Did your hospital encourage supplementation?

[MilkTrance]

I have been watching Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby and I have noticed that a lot of the moms who want to breastfeed do so WITH supplementation. I have heard comments such as "I am breastfeeding so he can get the vitamins but follow up with formula so that he has something to eat," or things such as "I am formula feeding until my milk comes in."

Where did this garbage come from? I can only assume it's from the hospital staff... I don't know whether these shows are American but the Canadian B/F hospital policy is SUPPOSED to be EXCLUSIVE, so I'm pretty disappointed and confused if this is happening in Canadian hospitals.

Personally, one nurse DID tell me I might have to supplement. DS lost weight (not more than 10%) at the start -- as most babies do -- and this "old school" nurse told me I'd have to supplement to avoid Jaundice. Thank goodness I had such a supportive DH who encouraged me to stick through it and NOT supplement.

I see how the game works. Take the uneducated, the emotional, the uninformed (or misinformed) mother and at a very fragile time for her, a time where she may be scared for baby's wellbeing (especially first time mothers) which just HAPPENS to usually be before the milk comes in, which just HAPPENS to be after baby has lost weight, and encourage supplementation (note that I'm not putting down the staff -- I know it's the formula companies' hospital marketing strategies which caused this mess).

I've stopped watching these shows because it just makes me so sad to see the LOs crying and crying for mum's comfort and being denied it because mum has not been supported and educated about B/F.

:

[phreedom]

No, because we are not supposed to encourage it with breastfeeding mamas (I gave birth at the hospital I work at...I work NICU and NBN) and for the most part the nurses didn't really bug me too much about the BF as I was a collegue. (yet they "had" to give me a bath demo...: )

But once I came back from maternity leave, a few were shocked to learn that I didn't at least supplement until my milk came in and when they learned that she went from 7lbs 6oz at birth to 6lbs 14oz, I was told I really should have supplemented as she was "starving". (she was up to 8lbs 6oz by 2 weeks) And I think if I had not been an employee there, I would have been pressured to supplement. They knew better though. So while I don't ever see nurses outright tell mamas that they "need" to supplement...if a mother insists upon it, some nurses won't exactly discourage it. Most of the nurses are pretty good about educating though.

Unfortunately some nurses are afraid to "push" too much in fear that the mother or family will complain that she is being "forced" to breastfeed. And yes it does happen...it's happeded to me, and believe me, I am NOT a pushy or even assertive person.

[mamatoElias]

Nope. I actually thought our nurses were great- they were really respectful of our choices and very supportive. That said, I know people who were sent home from the same hospital with formula "just in case" or whose babies were given formula during their hospital stay even though mom wanted to breastfeed. I guess it depends on the nurse...

[Penelope]

Moving thread to Breastfeeding by request.

[silly_scout]

Yup. My pathetic excuse for a hospital did.
According to the nurses, I was the only one in the maternity ward who was bfing. This is a major city hospital, mind you. Here was a typical convo:
Nurse: So are you on WIC?
Me: No.
Nurse: Then what kind of formula are you using?
Me: I'm not. I'm breastfeeding.
Nurse: (Digs around in a dusty box and pulls out a breastfeeding manual circa 1967. Blows dust off the cover and starts reading.) While I read up on this, what do you want to supplement your daughter with?
Me: I don't want to supplement.
Nurse: (Gaffawing) Oh, right, and I suppose you're going to feed the baby entirely from your breasts? (Rolls her eyes.)

Okay, maybe my memory's a little fuzzy. But this I remember distinctly:
-I found out after the fact that they cup-fed my DD formula before I even got a chance to try and nurse her. The card said "Breastfed" and I specifically said no supplementation!!
-The nurse pointed to DD's face and said she was getting jaundiced. Both my mother and I didn't see what she was talking about, but she insisted she could see jaundice and that I was negligent if I didn't supplement.
-DD's weight dipped below the 10% birth weight mark and they scared me into supplementation, which made bfing SO HARD in the beginning because I struggled with supply. I now EBF, but I had to supplement for a while, all because the nurses and doctors were ignorant to the fact that c/s babies lose more water weight and c/s mamas have delayed milk.
GRRRRRR I want to punch things when I think about it. They are so obviously getting kick-backs from formula companies, b/c my cousin's g/f had a c/s baby 4 days before me and she went through the exact same "baby's lost more than 10%, she needs formula" scare too.

[psychmama]

My hospital supported me in breastfeeding. They did not make any remarks about supplementing and did not give me free formula. I remember being told that it was normal for BF babies to lose a little weight after birth and not to worry about it unless my milk didn't come in after X amount of days (can't remember specifics). They also had a free lactation consultant who was supposed to visit me while we were there (but couldn't make it for some reason). We did go see her after discharge when I was having trouble with engorgement/latching. She also ran a free new mom's group that I attended a couple of times with breastfeeding support. Also, she did a pre-birth breastfeeding class that convinced my neighbor, who had been planning to FF because that's what all her relatives did, to breastfeed both her kids. FWIW, I'm in a mid-size university town in a non-progressive part of the country.

