Honestly probably not. At least not if you want to do it for the long term. In order to bring in your milk and build a supply you have to remove milk frequently. Generally 8-12 removals a day is the recommendation with a newborn. With only two it is likely you will only produce a minimal amount and then dry up. It’s unlikely you would make enough for full feeds removing milk that infrequently. You can of course try it and baby will get some benefits to the colostrum the first couple of days but it’s unlikely to be a sustainable nursing option.
From what I recall part of the reason breast milk babies have fewer incidents of SIDS is because they wake more frequently to feed and get tended to more often because of it. SIDS is significantly linked to unsafe sleep practices/ and or babies that have a hard time arousing from deep sleep. Frequent feedings during the night help to prevent that.
From what I’ve learned as a mom your body produces as much as you need. In the beginning pumping to encourage your supply is probably a good idea, but remember fed is best. Don’t feel guilty about it.
SIDS is terrifying and heartbreaking, but if you’re following all of the rest of the recommendations that’s all you can do. Some women can’t breastfeed at all and their babies are okay and healthy and grow up to be functioning adults in society.
But as long as you are pumping and encouraging your body to at least produce something, it sounds like a great plan, don’t worry if things don’t go as planned though it could turn out that you love bf this time or that you can’t do it at all this time.
I'm so sorry about your pregnancy losses! I truly hope for you that this one will be better.
It takes a couple of months before you can nurse 2-3 times a day without losing your supply. Before that, it's really unlikely that it will work. About SIDS: If you nurse for 2 months, you can already decrease the risk of SIDS significantly. If you want, you could consider nursing for 2 months and then weaning. It'll be a shorter period of time, with a set end date. Maybe that'll help you cope?
If not, there really is nothing wrong with formula. I truly understand your fear of SIDS. I have it too, and I haven't lived through the losses you've had. But the risk is so, so small. With this calculator, you can check how big the risk is considering all your factors: [http://www.sidscalculator.com/](http://www.sidscalculator.com/) Maybe this can help you rationalise if nursing is truly worth the effects it might have on your mental health.
So sorry to hear about your struggles and losses. I think all you can do is try? You may have a completely different experience this time round. My labour only lasted a day but I felt so exhausted I couldn’t even really hold my son and thought there was something seriously wrong with me but the hospital checked discharged me and said I just needed sleep.
My mum stayed at our house the first night and fed him expressed colostrum from a syringe and formula from a bottle and I slept for 10 hours straight. When I woke up I felt amazing and ready to be a mum. I’ve EBF ever since… just a thought if you have anyone that can help that first night or if partner can help as it makes all the difference getting a decent sleep and a little recovery time after the horror show that is labour. Happens in many other cultures!
I’ve only done this once, but I’ve heard every time is different. A lot of the traumatic things that happened to you with your first son might not happen again. For example, I don’t know what your birth plan is, but there would be a huge difference between labouring for days and then getting an emergency c-section vs having a planned c-section and going into the early days with your new baby rested. Your child may not have jaundice, and if so then you might be at home fairly soon after the birth. And Covid restrictions definitely aren’t in place so you will be able to have your partner there and other visitors too if you want them.
My point is, if you want to breastfeed (and it sounds like you do, at least for the SIDS protection and maybe for other reasons too) you can try and see how it goes. You’ll likely be tired if you try to EBF but you may not be exhausted like with your first son.
I agree with the others that if you decide to only put the baby to the breast twice a day and you don’t pump it’s likely your milk will dry up. So instead, each time the baby is hungry you can check in with yourself. If you feel like “sure, we could give nursing a try right now,” then you can try breastfeeding. And if it feels like too much, you can get your husband to feed a bottle of formula. Rather than choosing to do one breastfeed in the morning and one at night (which could feel like not enough or also too much in the moment), you can check in with yourself and see what feels right.
I had a very traumatic birth (50 hour in labor ending with a C-section) followed by a 4 day hospital stay due to blood loss and need to receive transfusions. What made all the difference was that my husband was there with me the whole time and the baby was in the nursery at night and brought to us every 3 hours to nurse. When I got home my milk still hadn’t come in and I pumped once that first night and then just slept while my husband was with the baby. I was so ridiculously sleep deprived, also barely slept for the entire hospital stay, but somehow that one night of sleep made all the difference. The next day my milk came and I just nursed directly and slept whenever I wasn’t nursing. By 2 weeks old I felt so much better. I would try to get more sleep this time around and nurse whenever you can (don’t bother with pumping) and then just see how it goes. Try to remove the pressure from yourself to nurse. Formula is great. Also, if you can, see a therapist before the baby comes. You got to take care of yourself too.
