Breastfeeding Gyan from FTM

Breastfeeding is highly recommended for the many benefits it brings to you and your baby post delivery. 

Prepping for Breastfeeding 

• Attend a breastfeeding class and understand how baby is supposed to latch.
• Buy a nipple cream for nipple soreness. Lansinoh Breast Cream is a good one.
• You will be pumping at some point unless you are a full time stay at home home. Most of the hospitals offer a hospital grade breast pump for renting and they are very good. Otherwise, Medela is the highly recommended electric double pump. Following are some of the good to have items.
• Milk storage bags: You will want to start storing milk early so you can use them either when you get back to work or when your milk production reduces.
• Ziplock or storage rack: I used the ziplock and a freezer safe plastic box to store the milk bags. But there are some storage racks available too if you prefer that.
• Refer the following medela guideline for storage and use of breast milk.

• Nursing Bras: Make sure you get padded nursing bras. This way you don't have to again insert nursing pads to help with leaks when you are away from baby. And trust me, you will leak at some point. 
• Nursing wear: You will need a few nursing friendly clothes whether it is shirts, nursing tops or nursing dresses. 

Post Partum Diet

• Include fenugreek, fennel seeds and/or asparagus in your diet to help increase milk production in breastfeeding mom. Fenugreek tablets are also available if you prefer pills.
• Drink lots and lots of water to help with milk production. Include more of water based food items such as porridge. Fenugreek and rice porridge are examples of such food items. 
• Avoid eating gassy items such as broccoli, cauliflower, potato and certain lentils.
• Avoid having spicy food. While cooking, replace chilli powder with pepper if possible and reduce chili powder quantity when applicable.
• Have some snack items such as trail mix, fruits, carrots handy while breastfeeding as you tend to get very hungry and thirsty. Edible gum is a popular postpartum food item recommended in India. I got panjiri(punjabi dish made with edible gum, lots of dry fruits, optional methi powder) made at home as was pleasantly surprised to find edible gum at one of the local indian grocery store. 

Myths

• Drinking more milk produces more milk in mommy is a myth. In fact, drinking too much milk or other dairy products is known to produce gas. So limit the quantity of milk you consume postpartum.
• Babies need to be fed every 2 hours for the first few months is a myth. It is required to feed the baby every 2 hours mainly for the first two weeks. After the two week appointment with your pediatrician, your baby's weight gain will be assessed. If your baby has gained back all the initial lost weight and is back to the birth weight, your doctor will clear your baby from going longer without feeding. This means you can still continue feeding every 2-3 hours during the day but you can let your baby sleep as long as she wants to(this will not exceed 5-6 hours till your LO is 4+ months old) in the night.
• Tummy time cannot be started till umbilical stump falls off is a myth. Doctors suggest we start tummy time on daddy or mommy's chest right after bringing baby home from the hospital. Tummy time is great for babies to start making their back and neck stronger. So start it early and slowly increase the duration of tummy time as your baby starts getting a little more comfortable with it. It is also perfect for daddy to have the much recommended skin to skin bonding time with the baby.

Breastfeeding tips

• Babies tend to loose weight after delivery. To ensure they gain back the lost weight and reach their birth weight, feed baby every 2 hours atleast for the first 2-3 weeks. You will most likely have your first pediatrician appointment at 2 weeks and doctor will accordingly advise you to either relax your feeding to every 3 hours or feed formula in case baby still has not gained back the birth weight.
• Enable skin to skin contact as much as possible with the baby and do not limit it to just while breastfeeding or only to mommy. Include daddy as well for skin to skin bonding time. 
• Avoid bottles and pacifiers at least till 4-6 weeks post delivery so baby knows how to latch on for feeding. 
• While storing milk, make sure you mix only cold to cold and warm to warm.
• Never microwave stored milk.
• Baby should always have tongue lower and closer to teeth while feeding. If not, there may be latching issues.
• Rub a little bit of expressed breast milk after feeding to help with nipple soreness. Lanolin is also a great alternative.
• Babies tend to feed longer in the first few weeks.