Hellobee Boards

As far as I know (I am studying to become an LC, and I am an NICU nurse) there is nothing you can really do to build a supply prior to delivery.

The work starts as soon as the baby is born, make sure t have the baby latch within the 1st hour of life (and if you are unable due to baby being unhealthy etc, pump/manually express within the first hour).

Make sure you are stimulating your breasts via breastfeeding, pumping or a combination of both every 2-3 hours, around the clock. Ideally you want 20 minutes of stimulation every 2-3 hours. You can pump after baby feeds each time to provide additional stimulation, and tell your body to make more milk for baby.

Ensure you are well hydrated, that is key for producing breast milk. Get as much rest as possible, and avoid unnecessary stress as much as possible (I know that is difficult to say with a newborn). Stress, tiredness, and dehydration are enemies to milk production.

Milk volume won't usually increase until day 3-5 post-partum. Don't stress, that is normal! Milk volume will begin to increase at day 3-5 post-partum, but you don't hit full stride in Milk production for up to 28 days!

Most ressources I have looked at don't suggest taking any supplements during the first week post-partum, though I am sure it can't hurt if you really want to, I would be afraid you would be putting yourself at risk for engorgement.

There's a lot on Hellobee about what's worked for other new moms!

Laura of the Zhukeepers wrote a great three part series on it here:
http://www.hellobee.com/tag/breastfeeding/

Bee wrote a lot about milk supply as well:
http://www.hellobee.com/tag/milk-supply/

There's a lot of great advice on those posts, both in the blogs and also in the comments. Good luck!!

@Rosie Girl: we didn't have any bottles ready since olive came early and just used philips avent bottles because it's what the local pharmacy had. we just continued to use them.

i think she took to breastfeeding pretty easily though -- i was lucky. i know not all babies are like that (charlie definitely wasn't!). she was predominantly bottle fed the first couple of weeks of her life, but now it seems as if she only wants to be breastfed when she's with me.

i have heard that bottle working for some moms, as well as tommie tippee and playtex drop-ins.

Hi Rosie Girl,
All I can say, is I totally understand! I wasn't very successful with bf'ing my first DD. I think we only got to 2-3 months and most of that was exclusively pumping. I felt like such a failure! I never expected that I would not nurse her for very long...

Anyway, when I was pregnant with Baby 2.0, I was worried it would happen again too. But I did take what I learned from the first time and used it to my advantage the second time. I read up again and this time I was stocked beforehand with shells for sore and/or flat nipples  (no one told me about those the first time, not even my in-home visit LC!). This second-time around too, I also rented a hospital-grade pump for the first month to ensure I was doing all I could to increase supply. I had mother's milk tea and MMP capsules ready too.  Oh and the lady at the bf'ing store I bought them from made sure to tell me not to take the supplements while still pregnant.

Anyway, the good news is that Baby 2.0 latched really well compared to my first DD. We DID have some trouble though in the beginning because she had some bottles in the hospital... I do have to say I witnessed some nipple confusion (I used to not believe in it like most moms, but now I do). Basically after she would get a bottle or two and I would try to nurse her, she wouldn't open up wide enough for my boob. It got frustrating!!! We even had to use the SNS thing a few times and a nipple shield for the breast I have a flat nipple on (due to a lumpectomy I had years ago). But anyway, despite her getting temporarily used to the bottle in the beginning, I just persevered and gave her my boobs almost 100% of the time after that and she learned to latch with me again! Then for a while we would go from breast to bottle without a problem.

Trouble is, starting at 7-8 weeks, she started refusing the bottle. Now she HIGHLY prefers ONLY the boobs and it's sort of a "problem" that she doesn't like bottle because I'm so tethered to her... But I have to say that after my troubles with my eldest, I'm okay that we're nursing so much this time and as long we keep going day by day, practicing with the bottle again, we'll be okay. She is almost 5 months now and still on 100% breastmilk. I'm glad I didn't give up and learned from my previous experience. I don't know what your troubles were the first time, but hope you can overcome them and you can do the same!

@NYCaliMama: My LO did the same thing - took a bottle early on and then refused at about 10 weeks. The advice we got was to just persevere. It took about 2 weeks, 2 long, awful stressful weeks! LO now ( at 7 mo) takes a bottle, has no nipple confusion at all.

@Rosie girl : My advice? Give it your best shot and work with what you've got. I feel really blessed to have been able to BF LO but I also know that bottlefeeding is not the end of the world and it's not worth stressing yourself about. I figure you just do the best you can and do what works best for your family, including Mom. We use the Avent bottles, LO is fine with switching between bottle and breast.