Elective C Section and Breastfeeding

Putting baby on the breast as much as you can to help encourage milk production, hand expressing colostrum so you have a stash, anything is better than nothing! I built an amazing stash of colostrum just from hand expressing and took it all to hospital, baby was very sleepy and didn’t really want to feed so having something to give helped both me & him. Good luck 😊

I had a section and breast fed my girl, my milk came in I’d say fully on day 3, and before that was colostrum. The colostrum is all they need for the first few days at there belly’s are tiny💖 one thing I would say is to ask if there is a feeding team at the hospital who ca help with latching ect xxx

For colostrum you’ll want to hand express and use a colostrum syringe to suck up the little droplets, it’ll be a tiny amount but baby will only take around 5ml per feed on the first day which is why the 1ml colostrum syringes are best!
Try not to worry about your supply before birth though, some women don’t produce any colostrum at all before birth and it has no effect on supply after birth.
Just latch baby as soon as you’re able and as often as possible ◡̈

https://abm.me.uk/breastfeeding-information/antenatal-expression-colostrum/

I've had 2 emergency sections and breastfed both girls exclusively from birth. Skin to skin is achievable after surgery. My advice is put baby on the boob as much as possible, skin to skin in hospital and at home. The hospital are usually really helpful. Keep hydrated and if you loose a lot of blood it can slow the milk coming in, but it's supply and demand, the more your body tries to feed the baby the more it will make! They eat a tiny amount very frequently to start with.

I had a c section and breastfed for 1 year and I had deep freezer full of milk when I stop. Hydration, have a bottle of water with you at all time. You can also do coconut water and electrolytes. Get the my breastfriend pillow, that’s a game changer. I would recommend a breastfeeding class before baby comes, if you can take an online class just so you can learn the different positions and stuff ( YouTube has a few good ones). And have the number of a lactation counsultant available just in case you need it, preferably one who is in person.

I won’t echo the advice above but the removal of the placenta is what triggers milk production and that happens regardless of how you give birth. There is no reason a normal straightforward section should delay your milk coming in x

I had an emergency c section and breastfed no problems, still going at 2.5yo!

I had managed to collect some colostrum beforehand but didn't even need it as baby took it all direct from the boob.

My milk came in on day 3 and been going ever since!

Have as much skin to skin and get baby to latch as often as possible would be my biggest advice.

I wasn’t able to collect any colostrum despite trying for a few weeks but my milk supply came in really quickly which surprised me! So try not to worry. As others have suggested lots of skin to skin and trying to get baby to latch often