Just wondering what everyones thoughts are? As a first time mum I am still unsure, would like to give breastfeeding a try but afraid of failure (and exhaustion)!!

Any second timers got any tips?

xx

Hi there,

I am soon to be a 1st time mum too and it is confusing!!

What has helped me decide is our hospital led antenatel/parent classes. I would recommend to go if offered in your area, they give you loads of advice and leaflets to help you decide. One thing i would say is hospitals do want you to at least have a go at breast feeding, due to the health benefits so it is a tad one sided and i know some of my friends felt pressured to breast feed.It is an individual choice, but please dont think of failure. I cant imagine for one min that it will be easy the hard bit will be sticking at it!

Good luck x

g/c but just wanted to share my experience. my ds is now 1 year old and was bottle fed. i had attended antenatal classes and a breast feeding workshop at the hospital and decided my baby would be breastfed as i personally felt it the route for us HOWEVER my ds would not latch on (many mw attempted to assist) and there was virtually nothing available when we all attempted to express. My ds was nearly 24 hours old, and the mw's continued to tell me i should persist trying to bf...my baby was crying with hunger, i was exhausred and i snapped and demanded formula! we have not looked back and dh felt involved early on and we were able to share night feeds in the early days. i guess what im saying is if u want to breastfeed then certainly try, but if it is not meant to be then do not feel you have failed...the most important thing is that you put your baby first and that means doing things differently for some women. there are many women who thoroughly enjoy breastfeeding and im sure some may post their own experiences. its a very individual decision and there really is no right or wrong. I would say that whatever u decide, it is worth reading up on the different formula brands so u can make an informd choice if u choose to bottle feed, or if you find yourself having to change your plans x

I think it's totally down to the individual and whatever works best for you. I did breastfeed for 11 months- I hadn't intended to go on for that long, but it was like pringles, once I'd started I found it hard to decided when to stop!!! I was very lucky though and hardly had any problems other than sore nipples. I applied Lansinoh as a precautionary measure rather than as a reaction to cracked nipples and think this probably helped a little.

It is a hard slog in the early days especially when the baby wants to cluster feed, but if you can ride that out it does get easier. I did express a bottle a day so dh could give dd her bedtime feed, be involved and give me a break! I did feel a bit trapped in the house in the early days as I was nervous about feeding when on the go, but start to locate breast feeding rooms/ suitable places where you'd feel comfortable now and then you can plan your trips and know you have somewhere you feel ok to go and feed. Most department stores and supermarkets have a dedicated room if you want to sit in private, but these are often located with the smelly nappy bins ( I dragged these outside the room!). My confidence was boosted when I invested in some breastfeeding tops from H & M, they cross over at the front and allow you to just pop the vital bit out and feed away with discretion. There's quite a few places that sell this design of top now. I felt conspicuous when I tried to cover dd with a muslin while I fed, but again it's whatever works for you!

I do intend to bf this time, it really helped with weight loss last time, was cheap, convenient and meant I didn't have to mess with bottles in the middle of the night! But if for whatever reason it doesn't work out, I'll switch to formula.

Don't be afraid of failure and if you want to give it a go, then do, just make sure you take advantage of all the help available, keep your fluid and food intake up, locate your nearest baby bistro for fellow bf mums and help and advice (usually run through the children's centres) or the NCT.

Hello

I BF'd my son until I found out I was pg with no2 - so around 15 months. I loved it & will definitely be BFing again this time round. It is so much easier & more convenient, as well as all the health benefits. It took a while to get the hang of but well worth persevering.

To be honest, I never considered that I wouldn't be able to BF, maybe I was naive but I never thought of FF as a possibility, so maybe that helped in making me persist. I would definitely recommend giving it a try but do have a relaxed approach if you can.

And apply lansinoh to your nipples after EVERY feed early on!!

Xx

Hi,

I would say give it a go and play it by ear. If it doesn't happen don't feel like you've failed, a happy mum is a happy baby!

I assumed I would bf for 6 months but DS wouldn't latch properly, the support was rubbish and I was constantly in pain. I admitted defeat after a few weeks and switched to formula. I felt awful about it at the time but DS was happy and healthy which was the most important thing.

This time i'm going to try again but various factors mean that baby is going to have to go onto a bottle fairly soon anyway so i'm not going to stress about it too much.

I think that the above advice is excellent.

