Infant Feeding - Antenatal information

Breastfeeding is instinctive and natural, but it is also a learnt skill that takes lots of practice, patience and time.

We are here to provide lots of information, support and advice to help prepare you and your family during the antenatal period and early days.

Getting to know your baby, can start way before they are even born. It is during this period that the early foundations for secure attachment between parent and baby are laid.

Connecting with your baby releases the love hormone, ‘Oxytocin’ which has a positive impact on the growing brain and your baby’s development.

It also allows you to become more responsive to your baby’s needs once your baby is born.

Research shows, that babies who are responded too and have their needs met, helps them to become happy, healthy and secure children and adults.

Your partner, any other children and wider family are encouraged to be involved too. 

Here are some ideas of ways to connect with your unborn baby.

  • Talking to baby
  • Feeling baby move and connecting with those movements
  • Touching your bump
  • Playing music to baby or reading a story
  • Finding out what baby is able to do or hear at different stages in the pregnancy

Benefits of breastfeeding for your baby

  • Get sick less and have a lower risk of allergies
  • Have a lower risk of obesity and diabetes
  • Have a lower incidence of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)
  • Have a reduced risk for ear infections
  • Are on a path to optimal brain development
  • Get nutrients to help strengthen and develop their immature immune systems
  • Are protected against respiratory infections

Getting feeding off to a good start

Skin to skin contact helps your baby feel safe and secure. 

Holding your baby in skin to skin after birth regulates your baby’s temperature, heart rate and breathing, helping your baby to adjust to being outside the womb.  Keeping your baby in skin to skin, for at least an hour or until after the first feed will help your baby to use their own instinctive behaviours to seek the breast and self attach.

Effective attachment will help baby get the milk they need and make breastfeeding more comfortable. Watch this video to learn why effective attachment is so important to breastfeeding and how to achieve this:

 

What is in colostrum?

Colostrum is high in protein and low in fat and sugar. It's filled with white blood cells that produce antibodies. These antibodies strengthen your baby's immune system, protecting him or her from infection.

Colostrum has many benefits:

Helps strengthen your baby's immune system.

Helps to establish a healthy gut by coating the intestines.

Offers ideal nutrition for a newborn.

Has a laxative effect that helps your baby clear meconium (your baby's first poo) and lessens the chance of jaundice.

Easy to digest.

Colostrum collecting

Colostrum is the first milk that your body produces from around 16 weeks of pregnancy.

Colostrum collecting whilst still pregnant can help to make breastfeeding more successful. You can hand express from 36 weeks in pregnancy. It is especially useful for women with the following pregnancy and baby related conditions:

Raised BMI, Diabetes, Gestational Diabetes, Beta-Blockers used for raised blood pressure, Baby on board who is small for gestational age, Premature babies, Babies with a cleft lip or palate, Twin and triplet pregnancies

Please ask your midwife for further questions.

Some of the babies in the above group will be at increased risk of low blood sugars. The collected colostrum will help to reverse this condition and reduce the need for infant formula.

How to Hand Express

  • Stimulate breasts with massage and nipple rolling
  • Place finger and thumb in a ‘C shape’ about 2.5cm away from the nipple
  • Using forefinger and thumb, compress in a steady rhythm without sliding fingers along the skin.
  • Colostrum may take a few minutes to flow, if it doesn’t flow, move fingers further away or closer together and try again
  • Rotate fingers around the breast to ensure all milk ducts are stimulated
  • When milk flow stops or slows down, continue on the other side.

 

 

Responsive feeding

Responsive feeding is being responsive to your baby’s needs and cues. It is feeding your baby on demand and not following a strict feeding schedule (unless asked to do so by your midwife or neonatologist.) Look out for cues such as:

Stirring, mouth opening, stretching, hand to mouth, turning head, rooting.

Crying is a late feeding cue.

Responding to your baby’s needs, cuddling and not leaving them to cry is crucial for brain development.

For more advice and support, please contact your midwife.