Readers Respond: Did your hospital help you breastfeed?

Helping is also something hospitals do very well in some cases. They can offer great lactation support all day, every day. They may offer great classes. Their staff might be really knowledgeable.

If you haven't had your baby yet, in what ways are you preparing to get help? What do you think that the doctors, midwives and nurses can do to best help you breastfeed? What did yours do?

No help at all

I gave birth at a hospital I was working at. During labor, I already told the nurses that I wanted to start breastfeeding right away and that I do not want to give my son formula. However, they did not mind me. No latching-on after delivery happened. They had my husband buy a can of formula and they gave our son formula milk. When I requested them to call me when our son gets hungry, they didn't. When I got frustrated, I marched into the nursery and asked to breastfeed the baby (we were discouraged by the nurses to room-in). The first time wasn't successful. No milk came out and my son wasn't interested in latching on. No one offered to help (we have no LCs in our country). After that, I'd go into the lactation room and try to breastfeed. Unfortunately, they've already fed before I did. I am so disappointed with their service. I was able to breastfeed my son when we finally got home but had to supplement with formula as he preferred the bottle to my breast. Now, with my second baby, I am looking into another hospital that I've heard has a more active stance on breastfeeding and rooming-in.

—Guest RegretfulMom

Very encouraging

The hospital I was at due to being two months early delivering my child ended up in the NICU, they were very supportive telling me it was ok to supplement in this case scenario it was very important I had to pump due to the fact that before my baby went home he had to eat a certain amount on his own...not through a tube so pumping was my only option! They helped me get used to the pump and didn’t discourage me on the fact that I was not really producing very much milk, they were amazing and I guess that’s NICU why they get the paid they do...not only are they there for the child, but for the mother and family as well.

—Guest brittanisaxton

Horrible Experience

The nurse at the hospital where I gave birth brought me my baby 6 hours later and said "15 minutes on 1 side and burp and 15 minutes on the other side and burp" I said I don't know what I'm doing and she said you'll figure it out and left. I am a first time mom and that was NOT enough help for me! It hurt SO bad and the baby would only latch onto one side. They started giving her formula in the nursery and there was a paci in her crib so I know they gave her that as well. After she had the formula noone ever helped me breastfeed again and I went home the next morning with no formula-no bottles-and no clue how to breastfeed. I started pumping and feeding my baby with a dropper. It was so hard to pump and I was so confused that I just quit. THEN I felt horrible so I started again after all of my milk was gone. She is 3 months old and I can only pump 2 oz at a time and she wasn't able to latch on until she was 5 weeks old. I'm still mad about the whole experience.

—Guest Not really

Great ideas

My hospital was very baby friendly and have recently introduced kangaroo care. I loved it! Our third baby, he was the only one I experienced this with. He even began nursing on his own right afterward! Being an experienced BFing mom I didn't need much help, but was grateful for the offers! I too received the bfing bag and loved the snappies for storing milk. That is the kind of thing every hospital should give...forget the formula samples! I want more storage containers!

—Guest Brandi

WHO accredited - not enough

I was also at a baby friendly hospital. We roomed in, no pacifiers, no sneaking formula (though it was offered - I refused) everybody was trained to help with BFing. Problem was I also got inconsistent advice from one person to the next. I had the book "The Nursing Mother's Companion" with me and it was AWESOME! It helped me through almost everything without the nurses' help. One nurse said "You have to learn BFing by doing, not by reading" She was SO wrong. Definitely do your research beforehand and bring it with you to the hospital. You'll be so tired you won't remember what you read an hour ago, let alone last week, so make sure its there for reference.

—SparrowMama

Great baby friendly hospital

My hospital is extremely baby friendly and I had LOTS of help with breastfeeding. I appreciated the intent, but I think we got a little too much help. My baby and I were both very frustrated with all the people taking him and trying to make him latch, and with the devices (nipple shield, SNS). I left the hospital with a baby who wouldn't latch at all and I had to pump and supplement with formula. It wasn't until I relaxed and slowed down the pace on my own at home, did my baby finally latch. With that, and some help from a LC, I now have a baby who would nurse all day if I let him.

—Guest Laura

Very helpful

My hospital was amazingly helpful with breastfeeding. Every labor/pp nurse receives ongoing education about breastfeeding, as well as 3 LCs on staff daily for assistance if needed. I let my delivery nurse know I wanted to attempt feeding right away, and I had no clue what to do. I had a c-section, but as soon as they wheeled me out into recovery, without even a prompt from me, she immediately said, ok, let's get this baby going. My arms were still weak from the epi, but she helped me hold my baby girl and showed me how to help her latch on, etc. We managed to get her eating - she fed for 5 minutes on one side, and 10 minutes on the other in that first session alone! For the rest of my 3 day stay - every nurse who walked into our room asked how the BFing was going and if I needed any help or had any questions. An LC came to see me twice daily until my discharge as well. My hospital was very pro-BFing and they were fantastic at making sure our BFing was secure before we left.