[MsElle07]

Yes, mine did. In fact, mine supplemented my child without my permission and despite my explicit instructions not to.

This was at the second largest hospital in the state (in terms of number of babies born), with a Level III NICU. It's where you want to be if you have a sick baby, but a healthy full term baby... not so much. Rooming in is not allowed if you have a shared postpartum room (which nearly all the rooms are). I woke up in the middle of the night wanting my baby, and there they were in the nursery formula feeding him.

[mom de terre]

No. Every nurse who came in while I was trying to breastfeed offered tips and no one even mentioned formula. They did give me a similac cooler bag before I left, and the nurse rolled her eyes and said, "But it's really nice for keeping your pumped milk in." She was right, I use it every day!

ETA: They give every mother a manual pump too.

[Mel L]

Yes, but we only did it for a medical reason. My son was severely jaundiced, and my milk didn't come in for 5 1/2 days. We had to supplement until he was out from under the lights. During my last feeding in the hospital, I asked the nurse when I could ditch the formula. She said that we would go without formula and see how long he lasted. If he went 2 hours, we were good to go. He lasted exactly 2 hours (which was when we were trying to walk out the door) so we turned around and fed the babe. I really felt like my hospital was very supportive of me ebf, but he really needed more liquids than my body could provide for his situation. I guess it helped that my milk came in the morning we left. Plus, my ob is an openly extended breastfeeder herself so that probably played in there somewhere. Maybe they just don't question her patients when they say they want to ebf.

Now, my newborn dd has never tasted a drop of formula, was even earlier than almost month ealry ds, but has been a better nurser from the start. I never heard mention of formula at all with her. She also went up almost a pound over birthweight by two weeks. Ds had only made it back up to birthweight after almost a whole week on colostrum/formula and breastmilk.

[LadyBee]

Mine didn't, but The BF support was also very lacking. My Dr gave me a one line how BFing "We hope that you'll choose to BF." and after that it took 2 days before I got to see the LC. Thankfully everything was going well and I had done my homework.

[Cloth4Colin]

Our hospital was very supportive of breastfeeding, however, they did suggest we give DS formula to get him to "spit up more since his birth was so fast - he needed to get the rest of the fluid out of his lungs." Ummmm, yeah. ???? We repectfully declined. LOL!

[ani'smommy]

No, my hospital was pretty good. We went to a pretty horrible "Meet the Ped" class that definitely did NOT encourage breastfeeding ("if you have to go back to work at eight weeks, then don't bother" and "most people need to supplement as their milk doesn't come in for a couple of days and the baby needs to eat something.") but after I gave birth, the nurses were great.

I had to hunt down a LC to help me figure out what I was doing, but noone mentioned formula at all. It was very nice. And the LC was very excited that I was bfing.

[MommytoHHH]

My hospital was pretty supportive of my BFing in both the L&D/PP wards. I thought the LCs that they provided were worthless (told me DD's latch was perfect when she had an underdeveloped suck reflex and was actually gnawing my nipples off). Luckily, my Ped had a good LC. However, I did NOT think the Peds floor was very supportive when DD was admitted for jaundice. Luckily, I had good support from DD's Ped who told me absolutely not to supplement, and again, her LC who saved our BFing relationship. That said, they did send me home from the hospital with a huge bag of formula. I told them I didn't want it and they essentially made me take it (though I didn't put up a big fight).

[LilMomma83]

My hospital was great!

They did not mention anything about supplimentation, they made sure the LC saw me. The last nurse we had before leaving was very knowledgable and helpful with BF also - she put a couple drops of glucose water in DS's mouth because he had been sleeping for about 13hrs and we could not get him up to feed (we tried everything in the book and nothing worked - not even the gluecose water, he did finally wake up on his own). She also appologized that the hospitals diaper bags were formula company sponsored but reccomended that I pick the Similac one because, "it has BM storage bottles, freezies and bags; so you will at least have something that is useful!" They are useful! I use them everyday! The bottles are small enough that I can fit all of them in my Medela PIS bag (I like to save in 3oz bottles/bags) and I use the cooler bag to put DS's bottles in when I take him to daycare!

Oh, I have also called the LCs several times since and gone in to see them once..

eta- and the nurses asked everytime they came in, hiw BF was going and did I have any questions or need any assistance.

