Birth Choices and Breastfeeding: A Poll
I am not even 20 weeks along in this pregnancy and already I am focused on the birth. After two unsatisfying hospital births, this time I am working with a midwife toward a home birth. I am curious about your thoughts on birth choices and whether or not they affect breastfeeding success rates. Do you think birth center and home births are more conducive to breastfeeding success? Do breastfeeding women tend to choose birth center or home births even if they gave birth at a hospital the first time? How successful do you think hospital lactation support is? Do the free formula giveaways sabotage breastfeeding? Leave a comment!
For your most recent child, where did you give birth?
To see the results of the last poll, click here.
Tags: birth, birth center, breastfeeding, home birth, homebirth, hospital, lactation, poll, pregnancy, pregnantRelated Stories
POSTED IN: breastfeeding, poll, pregnancy
11 opinions for Birth Choices and Breastfeeding: A Poll
Half Pint Pixie
Mar 9, 2008 at 10:54 am
I had littlepixie in a hospital, it has “baby friendly status” which means skin to skin contact immediately after the birth, try breastfeeding in the delivery room, baby rooming in with mum, no soothers or formula given, no sugar water, I think there must be more but I can’t remember.
Anyway in practice, I must say that were it not for sheer pigheadness on the part of myself and hubby, breastfeeding wouldn’t have continued! The postnatal midwives are so overworked, one wrote a pointed “mum needs constant help with feeding” in my notes, yet no lactation consultant was offered to me. As I had flat nipples I needed a little more help, yet each of the midwives had a different technique and each of their attempts left babypixie screaming! Not a good start.
While I was in the ward, I saw about 10 mums, and only 2 of us were breastfeeding. While free samples of formula aren’t given, they are freely available in a cupboard in the baby changing room. Many women were stocking up the single use bottles before going home. I chatted to a few of them and they all had similar experiences, baby was “too hungry”, “couldn’t latch”, all things an LC should be available to help with, especially in the postnatal ward!
So in answer to your questions, I would really prefer next time to use a birthing centre although there are none here! Having not had the pleasure of being able to find an LC in hospital, I have to say the lactation support was shockingly bad. And I think it is really bad form that a hospital can achieve the “baby friendly” status and yet have shelves of ready made formula sitting free for the taking in the baby changing rooms!
Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor
Mar 9, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Wow, Half Pint Pixie! Good for you for persisting and making breastfeeding work in spite of the lack of support.
Neither of the hospitals at which I gave birth had “baby-friendly” designation (I didn’t even know that existed at the time). I’m really shocked to hear that a baby-friendly hospital would still have formula — ready made! — so easily available. Thanks for your comment.
Shannon @ some fine taters
Mar 9, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I absolutely found homebirth to be a much more breastfeeding friendly option than hospital birth, having had one of each.
No formula samples, two former and two current LLLL’s in attendance, and baby at the breast immediately with no subsequent separation for “observation.” And of course, rooming in is the default. Not to mention drug free for an alert momma and baby!
Eilat
Mar 9, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I had my son at a birthing center inside of a hospital. Some say this is the “best of both worlds”. It was a great birth. Still, now that I know that my body can do it, my next baby will be born at home. Who wants to get into a car during labor?
Maria
Mar 9, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I had my baby in a hospital in Germany, and from what I can tell, my experience was considerably different than birthing in a hospital in the US. My midwife was amazing, and I left the hospital less than 10 hours after delivering. The midwife visited me repeatedly in my home, and because of her help, I was able to feel confident about my breastfeeding and the health of the baby. If I were to have a second (which is not planned), I would look for a birthing center or do an at home birth.
Autumn
Mar 10, 2008 at 7:32 am
All of my children were/will be born at home so I fortunately have never had to deal with the negative forces hospitals can put on breastfeeding. Also because we were at home the breastfeeding relationship was allowed to develop naturally. My first 2 children did not nurse for the first 24 hours. Had we been in the hospital they would have force fed them. They knew what they needed…sleep! Then out came #3 ready to eat.
Great poll.
