Bfing in the hospital with family & friends

MrsRyan61804

When you were in the hospital surrounded by visitors how did you bf? Did you ask them to leave the room while you nursed?

I know this seems like a silly question and I am ok with having a blanket over us while I nurse him, but this is all going to be new to me, and him so I assume I will have be exposed to get him latched on.

I don't want to be rude and I am hoping people just take the hint, but I know that we are going to have a rotating door of visitors and am worried how I am going to pull this off. 

laura&dan05

The visitors we had called before they came by and only stayed a short amount of time.  I didn't have to worry about trying to bf in front of them but if that had been the case I probably just would have asked them to leave the room if I wasn't comfortable.  I honestly didn't want many visitors at the hosiptal because I was exhausted and trying to recover from my c/s so I told a few people that we weren't up for their hospital visit and to wait until we got home.  You've got to do what makes you most comfortable.

MonkeysGirl05

I just announced that I was planning to nurse and everyone offered to leave. If your visitiors don't do the same, just ask for some privacy.

kittylove

Ditto about just asking people to leave or limitting visitors. Personally I had no problem wipping it out when needed but a few times I had to aske people to leave.

CandT

I tried to time my visitors around what I guessed to be times she would be nursing, every two hours. Then if she got hungry earlier or someone showed up I would just say I am going to have to feed her in a few minutes so it was great seeing you, thanks for coming by. With family, they were really good at stepping out of the room. Sometimes I would let my mom stay and other times I would ask her to run and get me something.

choco_lab

laura&dan05:

I honestly didn't want many visitors at the hosiptal because I was exhausted and trying to recover from my c/s so I told a few people that we weren't up for their hospital visit and to wait until we got home.  You've got to do what makes you most comfortable.

I agree with pp.  I'd wait to see how you feel about even having visitors around.  Keep the option open for telling people that you'd rather wait to visit until you get home.  Those few days in the hospital are your last days to just be with the baby since you have the nurses help and get into a routine.  I was way too tierd to host people in my hospital room.  (But I had 28 hrs of labor and a CS so maybe that's why... maybe others that had an easier time wouldn't mind). 

charmcitygirl

I nursed in front of DH, my mom, his mom and my BFF while in the hospital.  Others like my brother, FIL and Dad left when I was nursing.  I think it was them who felt more uncomfortable than me!

LVBlvd

We asked people to leave the room while I nursed.  Everyone totally understood.  They just went to the waiting room right down the hall and chatted until DH came and told them to come back in.

alison43

the only visitors i had were my MIL and FIL and my dad.

they all visited only briefly and the timing worked out.  i probably would have kicked them out so i could breastfeed but my modesty was totally gone within a week and i bf'ed all the time with everyone around after that.

i am glad i didn't have many visitors.  i didn't want to deal with it and i wanted the time to be about me, DH, and my baby.  my time with her was VERY limited as she was in NICU the first day and under bili lights the rest of the time, so i barely let anyone else near her! 

madhatter2003

The nurses will kick people out for you if you want them to leave as well.

qtpa2t

Frankly, I lost all modesty after giving birth.  If the baby needed to eat, she was eating.  Didn't matter who was around.

JGirl2005

I would ask them to leave.  yup, i even asked my parents to leave when the LC showed up to help me out.

do what you have to do?  and ppl understand.

don't NOT feed due to visitors - try to stick to a 2 to 3 hrs schedule.  i messed up my supply since i had visitors that I didn't want to excuse myself from.

kkfeb04

We didn't have many visitors since we didn't want many.  I also had a c/s and we just wanted to have that time as a new family.  There were a few visitors.  My BFF stayed while I fed, she just talked to DH.  We have known each other since we were 12.  We had gym class and sports together.  She wasn't uncomfortable neither was I.  Now I was asked if I could go into the bathroom and feed DS and also pump there since my FIL was uncomfortable, I asked them to leave, that it was my hospital room and this is what I needed to do.  Then they wanted to take a walk with DS umm...I kinda need him. 

The best is when my MIL went with FIL and DH for a walk and decided to come back to the room while I was pumping and stare at my breasts while pumping.  I mean bent down one foot from the boobies.  I kept telling her where my face was and she just kept looking.  I "accidentally" hit the call bell for the nurse and I made up some story about needing my incision to look at, which my MIL proceeded to say oh I'll look at it, the nurse said to reduce the risk of infection that she needed to leave the room.  I thanked the nurse and said that I didn't need my incision looked at.  She said she could figure that since MIL's face was so close to the pump.  I mean my goodness I already felt like a cow getting milked, I don't need some strange old woman staring at my boobs.  DH said she was "curious".  She never saw a pump, umm she never BF either.  She still to this day says that formula is better and that DS needs to be on formula to gain weight.

GretchenlovesMichael

for the most part we asked people to leave (or rather indicated they should sort of: "ok, the babies need to eat now so...")

i was trying to master tandem nursing in the hospital so there was no way whatsoever to be modest   i was full-out topless 90% of the time.  we had visitors every day but they knew that their visits would have to be short.  when i was just nursing one baby at a time, which i also did sometimes in the hosp, i would have no problem doing it in front of people b/c i could be more covered (although i didn't use a cover per se.)

you're going to do great