How many milk ready to feed to bring to the hospital

2 boxes of those x

Some hospitals do provide formula x

Honestly, you don’t need them. If you’re planning on breastfeeding then your milk WILL come in. Just latch immediately and baby will get they need from you plus you don’t want to hinder your milk coming in and that’s what’s I’ll happen if you don’t latch or pump when baby is first born. Also, the colostrum is so important for them to have and that’s what you’ll produce the first 2-3 days. The formula is a waste of money and time if you’re going to be breastfeeding.

Thanks @Amy ☀️

@Cari is SO right!

My hospital provided these for us, and the only reason I had to use it is because some stupid woman told me I didn’t need to feed my baby when I wanted to!!! So if you’re planning on breastfeeding, don’t panic, if you need it, the hospital will provide. But equally if you want it for peace of mind then one 6 pack is probably enough

I didn’t take any, I planned on breastfeeding but no one could get him to latch.i hand expressed for the first two days, it’s such a longgg process but they literally drink the tiny syringe amount per feed. After two day you can you the pump to express if they don’t latch. But I ended up bottle feeding and the hospital provided me with them for the first 4 days as I was stuck in hospital and even when I did buy some I still used some of the hospital inbetween being able to buy more (I was there for two weeks)

Just one pack of the ready-to-feed bottles, we only used half a box last time as the feeds are pretty small as a newborn

I didn't need any, but my hospital would have provided them if needed. I would check with your midwife before buying any

My baby never latched I just pumped for ten weeks till I gave up but even i’ll admit that Cari is right, once you give birth even if baby doesn’t latch if you start expressing your colostrum by squeezing the nipple with your thumb and index finger it’ll signal your milk to come in which it normally does with a vengeance around day 3 (I looked like i’d had a boob job) (until then babies literally just need a teaspoon of colostrum each feed its a tiny amount so don’t worry!) and you can then pump out the milk once it’s in several times a day, the milk will come no matter how you give it to baby and gives them a great start in life as they adjust to earthside! Pumping is hard and emotional after a while though and it’s tough to keep up with your growing babies demands so defo try breastfeeding only first!

You might not need any I never bring any the baby isn't starving tge first couple days because they're still digesting the blood they got from you and you'll make colostrum not much of it but that's OK that stuff is the life starter for the gut biome the basics of baby's immune system baby needs that and you can hand squeeze it out if you milk yourself like a goat it readily comes out in fact it may start coming out before the baby is born you can squeeze it and freeze it and bring it in a cooler with you stay hydrated and nine times out of ten your milk will come in by day 3 but it's natural for it to be not much but a little colostrum for the first couple days that isn't a failure that's how breastfeeding is supposed to begin

two packs lasted me for around 2/3 nights x

I didnt realise how quickly they would put baby on me, literally minutes after birth, and your milk is there ready! My midwife advised against taking the ready made stuff in, she said if its there, psychologically you’ll think its available as a backup and wont try as hard to breastfeed, whereas if you dont have any with you, you HAVE to breastfeed and she was right!

Cari is right. Your breast milk or the white stuff you're expecting WILL come in and WILL take at least a couple of days. I was day 6. However, your body is likely already producing colostrum. It can start as early as 14 weeks pregnant. I started finding crusty colostrum like bits on my nipples at around 16 weeks pregnant. You can even try and hand express and harvest colostrum from 36 weeks to have extra stored if you want. Like Cari said, this stuff is called liquid gold it's so good. You don't want baby to miss it!!!

Also, same boat as Gemma. BF is so hard in the first few days (and weeks) if I'd had formula in the house I wouldn't have tried so hard which is how hard you need to try and probably wouldn't have made it past day 3. Soooooo many times I nearly sent my partner out for some. I'm now nearly at 6 months! Make sure you're prepared, it is natural, it is lovely BUT it is bloody hard work in the early days but trust me SOOOOO much easier when you settle into it. You won't be the one having to take umpteen bottles everywhere and formula and sourcing boiling water and cold water. Out and about, just pop em on!

I took one box in with my first, I didn't use it. I spent 2 days in hospital after he was born during the first UK lockdown, so had it as more a peace of mind thing as getting any health care professionals attention was incredibly difficult as I was in a room on my own and kind of forgotten about. This time I'm having an elective C-section and planning on taking a box again

I would take a box. I planned on breastfeeding and I still do breastfeed now (11 months later) but I had a c section and my milk just wasn’t coming in. My 10 pound baby was unhappy and losing weight. She ended up losing over 10% of her birth weight so we had to stay in longer. At this point, I would feed her first on the boob, and then I would give her a top up with formula. I continued to do this for a good 10 days, just so that my milk could come in! My milk took 6 days to come in!! It didn’t impact my breastfeeding journal at all, and if it wasn’t for the formula top ups, my baby would have lost even more weight and would have continued to be starving. Take it just in case. If you want to breastfeed so badly, it won’t stop you x