Breastfeeding Support Group Community

Just keep trying! It takes a few days for your milk to come in, so it is to be expected that you would not get much out when pumping, especially since some women have a hard time getting their body to react to the pump. Your milk will come in in the next few days and if you keep trying, your baby will learn to latch on. I had a really hard time breastfeeding my first baby, and I felt horrible, but I learned something that I wish every woman knew, and it's that breastfeeding takes time to learn and figure out. It's easy to get discouraged thinking that you can't do something that should come natural, but it's just not something that just happens; you have to work at it.

Some things that can help: (1)Strip baby down to her diaper and lay her on your chest with your shirt off or unbottoned so there is lots of skin to skin contact (lay a blanket over you so you don't get cold). This will help with bonding and lactation. Do this at least a couple times a day. (2) Drink lots of water and make sure you are eating a balanced diet. (3) Put your baby to your breast every 2-3 hours. Even if she doesn't get much milk, it's good practice for you both.

Don't worry about her not getting enough milk until your milk comes in. The way I see it, God designed our bodies to just make colostrum until our milk comes in and he designed babies to just need that for the first few days.

I hope that helps!

Keep trying you can do it. Lots of women have trouble in the beginning, I had a hard time with both of my babies. Take a multivitamin with iron so you don't get anemic. Lots of skin to skin contact helps. Put sucrose water on your nipples when trying to get her to latch on, I did this with my second and it helped her. Most hospitals have lactation specialist you can talk to. Take pain meds if you need to. The hardest thing is to relax but it will go better if you can. Keep offering the breast or pumping every 3 hours this stimulation will get you milk to come in. I had a harder time in the hospital so keep trying it maybe easier when you get home. If you don't want her to be formula fed keep working at it and trying different things if you need to. Hope this helps and ask more questions if you have them.

I am still trying. I do put her skin to skin, and try to get her latched on. She just does not want my nipple. I can understand that it takes milk a few days to come in, but I'm not even getting any colostrum out. Nothing but air. I wonder if the c-section has an effect of me not being able to produce anything for baby. A lactation consultant saw me yesterday, but she really wasn't much help. Basically her suggestion was to pump. Not much assistance of trying to get baby latched on. I'm going to meet with another consultant today. Hopefully she will be able to help me more. Thanks for your reply and help!!!!

Unfortunatly that is all some lactation consultants give for advice. Pump pump pump! Like that is going to do anything for you!!! You will know when your milk comes in because your breasts will swell and they will HURT!!! Otherwise pumping isn't doing anything other than hurting your nipples. One of my breasts wasn't producing after my milk came in and that's all they could tell me. They wanted me to sit and pump on it all day long. That did nothing!!! The milkgland tissue was obviously gone in comparison to my other giant boob that is full of milk. As far as getting your baby to latch on have you tried a nippleshield? They work great for a baby that is having troubles. My son did the same thing to me and we used the shield after that it was fine. However, I did not have a c-section. I do have friends that had them who have the same issue as you little or no milk. You may want to look into some studies of percentages of women that were able to breastfeed after having a c-section. It does disrupt hormones. But don't give up if it is going to come in it will be soon. Hang tight and try not to stress too much. I know your hormones are flying high and everything seems crazy. There is always formula...

I'm feeling sooooo much better!!! Finally saw some colostrum leaking out and got the LO to latch on a few times. Now I'm just dealing with the daddy who wants to continue to feed her the formula before I put her on the breast. He has a fear that she will not get as much nutrition because my milk hasn't come in. This is also a time when he bonds with her because he usually feeds her.

Once your milk comes in you can pump and put your breastmilk into a bottle so daddy can feed her and have that bonding time without giving formula. Best wishes

If you want to breastfeed, you just have to keep at it. Especially in those early days. Have the daddy sit with you and bring you water while you breastfeed (it is important to stay hydrated) and then give him the baby when you are done and he can burp her. There is plenty of time for bonding with daddies, but if you want to make milk you need to concentrate on breastfeeding. Your body will make what the baby needs. After a week or two when your milk comes in, you can pump a bottle or two for daddy to feed the baby. Good luck. Just keep at it!