In my case, this baby will be my third and I bf both before, eldest for 2 years and youngest 19 months. I would of been more worried about formula feeding just because of the measuring and sterilising and both my boys being sensitive to milk. I do worry about baby not latching on or having difficulties with feeding but if this happens ....shit happens! I have been really lucky with my boys, pregnancies and births. I couldn't imagine being in labour for over 24 hours then waking every 2 hours to feed a baby you would be exhausted for months and you wouldn't make any milk, through stress and exhaustion.

I think that the only advice that I could give is; try it, be prepared for it to be hard work at first but if it works for you and baby, its well worth it x x x

First time around I thought I'd bf. Didn't consider ff however my lo was born with a large cyst under his Tongue and had to have an op at 6 days old so he could feed. Be was tube fed at the start and although tried and tried to bf he just couldn't so from 3 days in I fully expressed for 3 months. He was ff from 4 months as I managed to express enough in the freezer for an extra month.
I am concerned how I will get on bf with number 2 as not done it before and with a demanding toddler but really want to give bf a go. I really hope it will be successful and I'm not one to give in easily. What I would say though is you need support and don't put pressure on yourself.

I breastfed my dd for 13.5 months, but had only ever intended to get to 6 months!! I was more than ready to stop when she weaned herself, and in fact I probably had had enough after about 9 months if I'm honest.

I'd say if you want to breastfeed go in with an open mind. Ante-natal classes will sell it to you as if it is the easiest, most natural thing in the world, but for many women that's not the case. If you go in knowing that it might be difficult at first, but having an idea how to overcome those problems then you'll be less likely to think that you can't do it, and less likely to feel like a failure if you do encounter problems.

I didn't have an easy ride to start with, and I found the first six weeks the hardest ever. But I'm quite stubborn so was determined to crack it. In the first six weeks I had sore nipples, cracked nipples, mastitis, problems latching, oversupply, baby who took ages to feed and a low birthweight baby who I had to wake to feed every couple of hours at first. And I felt so alone, especially in the middle of the night, as I had no one who could answer all my problems.

Then after 6 weeks it started to get easier, and by 12 weeks I felt much more comfortable.

I had a book called "Breast is Best" by Dr Penny Stanway which had advice for all the problems I encountered, but dealt with it in a matter of fact and non-preachy way. So that really helped. Lansinoh cream was a godsend for sore and cracked nipples, expressing a little before a feed helped with the latching problems until my supply settled.

I will be breastfeeding this one too, and hoping I have an easier time of it. But I will be introducing a bottle at about 6 weeks too, as we are going to a wedding where children are not invited when baby will be about 6 months so my mum will have to look after baby all day then. And I am going back to work after 9 months this time and will wean baby off bf sooner this time.

I think the above advice from both sides of the coin is great. I also tried, and failed, to bf with DD, due to various reasons (supply/latch/inverted nipples/re-admission to hospital due to drop in weight) and have to say I loved ff as I could share the load with DH. This time I think I'll probably ff again, and have prepared for it with bottles/formula in already, but will have a bash at bf at the beginning, as you never know, it might be a breeze this time! If nothing else, I want to give Poppet colostrum for the first 24-48hrs, by spoon feed if necessary which is what we did for DD.

Its very much an 'each to their own' thing I think...and dont let anyone (i.e. the Breastfeeding Mafia!) tell you otherwise - there is no such thing as right or wrong, only that you feed your baby when they need it, no matter how you choose to do it. xx

...and in case I offend anyone, by BF Mafia, I mean those overly pushy, self-righteous, bf mothers who viciously berate anyone who doesn't bf (NOT those impartial bf-ers who posted above with very good advice!) xx

My baby is 2 weeks old and I'm bfing. We've had no problems touch wood, have been very lucky, but it's still hard work obviously. I keep thinking about how the bottle would be harder though! Having to get up and go downstairs and sterilise and all that. Just chucking her on the boob while we're out is a godsend too, we managed to breastfeed in a sling wandering around Tesco as she started kicking off when we walked in and we didn't want to abandon the shop.

I'd give it a go, and if it doesn't work out you can go to bottle. Don't be afraid of failing - for some people it just doesn't work out and it doesn't make you a bad person! If formula was horrendously bad for babies it wouldn't be allowed!

What I wish I'd known when I brought my daughter home was that the first two nights were going to be horrific. Colostrum wasn't enough for her as she was a fairly big baby (9lb) and so I got no sleep at all as she just screamed as soon as I wasn't feeding her. As soon as my milk came in over days 3/4 she was so much more satisfied though, and I'm sure I get more sleep being able to just roll over and latch her on (our cot attaches to our bed so it's like an extension).