To help you prepare for feeding your baby your midwife will discuss the different options at your antenatal appointment.
Breastfeeding
There are lots of benefits to breastfeeding your baby. Breastmilk provides perfectly balanced nutrition for your baby and its composition evolves to meet your baby’s individual needs are they grow. Breastmilk also boosts your baby’s ability to fight illness and infections. Breastfeeding is also a great way to connect with your baby. Keeping your baby close will help you to respond to their needs for food, love and comfort.
It is recommended that babies are exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life and that they continue to receive some breastmilk alongside safe, complementary foods thereafter.
Breastfeeding has benefits for you too. Those who choose to breastfeed have a lower risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Preparing to breastfeed class
The infant feeding team run an online class for expectant parents who are considering breastfeeding. This is a great way to learn how to feed your baby and find out about breastfeeding support. The class runs on the first Tuesday of every month at 6pm – please let us know which month you’d like to book.
Email [email protected] to book your place or find out more.
Leeds Maternity Breastfeeding Clinic
This clinic is run by our Infant Feeding Team who are Specialist Midwives and Support Workers. It offers personalised support for anyone who has difficulties with breastfeeding in the postnatal period (up to 28 days after your baby was born).
Email [email protected] for more information or to self-refer.
Breastfeeding – useful links
- NHS breastfeeding leaflet
- Antenatal Hand Expressing leaflet
- Responsive Feeding
- Building a happy baby leaflet
- Breastfeeding and lifestyle
Colostrum
Please see the Antenatal Hand Expressing leaflet for more information about colostrum.
Formula feeding
If you use formula milk it is very important for your baby’s health that you follow all the instructions to make the feed and sterilise any equipment correctly. Before you and your baby go home we will show you how to make up baby formula, and provide you with information including types of formula.
If you plan to formula feed you will need to bring ready to feed first milk formula into hospital with you. Starter packs with disposable bottles and teats are available to buy in many supermarkets and pharmacies. You should expect to use about 8 teats and bottles a day. We do not have the facilities for the safe preparation of powdered formula on the maternity wards. We do not provide formula milk for babies on maternity wards unless there is a medical indication.
First Steps Nutrition Trust is a charity that provides clear, evidence-based information about infant formula milks that is free from commercial bias: First Steps Nutrition Trust
Bottle feeding
Skin to skin contact
Having skin to skin contact with your baby immediately or as soon as possible after birth is a great way to get feeding off to the best possible start.
Skin to skin helps your newborn to learn how to find your breast and to have their first feed. Skin contact also triggers the release of your milk making hormones prolactin and oxytocin, helping you to establish a good milk supply.
If you decide not to breastfeed, you and your baby will still benefit from having skin to skin contact after birth. This is the perfect place for your baby to have their first bottle feed.
Meeting baby for the first time video – Baby Friendly Initiative
Feeding support in Leeds
Support in the community after your baby has been born
Please take a look at the Leeds Community Healthcare website for more information about infant feeding support in Leeds: 0 to 19 Public Health Integrated Nursing Service
Leeds Bosom Buddies support groups
Leeds Bosom Buddies provide mum-to-mum breastfeeding information and support in groups run by trained breastfeeding peer supporters. They can also provide more details about the Breast Pump Loan Scheme.
See Leeds Bosom Buddies on Facebook or email [email protected] for the latest information and groups in your area.
Timetable of Breastfeeding Support Groups (Nov 2024)
Our videos
The aim of this series of videos is to provide the information you will need to decide how to feed and care for your baby.
Information to consider in your pregnancy about feeding your baby – Leeds Maternity
Hello, my name is Becky Smith, I’m an Infant Feeding Advisor for Maternity Services here at Leeds Teaching Hospitals. The aim of this series of videos is to provide you with the information needed to make an informed decision about how to feed and care for your baby. Your baby’s brain grows very rapidly during pregnancy. You can support this process of growth and development by taking time to connect with your baby, talk to your baby or perhaps play some music, stroke your bump and respond when your baby kicks, encourage family members to do the same.
Every time you connect with your baby like this, you release a hormone called oxytocin, or the love hormone, that acts like a fertilizer for your baby’s developing brain. There is extensive evidence to show that breastfeeding improves health. It provides perfectly balanced nutrition that evolves to meet the needs of your growing baby. It contributes to the development of a strong immune system and a healthy gut microbiome, which together protect your baby from a vast range of illnesses including infection, diabetes, asthma, obesity as well as cot death. Breastfeeding also protects mothers from breast and ovarian cancer and heart disease, and it’s been associated with improved mental health for both mother and baby and plays a significant role in the development of a close and loving relationship.
Having skin to skin contact with your baby immediately or as soon as possible after birth is a great way to get breastfeeding off to the best possible start. Birth represents a period of huge transition for you and your baby, and skin to skin helps to calm and reassure you both. Your baby’s stress hormones will be elevated after birth, even an hour of skin contact will lower these levels significantly, helping them to feel safe.
This special time provides an opportunity for you to recover, but also to begin to get to know one another. The hormones released during skin to skin stimulate instinctive mothering behaviours and help you to fall in love with your baby. Skin to skin also encourages breast searching behaviours in your newborn, helping them to learn how to find your breast and to have their first feed. Skin contact also triggers the release of your milk making hormones prolactin and oxytocin, thereby contributing to the establishment of a good milk supply. It also provides your baby with a crucial colonization of the good bacteria that live on the surface of your skin. These microbes help to lay the foundations for a healthy and strong immune system. Providing you and your baby are both well, you should be able to enjoy a prolonged period of skin contact with your baby regardless of how and where you give birth.
