I discharged myself from hospital 18 hours after baby was born because the care by the staff was beyond a joke. I had been breastfeeding fine day 1 but by day 2 baby was struggling to latch, so I got my husband to run to tescos and buy premade formula and baby bottles. I would try to feed my baby before the bottle just to be sure. Well on the day 3 visit by the midwife, when asking if we were breastfeeding I told her we had to use a bottle because he was starving and couldn't latch. Her response?I had an awful experience with my third. He just would not feed from me overnight. Until then, I was expressing colostrum into a med cup (Fed my other two perfectly fine myself). I begged and pleaded for a bottle of milk and they just told me to keep trying. I knew he wouldn’t. The poor mite was starving. They would not give me any milk and I couldn’t keep up. He was nearly 11lbs. I had a Hakka pump but it had a split in it The woman opposite kindly offered me a bottle in the end and I had to wait until my husband bought some up along with my electric pump. I made a massive complaint over that. I even offered them money for a bottle and they wouldn’t give me one. Maybe I should have been prepared but I didn’t anticipate any problems as my other children fed fine. I ended up pumping exclusively for him.
"We really don't recommend bottles before 6 weeks"
I was livid. The only useful suggestion she had was to try nipple shields to help baby latch, and they honestly were amazing! I'm having baby #2 in July and packing nipple shields just in case - just a suggestion for any worried first time mum's who want to breastfeed.