BFeeding and NICU

Journey33 · September 2012

Hi all...

Not sure when my girls will make their arrival but depending on when, I understand that they may have to spend some time in the NICU. We had a scare last week that led me to believe they're trying to come early.... If that's the case, what's the deal with Bfeeding? Do I have to pump and give it to them?

I will be 35 weeks on Monday so maybe we'll have no NICU time (??) I know nothing about this really...but just trying to prepare for some different outcomes.

irishbaby0708 · September 2012

The might have you pump at first since they want to make sure they can swallow but, than you should be able to BF. I had my first 10 weeks early and I was not aloud to even bottle feed until 35 weeks and than once he did a few bottle they aloud me to BF. Good Luck!!

CrawltheWarriorKing · September 2012

I had the babies at 37 weeks exactly and they spent 1 week in the NICU. For the first few days I wasn't able to breastfeed so they had me start pumping immediately. After about the 4th day once they were cleared for BFing and had formula for a few days, they let me start trying to BF...my milk hadn't really come in yet so we were still supplementing with formula but they'll let you start trying as soon as the dr clears them.

It's very discouraging in the beginning when you're pumping to see only a few drops in the bottom of the bottle but keep at it and make sure that every.single.drop, no matter how small, you get it to your babies!

Good luck and hopefully you get no NICU time

Mrs. Alice · September 2012

Most babies develop the suck and swallow ability around 32-34 weeks gestational age. For instance my boys were able to begin "nippling" (taking breast or bottle feedings) at 34 and 35 weeks gestational age. You will still need to pump if your baby is in the NICU, but at this age they should be able to begin taking feedings from a bottle or from the breast but still may require a feeding tube until they can take 100% nipple feedings. When my boys were in the NICU they had to take 100% nipple feeds for 48 hours before the NG tube was removed. When I was visiting I BF them as much as possible, but since I wasn't there 24hrs/day, they received bottles of pumped BM as well.

sweetsugarmama · September 2012

yup, same as the others. I started out pumping and then was able to BF. My supply was low and one boy wouldn't latch but I still pump now. Granted I had not a drop of milk no matter how much I pumped with DD so a low supply is pretty good for me, so don't let that discourage you.

leneae10 · September 2012

I had my son at 35w. He was very sick so they started me pumping a few hours after his birth. They gave him every drop, including colostrum, through a feeding tube the firstr week. He finally got to "nipple" at 7 days old (bottle feed pumped BM). I got to try to get him to latch with the help of a LC when he was 8 or 9 days old. It didn't go well and I pumped for 10 weeks.

This would be the worst case scenario but we almost lost him so I didn't really grieve over the loss of BF'ing. We were able to successfully do it with a shield about 30 times.

LucyRicardo3 · September 2012

Ditto pp's...

One amazing thing with my experience in the NICU was that when I could pump sitting beside their isolettes and see my babies, I would be able to express twice the volume vs. when I pumped in my hospital room, away from the babies.

DH brought my Medela PISA pump brought from home but I had much better success using the hospital's Medela (symphony model, I think) pumps.

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BFeeding and NICU

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