the week so I'm alone mostly but it's been great, and hubby gets quality time with DS on a weekend.
I haven't found it to be difficult like people told me it would be, although we are very lucky to have such a content baby!

Thanks for sharing!
Again great information and good to hear experiences.
I would really like to be able to pump for my sake as well as my partners, but will just play it by ear and see how things go.
I'm maid of honor 2 months after due date, so to be able to express would be very helpful then too.
How do you figure out what pump is best? I plan to try a manual, is it just a case of try it out?
Thansk

 

[WolfMamma]

I tried to pump with DD1 but couldn't get it to work at all. Didn't have the money at the time to buy another pump on the off chance it'd work so I exclusively BF instead. It wasn't as easy as being able to hand her off to someone else but actually I really enjoyed it as it was our time together.

I'm not even bothering with bottles this time, I'm just going to BF exclusively right away.

 

[MissKW]

I had a friend pump right away and sadly it didn't work out and she had to stop BF as her supply diminished.
I have not been able to pump as I don't get along with the pump we bought, so make sure you find one right for you!
I would say as above, get into a routine with BF before pumping, just because of my friends experience with it
I have managed fine just EBF and still haven't used a bottle 8 months in. I secretly enjoy being in charge of night feeds lol. To start with when DS was born hubby would change him through the night and I would feed to get him back to sleep so we worked as a team and took turns having naps the first week as we adjusted to parenthood.
It's now a doddle, hubby works away through the week so I'm alone mostly but it's been great, and hubby gets quality time with DS on a weekend.
I haven't found it to be difficult like people told me it would be, although we are very lucky to have such a content baby!

Thanks for sharing!
Again great information and good to hear experiences.
I would really like to be able to pump for my sake as well as my partners, but will just play it by ear and see how things go.
I'm maid of honor 2 months after due date, so to be able to express would be very helpful then too.
How do you figure out what pump is best? I plan to try a manual, is it just a case of try it out?
Thansk

When I bought it (the electric Tommee Tippee) I tried it vaguely and it seemed fine, however once I started feeding by boobs grew, nipples stretched and changed etc and it then bacame really uncomfortable, chafed and I couldn't really get much out. It was the rubber part which squeezed the nipple that caused all the problems for me, but at the time I thought they were all like that. I have since descovered that you can get other types which are just suction without the squeezy rubber bit (I think it's called a flange but I'm not 100% lol). If I have another in future I will invest in one without. You can also get different sizes of flange and cushion to help suit the shape and size of your own breasts.
You can also get plain ones which you just place on the breast your not using whilst nursing or expressing and it collects the let down (usually when you feed your other boob makes a mess of your cloths or bed if not using a bra/breast pads and so a lot goes to waste) . These are very affordable and from what I have seen very helpful and easy to use too so definitely worth investing in (again I didn't know they existed until DS was older and I didn't get the let down that I used to).
I just didn't do enough research, I thought a pump was a pump and they were all the same but electric or manual. I was wrong lol.
I think with expensive ones you can try them first, but you would have to check with manufacturers