Feeding Your Baby: Working Together to Make Informed Decisions

• Your breast milk is the perfect food for your baby
• It helps protect your baby against gastroenteritis and diarrhoea, ear and chest infections, allergies and diabetes
• It helps reduce your bleeding after birth and returning to your pre-pregnancy weight
• It reduces your risk of breast and ovarian cancer, and osteoporosis
• It reduces your fertility after the birth, is convenient and costs nothing

After your baby is born, we’ll support you in having skin-to-skin contact, which provides warmth, comfort, and helps your baby prepare for their first feed. 

This early connection is important, regardless of how you choose to feed, as it sets the stage for a positive start. 

We prioritise this moment and are here to assist you every step of the way. If you have a cesarean birth, we’ll aim to keep your baby with you in the recovery room whenever possible.

Babies typically feed based on their needs, around 8 to 12 times in a 24-hour period. They will give cues like licking, sucking, and soft sounds to signal when they're ready to feed. 

Feeding on demand helps establish and maintain your milk supply, ensuring your baby gets enough breastmilk.

If your baby is premature, sleepy, or unwell, we may suggest gently waking them for feeds until they can wake up on their own. This ensures they’re getting the nutrition they need.

Babies naturally know how to breastfeed, and it's best to follow their cues. For mothers, this process requires patience, time, and practice. In the early days, your breasts produce colostrum, which is all a healthy newborn need, while your breasts remain soft until mature milk comes in. This period is ideal for practicing different feeding positions and learning your baby’s cues.

Mothers have long known how to tell if their baby is getting enough milk, primarily by monitoring wet and dirty nappies.

After your breast milk comes in, typically 2 to 4 days after birth, you’ll notice an increase in wet and dirty nappies. Expect about 5 to 6 wet and 2 to 3 dirty nappies in 24 hours, with your baby becoming more alert, responsive, and steadily gaining weight.

Midwives will assist by weighing your baby on day 4 and at discharge to ensure healthy progress.

It is recommended to exclusively breastfeed your baby (without any other foods or fluids) for about the first 6 months. After that, breastfeeding can continue as part of a balanced diet until your baby is 2 years old or beyond. If infant formula becomes necessary, your paediatrician or midwife will guide you through the decision and provide support.

Using dummies, bottles, or giving other fluids during the early stages of breastfeeding canreduce the time your baby spends feeding at the breast, which may lower your milk supply. If your baby requires supplements, staff will guide you on what to give and the best way to do so. 

Introducing a dummy early on might lead to missing feeding cues, as your baby could be asking to breastfeed, not just for comfort.

Sometimes women feel that they get conflicting advice about feeding their baby from healthprofessionals, family and friends, and from the media. As things change rapidly in the early days of baby's life and in breast feeding, our advice may need to change from day to day – or even feed to feed. 

We aim to give you the best available advice at the right time. 

Family and friends will also offer advice that might be helpful- choose what is working best for you and your baby.