[turtlewomyn]

My hospital was relatively good, there was rooming in and it was marked on the card that dd was to be bfed only. A lot of the nurses were really great and helpful, and they required you to see a LC before leaving, of course, I ended up seeing the crappy LC on staff who told me to pump to bring out my flat nipples (I thought she meant to pump and feed pumped milk at the time, but from reading my records that is what she had meant) and didn't notice that dd was tongue tied. Then, at discharge the nurse looked at DD's chart and thought she hadn't had a wet diaper all day (and I bet that nurse had changed one when she took DD to the nurses station to check vitals and forgot to write it down, because she was the ditziest woman I had ever met). She gave me the little similac 2 oz bottles and told me to supplement. I started to cry and she asked me what was wrong. I felt that this had meant I was a failure at bfing and wouldn't be able to do it, and since I had just had a c-section, I really wanted to at least get breastfeeding right. She told me to just supplement with a little bit, but she was worried that dd was going to end up in the emergency room dehydrated (even though she was plump and healthy, whatever) We supplemented with about 1/2 oz of formula that night and DD ended up with lots of wet diapers so we stopped (but later on did again due to tongue tie and a stupid ped, but that is a whole other story). We finally made it and dd is still nursing at 22 months.

[Sagesgirl]

Kapi'olani was supportive. To me at least; I have no idea how they deal with primiparas who aren't sure about the breastfeeding thing, but Esther was my third child and they knew I knew what I was doing. My nurse at least seemed knowledgeable--she shared my surprise when Esther nursed 30 minutes straight (5 min/side is more typical for a newborn, at least in my experience). I had the nurse take her to the nursery so I could get a little sleep and I was awoken about 4 in the morning by a crying baby and sat up to see the nurse literally running in my door to bring me Esther.

The nurses at Portsmouth were clueless. I've said before how little I liked this hospital in regards to breastfeeding. For starters, they had a breastfeeding class--but only for black women. When I had Bobbie she had to be in the observation nursery for 24 hours while I was on mag sulfate. They were under orders to bring her to me every three hours or when she was hungry, but I regularly had to call them to get them to bring her to me, and they once gave her a bottle of formula "Because you said only bring her every three hours and she was crying." They made me keep a feeding log and expected her to nurse 15 minutes on each side (this was true for both daughters). With Linda, my nurse chided me and told me I needed to "make her nurse more" or the doctors were going to make her stay in the hospital. Never did see a lactation consultant either time, though I'd requested it. The only mark in their favor was they did not suggest supplementation for Linda's jaundice.

[cravenab00]

with DS #2, he took a bit to latch on after birth (maybe 20 minutes?) he was busy protesting his new surroundings. And his face was very bruised from his rapid decent. And she sat there and WATCHED me the whole time. Finally left and brought back a bottle. In the mean time while she was gone, he latched on and was nursing. She set the bottle down and said "he'll need this when he's done" and I said no. She said well what do you plan to supplement with then? I said nothing. She looked at me like I was some sort of evil mother wanting to starve her baby.

[MamaBear1976]

Originally Posted by MilkTrance

I see how the game works. Take the uneducated, the emotional, the uninformed (or misinformed) mother and at a very fragile time for her, a time where she may be scared for baby's wellbeing (especially first time mothers) which just HAPPENS to usually be before the milk comes in, which just HAPPENS to be after baby has lost weight, and encourage supplementation (note that I'm not putting down the staff -- I know it's the formula companies' hospital marketing strategies which caused this mess).

Actually, I consider myself pretty educated on the subject and they STILL railroaded me (because it was a fragile time for me and I was concerned about my baby's wellbeing).

Here's my experience:

The day after I gave birth to my baby, I was breastfeeding her... A horrible nurse (who had earlier taken my pain medicine away and put it in the sharps container...WTF???) came in, saw that I was breastfeeding, saw that I was having a little trouble getting her latched on, saw that my baby started crying at me in frustration, scolded me by saying, "She's HUNGRY!! You need to FEED her!" Then she pointed to the formula that was on a table at the foot of my bed. She paused to see what I would do (jump up and get the formula?), then when I put my baby to my breast again gave me an exasperated look that basically told me I was a bad mother, and left in a huff.

How's that for pressure?

Want to know what happened after that? I caved to her pressure, fearing that she wouldn't allow my baby to be discharged if I didn't cede to her "suggestions," and I ended up filling an SNS with the formula and feeding it to my baby at the breast. I think she came in later and didn't know what to make of it.

[mamadelbosque]

NIP
The hospital was actualy really good about bfing, though ds did get a tiny bottle offormula on day 2 or maybe 3 since he still hadn't latched on at that point for more than a hafl a second But, that was only cause he WASNT latching... an it was only like 3/4 oz. Just so's he'd have SOMETHING, you know? But then, we finally got to see hte LC and she helped us out and while it was a bit of a struggle for the first week or two to nurse, we eventually got it down And there was no talk of FFing or formula samples or nothin... the diaper bag was full of bfing stuff

ETA: though to note it was a little ity bitty hospital that deals with quite a few amish/mennonites who have to goto a hospital for some reason... probably more people there give birth w/ midwives than ob/s

[Momtwice]

Yes. My milk supply never recovered. (This was with my first.)