?s

[Carita]

is it safe to take the clamp off? they sent us home with it on. if so - how do i take it off?

is it possible to never make colustrum & not feel letdown. my doula thought its because i nursed my son til month 9 of pregnancy.

i swear i am not a ftm, but i feel that way

[DoulaAlicia]

Don't take clamp off! It could be ready but ask your birth center first. Usually by 48 hrs it is ok to take off especially if you've had an herbal bath but confirm first. If you take off too early it could refill with blood and even bleed.

Transition to more breastmilk may be different this time. I would expect if you are used to feeling letdown that it will eventually happen. For me I seemed to transition slower this time, had lots of fluid/colostrum day two but didn't feel letdown or feel fully milked in until a week. (I had lots of bloodloss so this could be the reason for me). Try the breastfeeding forum here. They will likely have a better answer!

[Carita]

thanks - i go back tomorrow so i will just wait for them to take it off. its been barely 48 hrs, but i'd rather not take a risk.

i def have milk - she nurses all the time & gained weight day 1, but i never noticed colustrum?

[Georgetown HB Mom]

I am a homebirth midwife and we take the clamps off at the 24 hour visit. You can cut the end of it with a pair of small wire cutters and then it will open up and you can remove it. There is no harm in taking it off after 24 hours has passed.

Lisa

[leavemealone]

I've never heard of someone being sent home with the clamp still attached. It's been taken off upon exit at both my hospital births, one being about 26 hours after birth.

[sew_crafty_girl]

They sent us home with the plastic clamp on and said to leave it until the cord falls off with it. It's a new practice since I had my first kids.

[DoulaAlicia]

Originally Posted by Georgetown HB Mom

I am a homebirth midwife and we take the clamps off at the 24 hour visit. You can cut the end of it with a pair of small wire cutters and then it will open up and you can remove it. There is no harm in taking it off after 24 hours has passed.

Lisa

My homebirth midwife unclamped at 24 hours this time too and we quickly realized the cord was too wet to do that!! Blood came up in it....she had to re-clamp. She did mention that was "odd". We hadn't done the herbal bath yet because I was so sick but for whatever reason my little man's cord wasn't ready at 24 hrs. We did let it pulsate at birth for 30 minutes or so.

[laughingfox]

DD's clamp was taken off at her 24 hour visit, too. She hadn't had an herbal bath, but we had used witch hazel on it.

I'd definitely call to double-check before removing it, just in case they have a specific reason for leaving it on.

[crazyeight]

weird our clamp was taken off when we checked out ama from the hospital which was only 18 hrs after birth. i can't remember with dd cause we had left the birth center after only 4 hrs!

[Carita]

we were discharged before 24 hrs too. another friend said her mw was leaving the clamp on too because the cord falls off earlier?

are you using alcohol to clean or not?

[snoopy5386]

we left the birth center after 4 hours with the clamp still on. our pedi took it off at our first visit - DD was 36 hours old.

[tomtemama]

Originally Posted by Carita

is it possible to never make colustrum & not feel letdown. my doula thought its because i nursed my son til month 9 of pregnancy.

i swear i am not a ftm, but i feel that way

I don't think that it is possible to not make colostrum.

My understanding is that the breast goes through a series of changes during and after pregnancy and I don't think that you can skip a stage. Especially one as important as colostrum.

Nursing your son shouldn't make a difference. Although it is possible that your milk came in faster than you may have expected this time around. I tandem nursed my 2 dds and my milk came in WAY faster the second time than it did the first.

I am still pg () and nursing dd2. She is definitely getting colostrum when nursing now. Maybe you could ask ds if he got colostrum when he was nursing in the 9th month?

[Carita]

i expressed a bit before giving birth and it looked the same as after birth. the doula, also an LC, called it transitional milk. it looked like foremilk. idk?

anyway, clamp and cord fell off before the appt! so i guess that answers that!