Feeding and Bonding with your baby
It is your choice on how you feed your baby. You may feel determined and enthused to breastfeed or feel pressured from family/friends/society to feed your baby a particular way. I will state once again, it is your choice, my role is to provided some insight from my experience as a Doula and from working as a Midwife in UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative/BFI accredited hospitals. I’d like to provide a bit of information on different types of feeds and modes of feeding, explaining benefits, demonstrating and briefly covering any issues. If you find that you would like 1-2-1 guidance regarding feeding, I can provide support via the Online Video Chat, where we can discuss positions, lengths of feed, timings and anything else.
Skin-to-Skin
Specifically we will explain skin-to-skin between the mother/birthing parent and baby. It is beneficial immediately after birth and throughout infancy.
keeps baby warm, especially important in pre term or smaller babies
calms mother and baby
regulates baby's breathing and heart rate
stimulates your baby's feeding behaviour i.e rooting, crawling to breast, salivating, mouthing and searching.
causes oxytocin release which aids the mother's womb to contract and controls bleeding immediately after birth
promotes bonding and a life long loving relationship
Unless absolutely necessary, the baby and mother should be left unhurried and uninterrupted to enjoy their Golden Hour of skin-to-skin bonding. It initiates breastfeeding and maternity systems procedures should not be a priority over feeding. Once baby has been dried mother and baby should be left to enjoy skin-to-skin for a least an hour or until the mother chooses to end it (Baby Friendly Initiative/BFI UNICEF).
Infant Feeding and Their Cues
After birth you may notice your baby attaches and feeds with ease . This is because feeding is a comfort in the immediate period after birth, they can sleep for a long period as they recover from the birthing process, sometimes they seem to want to be held near their mothers, close to where they can be comforted and feed when they wish. This is normal. Be sure that you are as rested (as you can be) and are fed and hydrated well.
Within the first week feed your baby 8-12 per day (breastfeeding) and each feed should be at least around 20 minutes. If you find your baby is sleepy and they haven't woke in 3-4 hours you should wake them, changing their nappy usually wakes them or skin-to-skin will initiate a feed.
Don't be surprised if they feed a lot at night, this is nature's way of supporting a good breastmilk supply: hormones for productions is at it's peak at night. This doesn't mean you don't have enough.
Bottle fed babies should be fed as similarly to breastfeed babies as possible, in timings and quantity. The NHS state;
Newborn babies need quite small amounts of formula to start with. By the end of their first week, most will need around 150 to 200ml per kilo of their weight a day until they're 6 months old. This amount will vary from baby to baby.
What is important is that you recognise feeding cues, because contrary to popular belief, a newborn does not always cry when they are hungry, they will show signs beforehand. This is why it is so important to keep your baby close. Feeding cues are:
rapid moving of their eyes
putting fingers in their mouth
rooting; opening mouth as if they are about to feed
restlessness
crying (their last resort)
Hand Expressing
Hand expressing can also be used if you need to "pump and dump". This means to literally express milk and discarded.”Why on earth would you do this?”, I hear you cry, this is useful if a course of medication is not compatible with breastfeeding, but breastfeeding will commence after. Pumping and dumping can also provide relief if breasts are engorged and there is no baby or clean, safe storage for the expressed milk. Very full breasts that aren't expressed can become engorged and develop mastitis. Hand expression can relieve the engorgement without completely ‘emptying’ the breast, thus regulating milk production.
Your Midwife or healthcare professional can teach you how to hand express, however for many reasons, mostly due to staff shortages, this skill is often not shared to new parents. Check out this video short on How-to Hand Express on the D for Doula's TikTok account.
When expressing, ensure it is around your baby's normal feeding times and at least once throughout the night to ensure good supply for baby and comfort for you.
Storage
Breast milk/colostrum can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 hours at room temperature, which is around 20–22 °C (68–72 °F).
In the fridge (not in the door) it can be kept for up to 5 days if you keep your fridge at 2-4 °C (35.6-39.2 °F) and 3-6 months in the freezer. When thawing do this slowly at room temperature and use immediately, preferably being bought up to body temperature before feeding baby, do not de frost after thawing.Formula milk
I'm often asked, is it ok to feed my baby formula or artificial milk. The quick answer is yes! A lot of research and work has gone into creating nutritious and safe artificial milk for your baby. Plenty of babies are formula fed (I was as a child). Is it as good as breastmilk? again a simple answer is no. It's your choice ultimately, I am just presenting the facts so you make your very best informed decision.
Download this useful UNICEF Guide To Bottle Feeding below, it has trusted information about formula milk and how to safely prepare, store and feed your baby.
Cup Feeding
Cup Feeding is a basically just that, it's feeding your baby their milk from a small purpose built cup. It should have measuring lines on it so you can monitor your babies feeds. This is especially useful if there are any concerns with weight gain. Cup feeding is adopted when baby's can't feed from a breast and the parents would prefer to not use a bottle.
Here is a great vid on cup feeding and reasons why you/your baby may need to cup feed. The other reason I love this video is because it's filmed by a parent 👌🏾 It shows the effort/time needed to express 👌🏾 It demonstrates the technique to feed your baby to avoid spills 👌🏾 It provides reassurance that babies can feed via a cup.I’d recommend giving babies a good wind after as they take in a lot of air feeding this way. Here’s a How-to Wind TikTok short .
.I’d recommend giving babies a good wind after as they take in a lot of air feeding this way. Here’s a How-to Wind TikTok short .