thread in lactivism

[plantmama]

I don't often post here as my preemie just turned 6!
But someone posted a thread in lactivism about a study someone did saying that preemies take a similar effort to breastfeed as to bottlefeed which I thought some of you might find useful. HTH!

[DocsNemesis]

That wasn't the case for me, I can say that without a doubt. I'd nursed 3 kids before, one of which took 3 months to get on the breast, so I was experienced both with normal nursing and breastfeeding issues. My ds just could not get the hang of breastfeeding, but was fine with a bottle. It was until he hit his due date that something just clicked and he went to town.

I do agree that breastfeeding should be tried first whenever possible, but to say that in all cases, it takes the same effort? I don't think so...I don't think that's fair to mama's and baby's who have a hard time. Of course, I didn't actually go read anything so I could be totally off base here

[MeepyCat]

I have to agree with DocsNemesis. One of the hardest things about the NICU experience (for me) was that I went in believing that if I could just hold my daughter in my arms and nurse her at my breast, everything would be fine... and these things simply were not true. We worked hard to nurse, but the effort obviously exhausted her, and she did better with bottles.

[felix23]

I have to agree with the other two posters. We tried nursing at the breast at first, but it just totally exhausted her and her suck was so weak that she wasn't getting really anything. But with a bottle she did just fine and it didn't tire her out as much. We would have had a much, much longer NICU stay if we had avoided all bottles and waited till she had the strength to nurse.

[plantmama]

I agree that the study shouldn't make mamas feel guilty if breastfeeding is harder/ more tiring. But it could be useful for mamas who wish to attempt breastfeeding more frequently but are discouraged by nicu staff or policies (my own experience). It's always best to follow your baby's cues rather than an agenda, your's or someone else's. I did end up having a very successful breastfeeding experience but some of the nicu staff was overly concerned about my (very low key) attempts to breastfeed and I think this article might have helped reassure them. If all ds's nurses had been like that our experience would have been different.
Also ds didn't get bottles until after he had successfully nursed a tiny bit. He was gavage fed until he started pulling the tube out. We were staying in for apnea anyway or they might have pushed bottle feeding.
Every situation is so different, it's interesting!

[sbrinton]

I agree with plantmama that it's always best to follow your baby's cues rather than an agenda, whether it is pro breastfeeding or pro bottlefeeding!

I feel very blessed that both of my preemies thrived with breastfeeding. Neither Micah (35 weeker) nor Zephan (31 weeker) did well with bottles at all. Although he was just 35 weeks and 5 pounds, Micah was able to breastfeed exclusively from day one.

Zephan started with an IV, began breastmilk through an NG tube at 3 days and began nippling at 1 week. Breastfeeding clicked for him at 2 weeks (33 weeks adjusted age). We did not introduce a bottle until he was able to take at least 5-6 of his 8 feeds fully by breast. We did a few bottles then in the NICU, just so we could have the NG tube out, but once we went home he was just breastfeeding. We did use a nipple shield in the NICU and until he was about 3 months old (1 month adjusted age).

I honestly think both of these babies would have had a much harder time with feedings if they had been forced to do bottles. Both disliked having too much milk at once and seemed content to nurse taking in small amounts frequently. If they had been put on a rigid "60 cc every 3 hours" type schedule once they weren't on an NG tube, I think they would have been exhausted too.

Our NICU is moving towards not just encouraging breast feeding (or pumped breastmilk feeding), but also on demand with babies who are a little closer to their ga. Really important IMO!