Autumn Beck
MomOnTheGo
Mar 10, 2008 at 8:59 am
I had my daughter at a hospital. She was held for observation in the NICU because she had passed meconium in utero. I was adamant about breastfeeding and the NICU nurses suggested formula within hours of her birth (though she latched on fine and nursed as often as newborns are “supposed” to). The maternity ward nurses were supportive and intervened with NICU to allow my daughter to come to my room to be nursed. The lactation consultants at the hospital were also supportive. They were also aware of the attitude of the NICU nurses and were in the process of setting up a dedicated NICU lactation consultant.
Kelley
Mar 10, 2008 at 9:40 am
With all the horror stories I feel good about my hospital stay… granted it turned into a c-section circus, but that was my choice ultimately… I think having a doula was by far the best choice… she was familiar with the staff, and was adamant with them about breastfeeding.
After the birth, I had issues in the beginning with a “disorganized sucker” so the LC was called… at one point we were using a little sugar solution and she had left a little for our next attempt, well the nurse came in, said we didn’t have an order for it and took it away then helped me latch the baby. I was surprised by this given all the talk of hospital problems… and this was at a Kaiser hospital. So, if I ever have another baby I’ll probably go back there… I know I was very anxious about breastfeeding b/c I’d never done it before… is it the same the next time around?
Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor
Mar 10, 2008 at 10:34 am
Hi Kelley — I wasn’t anxious about breastfeeding the second time around, but I did recognize that each baby is different and each newborn is just learning to breastfeed.
I was disappointed in the hospital the second time around because they took my daughter away for a bath, and then kept her under a heat lamp for an hour or more to warm her back up. I didn’t know where she was (although I was comforted that my husband was with her) and I was worried. And she could have “warmed up” right on my chest. I was lucky the separation did not interfere with breastfeeding.
Elizabeth
Mar 10, 2008 at 11:01 am
I’ve had all three of mine in the hospital with a midwife, and my experiences were good, mostly.
The first time, there are so many unknowns, and, of course, you can’t control who your nurses are, but I learned a LOT that first time; and the second time, I went in IN CONTROL. But the 2nd time, I also had better nurses and didn’t have the complications (partial abruption and subsequent hemmorage) that I did the first time.
My third time was definitely the most smooth. I had THE BEST nurse from the time I walked in the door; and the midwife on call was new, but she was great as well. (I was supposed to be her final supervised delivery, but I delivered so fast that the supervising midwife, who had attended my previous birth, never made it in the room until afterward.) I remember at one point, one of the nurses told me to change something in my position during delivery, but it didn’t feel right, and so I went back to what I had been doing. The nurse started to ‘correct’ me again, and the midwife told her, “She knows what she’s doing, just leave her alone.”
The hospital I chose is labeled, “Breastfeeding friendly” and they proved to be so. They don’t offer any formula (though I’m sure they have it if a mother isn’t going to nurse). My babies were on my chest before the cord was even cut. They did not bathe my babies until I was ready for them to do so, and it was done in-room.
With my second child, the nurse did put her under a warmer after she was bathed, and it didn’t occur to me that I could have insisted that she be given to me for warmth until later ( I was just so tired from birth and was having significant pain because she had come so fast.) With my 3rd, I simply informed the nurse that he was not to be placed under a warmer, but rather on my chest, and there was no argument.
At our hospital (Methodist Hospital, St Louis Park, Minnesota), all of the nurses are trained to assist in breastfeeding. Most of them have breastfed their own babies. There is a breastfeeding nurse who visits every room, and there is also a breastfeeding clinic located in the building attached to the back of the hospital.
So, as I said, my experiences were, mostly, very good. If we are blessed with another at some point, we will most likely chose the same route.
Sarah
Mar 10, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I loved my hospital births! The nurses never mentioned formula to me and I was visited by a LC often. With my first, I kept trying to send him to the nursery so I could sleep (stupid first time mom) but they kept bringing him back because he was hungry (newborns nurse 24/7? LOL) Finally, after about 4 hours of this, they ASKED did I want to supplement with formula. I said no and they honored my wishes and I ended up keeping my son in my room! I didn’t get any sleep, but he was a champion nurser!
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