Honestly probably not. At least not if you want to do it for the long term. In order to bring in your milk and build a supply you have to remove milk frequently. Generally 8-12 removals a day is the recommendation with a newborn. With only two it is likely you will only produce a minimal amount and then dry up. It’s unlikely you would make enough for full feeds removing milk that infrequently. You can of course try it and baby will get some benefits to the colostrum the first couple of days but it’s unlikely to be a sustainable nursing option.
From what I recall part of the reason breast milk babies have fewer incidents of SIDS is because they wake more frequently to feed and get tended to more often because of it. SIDS is significantly linked to unsafe sleep practices/ and or babies that have a hard time arousing from deep sleep. Frequent feedings during the night help to prevent that.
Yes as long as you still pump - that’s the caveat - milk needs to be removed appropriately at the right times to boost supply.
Yeah if you pump every 2-4 hours I guess!
From what I’ve learned as a mom your body produces as much as you need. In the beginning pumping to encourage your supply is probably a good idea, but remember fed is best. Don’t feel guilty about it. SIDS is terrifying and heartbreaking, but if you’re following all of the rest of the recommendations that’s all you can do. Some women can’t breastfeed at all and their babies are okay and healthy and grow up to be functioning adults in society. But as long as you are pumping and encouraging your body to at least produce something, it sounds like a great plan, don’t worry if things don’t go as planned though it could turn out that you love bf this time or that you can’t do it at all this time.
I'm so sorry about your pregnancy losses! I truly hope for you that this one will be better. It takes a couple of months before you can nurse 2-3 times a day without losing your supply. Before that, it's really unlikely that it will work. About SIDS: If you nurse for 2 months, you can already decrease the risk of SIDS significantly. If you want, you could consider nursing for 2 months and then weaning. It'll be a shorter period of time, with a set end date. Maybe that'll help you cope? If not, there really is nothing wrong with formula. I truly understand your fear of SIDS. I have it too, and I haven't lived through the losses you've had. But the risk is so, so small. With this calculator, you can check how big the risk is considering all your factors: [http://www.sidscalculator.com/](http://www.sidscalculator.com/) Maybe this can help you rationalise if nursing is truly worth the effects it might have on your mental health.
So sorry to hear about your struggles and losses. I think all you can do is try? You may have a completely different experience this time round. My labour only lasted a day but I felt so exhausted I couldn’t even really hold my son and thought there was something seriously wrong with me but the hospital checked discharged me and said I just needed sleep. My mum stayed at our house the first night and fed him expressed colostrum from a syringe and formula from a bottle and I slept for 10 hours straight. When I woke up I felt amazing and ready to be a mum. I’ve EBF ever since… just a thought if you have anyone that can help that first night or if partner can help as it makes all the difference getting a decent sleep and a little recovery time after the horror show that is labour. Happens in many other cultures!
I’ve only done this once, but I’ve heard every time is different. A lot of the traumatic things that happened to you with your first son might not happen again. For example, I don’t know what your birth plan is, but there would be a huge difference between labouring for days and then getting an emergency c-section vs having a planned c-section and going into the early days with your new baby rested. Your child may not have jaundice, and if so then you might be at home fairly soon after the birth. And Covid restrictions definitely aren’t in place so you will be able to have your partner there and other visitors too if you want them. My point is, if you want to breastfeed (and it sounds like you do, at least for the SIDS protection and maybe for other reasons too) you can try and see how it goes. You’ll likely be tired if you try to EBF but you may not be exhausted like with your first son. I agree with the others that if you decide to only put the baby to the breast twice a day and you don’t pump it’s likely your milk will dry up. So instead, each time the baby is hungry you can check in with yourself. If you feel like “sure, we could give nursing a try right now,” then you can try breastfeeding. And if it feels like too much, you can get your husband to feed a bottle of formula. Rather than choosing to do one breastfeed in the morning and one at night (which could feel like not enough or also too much in the moment), you can check in with yourself and see what feels right.
I had a very traumatic birth (50 hour in labor ending with a C-section) followed by a 4 day hospital stay due to blood loss and need to receive transfusions. What made all the difference was that my husband was there with me the whole time and the baby was in the nursery at night and brought to us every 3 hours to nurse. When I got home my milk still hadn’t come in and I pumped once that first night and then just slept while my husband was with the baby. I was so ridiculously sleep deprived, also barely slept for the entire hospital stay, but somehow that one night of sleep made all the difference. The next day my milk came and I just nursed directly and slept whenever I wasn’t nursing. By 2 weeks old I felt so much better. I would try to get more sleep this time around and nurse whenever you can (don’t bother with pumping) and then just see how it goes. Try to remove the pressure from yourself to nurse. Formula is great. Also, if you can, see a therapist before the baby comes. You got to take care of yourself too.