Breast feeding

I breast/bottle fed I pumped In between each feed from day 1 to build a supply.

It’s maybe worth saying that pumping to build supply is only advised if you actually have low supply? Most people supply settled to baby’s demand and pumping extra can cause problems if baby doesn’t relieve it. Pumping here and there (particularly if you have extra supply!) is I think generally totally fine for your supply (good to ask health visitor these questions too). I would wait a week or so or until you feel you have a rhythm with baby. Great to introduce a bottle early though so you can have a day/night off down the line! 🙌

I’m not an expert, just relaying what my midwife told me - she said it’s best to not pump for the first 6 weeks, as your baby is communicating with your body how much milk you need to make, and pumping could confuse it and cause you to make an oversupply. Again, I don’t know if this is the same for everyone or someone with a lower supply, just relaying what I’ve been told recently by my midwife😊

It depends what your reasons for pumping/ giving a bottle are. There is advice to suggest if you are breastfeeding to wait until around 6 weeks for your supply to be established as you can risk over supply if you pump before then. Also if you are giving a bottle you would need to pump to replace that feed to maintain supply. There used to be the idea that baby's can have bottle preference but it's now thought to be more flow preference so it's important if you are introducing a bottle to look into pace feeding which is more similar to the way they would feed on the breast. Some people introduce bottles earlier if they want a bottle to be given because baby's can refuse bottles. There are some ways around this though like cup feeding if baby is a bit older.

I exclusively pumped after 2 weeks due to issues with painful latch. I did a mix of bottle and boob at the beginning but by 3/4 weeks fully on bottles with my breast milk 👍🏻 do what's right for you! I'm glad I did what I did because I had friends who's babies refused bottles as they waited.. x

Thank you all, I’m determined to breast feed this time round as it’s something I wanted to do with my first born and I felt so guilty for not doing so. I’d just like to introduce a bottle so my partner can be involved as he’d like to feed too