—JAM1031

YES! They were awesome.

I was at a "Baby Friendly Hospital." They never took the baby away from me. Had me make sure a nurse was there when I was ready for his first feeding. She showed me how to check to make sure the latch was good -- check to see that his bottom lip was curled/flipped back. She had me unlatch and start again if it was not proper. She told me an improper latch would cause me pain very quickly. Check every time! They even showed me how maneuver my breast so I could see his lower lip. They checked with me the first several times I nursed him. My breastfeeding experience went very smoothly and almost pain-free. I say almost because of the one time I did not check in the middle of the night at home and let him suck with a bad latch for a few minutes. OW! Also when he got teeth, he bit me a couple of times. Three cheers for WHO accredited "Baby Friendly Hospitals."

—Guest Greta

breast friendly w/ contradicting methods

I had very breastfeeding friendly nurses at my hospital. They were all very helpful, and they would come in to my room to make sure that everything was going alright. The only problem is there were 5 different nurses that wanted to help, and all 5 of them had a different method, or different opinion about what I should do. I have flat nipples, so they gave me a breastshield to help the baby. One nurse said to use the shield exclusively until the baby learned to latch, she used hers for 6 weeks. Another said only to use it to draw the nipple out and then have the baby latch. Also, they had different opinions on timing. One said to nurse every 2 hours, if the baby is sleeping, wake the baby up. Another nurse told me, "never wake a sleeping baby". I know that they were all there to help, but I ended up leaving the hospital confused and overwhelmed. In the end, I ended up breastfeeding exclusively. My daughter is now latching like a champ, and we've been going strong for 3 months.

—Guest Chelsie

Not a Baby Friendly Hospital

The hospital where I gave birth to my daughter was not Baby Friendly and it showed! They passed out bottles with the famous bear on them, gave her a pacifier despite my requests not to and even slipped her some formula all while I was working with a lactation consultant and pumping to assure that she was exclusively breastfed. Needless to say, I won't be having our next baby at that hospital. My breastfeeding relationship is too important to me!

—maelli3

Supplementing

I planned to breastfeed exclusively and I was convinced by the hospital staff to supplement with formula because they insisted that colostrum was not enough. The nurse instructed me to supplement using a tiny straw and a syringe pressed againt my breast while my daughter nursed. My daughter was way too smart. She would unlatch from my breast and take the straw. I believe that this really delayed my daughters ability to breastfeeding by a couple weeks. In the end I wish I knew more about the nutritional needs of a newborn and benefits that colostrum really provides.

—Guest Brooke

I tried something different

I had such problems nursing my first two children. Sore/bloody nipples until my milk came in 5 days later (yes, my latch was good) These nurses kept making me nurse 15 minutes on each nipple every 4 hours. I finally got advice this last time from an old nurse about letting the baby suckle for 5 min each nipple and then give the baby a bottle. WELL the young hip nurses thought I was CRAZY and my baby would get nipple confusion---I stuck with the old nurses plan. I didn't have bloody nipples with my last baby, I wasn't freaking out about whether or not she was getting enough fluid. By the time my milk came in (5 days later) I switched to breast milk only. The young nurses just gave me weird looks but I stuck to my plan and it worked for me.

—Guest Kalliemomof5

Great experience with nurses

Throughout my pregnancy as well as when I gave birth I was constantly asked if I was planning on breastfeeding and was praised when I told them yes. I had several nurses visit me to see how things were going and they had a staff of LCs who seen mothers for free and was able to make housecalls if necessary! During the first month I received phone calls periodically from the LCs to see how things were going and if there were any troubles I needed help with, which I thought was wonderful that they wanted me to stick with it and showed they cared about our experience with BFing. Though I do find it funny that the breastfeeding mothers' gift bag contained nothing but formula samples and coupons for formula. There were two small breast milk storage containers, but that was the only thing that was remotely related with helping me breastfeed.

—Guest Julie H.

Yes, some help!

I had a really great nurse who was very helpful. Part of her advice was actually to ignore the bad advice. She taught me how to tactfully figure it out. She also told me that studies showed accepting the free goody bag from the formula company with breastfeeding info was bad. But she said it was the info that was bad as well as the sample. So she, with permission from me, took out the samples and the booklet. I got the bag and something else, like a toy maybe? I wish hospitals gave out comparable packs for breastfeeding moms. Maybe with a good nursing book and a list of breasting helpers and classes.

—Guest Leah