Keep your family safe from germs and bacteria
Starting to breastfeed your baby
The whole topic of breast-feeding generates a staggering amount of contradictory advice from all quarters, professional and lay. Everyone considers themselves an expert. In fact, all professionals have the same objectives in mind: your baby should receive some colostrum in the first three days, and he should be sucking enough to keep him settled and content whilst lactation gets underway as soon and as easily as possible. Thereafter he should have enough milk to put on about an ounce a day so that he regains his birth weight somewhere between the tenth and 14th day (or even before). It is in the details of feeding practice that advice varies and this can be confusing. Don’t panic — these details aren’t that important.
Babies don’t need milk (they only need fluid) for the first three days. They are designed to go without, being born with a good reserve supply of nutrition. It is quite usual for them to lose up to 10 per cent of their birth weight in the first five days. Some are very sleepy and seem to be quite uninterested in feeding whilst others are keen to suckle immediately and seem to be starving. Unfortunately, you are likely to worry on both accounts.
Your milk won’t begin to come through until three to four days after delivery. You do, however, need to put your baby to the breast before then. Start as soon as you and your baby feel up to it but in general terms don’t leave it longer than 12 hours after delivery. Before they start giving milk — in fact before your baby is born — your breasts produce a small amount of a cloudy fluid called colostrum. This contains antibodies against infection as well as other goodies and is, from the baby’s point of view, well worth having. The suckling of your baby will also help stimulate the release of hormones which kick-start the lactation process (though if for any reason you can’t put your baby to the breast the milk will still come through).
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