With our Lactation Consultant, Giselle Johnston
Learning how, when and how much to feed your baby or babies, is one the steepest learning curve you will have as a newborn parent. Each feeding journey is unique but one thing you can be sure of is that baby has to eat!
How can you make as easy as possible? Learn as much as you can about feeding options in your third trimester or as soon as you know your baby will be arriving. A new born can be fed by direct nursing, bottle feeding pumped milk, formula, a combination of the two, latched with a supplemental nursing system etc. You can even induce lactation as a non-gestational parent to be.
In the first 1-2 days your baby stomach capacity starts at 5-10 ml per feed, of which they will take on average 8-10 times, by day 3, 20-30 ml that will gradually increase to 45-60 by 1 week old. If your baby is getting enough, they will give you ample pees and poops and be content enough to sleep after feeds. Your care provider will monitor for normal expected weight loss post-birth to ensure baby regains their birth weight by maximum 2 weeks. A baby who is well fed, is a baby who will settle and sleep well after feeds.
So if this is your first, and you’re hoping to get feeding off to a smooth, confident start book a prenatal session to learn about the different options for feeding your baby. If you’re getting back into the newborn saddle and want to experience a more positive feeding journey this time, we’re here for you!
Giselle Johnston, IBCLC
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