Feeding

First decide if you want them to have bottles of breast milk or drink direct. When you chose it will make it clear if you will need bottles and a pump.

I recommend getting milk storage bags to collect milk in

I’m going to try and breast feed but don’t want to pay for lots of things before I know if I can!
I’ve got about 3 mam bottles (in case he needs formula) and some formula as back up, I also got nursing bras, a haaka pump, nipple cream and breast milk storage pouches.
Won’t buy anything else breast feeding related until I know I can do it!

If you've got some bottles and a backup haaka, you're gonna be fine! Anything you don't have, you're gonna be able to order or pickup at a boots/superdrug/supermarket. If you end up needing bottles, get more, but don't go overboard now. Are the mam bottles the sterilising ones? That's the only other thing I would say - the means to sterilise if you do end up needing to use them. You can get microwave sterilising bags so you don't have to spend a fortune till you know how much you need them!

I’ve got 4 bottles (Avent Natural), a pump, nipple cream and milk storage bags so far. I’ve also bought some readymade formula (HiPP Organic) to take to hospital in case I’m struggling!

I would recommend you to hire Lactation consultant thru le leche, get as much as support from midwives in hospital. Try to understand about breastfeeding 🤱 because due to lack of knowledge many ppl stops before they want to. It takes time for both baby and mum to learn how to breastfeed.
It’s recommended to express only after 6 weeks time, Hakka pump is a good shout to collect the milk early in the morning. Do not think it may not happen, it will but with right support. Get some nipple cream, lasinoh. It’s ok to use formula as top up initially , proper milk only comes from 5 days onwards. Before that colostrum is enough, but u can also use formula as top up option. Also don’t think express milk indicates your supply. Baby’s saliva is what signals your body to produce more milk. You definitely need to eat well, drink enough water after every feed, eat nutritious foods oats, banana, soupy foods.
I used mam bottle and some random Amazon electric pump n lasinoh brand hand pump which felt

Which felt more efficient. I breastfed for 24 months, dried up after being pregnant slowly n now my first born is 26 months.

My child had undiagnosed tonguetie 90% which made my journey a hard start. Only at 12 weeks I had courage to get support from lactation consultant. Coming from a culture where bfding is important, I had my own share of struggles initially. But this time around m more confident .

Look into fb bfding groups, there r trained experienced ppl / mums who can guide u more precisely. You need to understand abt cluster feeding n all so it doesn’t come as surprise. Main thg is u need to feel supported, ppl may not be helpful n ask u to use formula (nthg wrong in it) but if u really want to do bfding , take a day as it comes n be mindful of ur mental health too. U can also go for combine feed, I would definitely recommend u to do what feels right for u n ur baby than any one’s opinion or judgement.
https://mybabyacademy.co.uk/free-class/free-breastfeeding-preparation-cl

I breastfed by first and I researched pumps beforehand so that if I felt I needed to buy one I could just order it straight away. But all I bought was a hakka (mine was just an Aldi cheap version!) and we had 1 mam bottle free from a Bounty pack. The hakka was great for catching let down which I mostly froze but and was more than enough to give a bottle a day which was easy to clean for the next day.

I ended up buying a pump when he was a a few months older as to allow me to go out for a few hours and have enough milk for him but definitely not needed straight away.

Yeah for my first I didn’t buy any bottles before baby came! Maybe naive but I just assumed I would be able to breastfeed! And fortunately I could. Only thing I bought beforehand was nursing bras which are definitely needed.

Same as after a couple of months I then bought a cheapy pump and some bottles so that my partner could also do some feeds which was lovely bonding time for them (and meant I could go to bed earlier and he could do a late night feed!)

As he wasn’t having a lot of bottles I just used one of the microwave sterilising bags which worked well for us. And then also bought milk storage bags to freeze some.

So it’s up to you what you buy beforehand if you want to be more prepared incase you can’t breastfeed, but supermarkets and high street shops like boots do have all of it so you’d be able to access everything pretty quickly if you needed it.

With my first she had a tongue tie so I was trying to bf initially but was having to express in the hospital straight after she was born as she wouldn’t latch.
I stayed in hospital two nights to get the hang of expressing, sterilising as I was just in a mind boggle with it all. They wanted me to have a plan to feed once I’d left hospital and as the latch was still an issue I just ordered a breast pump and bottles to the Argos nearest the hospital and my husband went and picked them up.
I’d say don’t stress too much about it beforehand as you’ll end up buying a lot of stuff you don’t need but I’d recommend having Amazon Prime so you can get anything you might end up needing the next day x