We encourage you to remain together for as long as you wish, preferably until after your baby has had their first breastfeed. If you decide not to breastfeed, you and your baby will still benefit from having skin to skin contact after birth. This is the perfect place for your baby to have their first bottle-feed. In the early days and weeks after birth you can help your baby to feel safe and secure by having further skin to skin contact by responding when they cry and by keeping them close at all times including at night. This will help you to develop a close, loving relationship with your baby that will support the continued development of their brain and help them to grow up to be happy and confident.
Responsive Breastfeeding – Leeds Maternity
We encourage all mothers to breastfeed their babies responsibly. Breastfeeding recognizes that breastfeeding not only provides everything your baby needs in terms of nutrition and protection, but crucially, it also offers a perfect way to comfort and reassure your baby.
When you breastfeed responsively, you respond to your baby’s feeding cues rather than following a rigid feeding schedule. Your baby might show you that they want to feed by licking their lips, sucking on their fingers, or by moving their head around in a motion known as rooting crying. This is a late feeding queue, and so it is always best to offer a feed at the first sign that they are ready.
It is normal for newborn babies to want to feed frequently in the early days and weeks, as they are growing at a significant rate, and they also need regular reassurance that you are nearby. Staying close to your baby both day and night will enable you to respond quickly to your baby’s feeding queues, helping them to feel safe and secure, which in turn supports their healthy brain growth and development.
You cannot overfeed a breastfed baby, and you cannot spoil your baby by feeding or cuddling them too often. Feeding your baby responsively also ensures your breasts get the stimulation they’re required to produce a good supply of milk for your baby. You have thousands of milk making cells within your breasts, each of these cells need to be activated for them to start making milk for your baby. The earlier and more frequent you feed your baby, the more these cells will be switched on and the better your long-term milk supply will be.
In the first 24 hours it is common for babies to only have three or four fades as they recover from the birth, keeping them close and enjoying skin contact will help. After the first 24 hours your baby should be feeding at least eight times in a 24-hour period, though some babies will feed more frequently than this, whilst others may take a little longer to recover from their birth. If your baby doesn’t show any interest in feeding, we would encourage you to stimulate your breasts by expressing 8–12 times in 24 hours to ensure a good milk supply.
Responsive breastfeeding also acknowledges the importance of your needs too even if your baby isn’t showing you a feeding queue you may wish to offer your baby a breastfed so that you can enjoy some time together or have a rest likewise you can choose to initiate a breastfed if your breasts feel uncomfortably full doing so will reduce the risk of you getting blocked milk ducts or mastitis and will support you to have a good milk supply if you have any concerns about your baby’s feeding please contact your midwife or maternity support worker for more support.
New babies need your support to achieve good attachments at your breast.
Attachment is the word used to describe how your baby takes your breast into their mouth so that they can feed. When a baby is attached well, they take a big mouthful of your breast into their mouth, and your nipple is drawn right to the back of their mouth where the palate is soft. This ensures that feeding is comfortable for you and allows your baby to get a good volume of your breast milk. Good attachment relies upon effective positioning, or how you hold your baby at your breast.
There are four key principles of positioning that need to be applied, and we can use the acronym chin to help us remember them.
C stands for close. It is important for you to hold your baby close to you so that your baby can take a good mouthful of your breast, excess clothes and blankets, or even your baby’s arms can get in the way and prevent your baby from latching effectively.
H stands for head free. It is important to avoid placing your hands or fingers on the back of your baby’s head when breastfeeding. Your baby needs to be able to tilt their head back, lift their chin off their chest, and open their mouth really wide, just like we do as adults. When we have a drink, it would be difficult for us to drink comfortably or effectively with our chin on our chest. I stands for inline. Your baby’s head and body should be in alignment, with no twisting at the neck again. This enables them to feed comfortably and efficiently.
N stands for nose to nipple. The touch of your nipple on your baby’s nose or top lip will help your baby to tilt the head back and to make a wide open mouth. They will then move towards your breast with their chin leading. They will use their tongue to reach as much of your breast as possible, and your nipple will be drawn under their top lip and to the back of their mouth, where the palate is soft. There are lots of different breastfeeding positions that you can try, but these same four principles can be applied regardless of which position feels most comfortable for you. The majority of breastfeeding complications result from the baby not quite being latched correctly at the breast.
However, this means that most problems can be overcome with some support to make a few adjustments. New babies have very small tummies that can only hold about five to seven millilitres of milk at each feed. Colostrum, The first milk your breasts produce, is available in small volumes, but it is full of concentrated goodness and provides everything your baby needs.
In the first few days, larger volumes of milk will be produced the more often your baby breastfeeds. Your baby’s tummy will grow during the first few days and weeks so that you can hold more milk at each feeding. By about two weeks of age, your baby’s tummy will be able to take approximately 60 to 80 millilitres of milk, though they might not always want this full amount at every feed. Lots of new mothers wonder how they will know if their breastfed baby is getting enough milk.
Luckily, there are a few ways to reassure yourself that your baby is feeding well. Listen for the sound of your baby swallowing. As your milk volume increases at around day three, your baby will start to swallow more frequently. If you can hear them swallowing after every one to two suckers, this is a good indication that they are getting what they need.
Speak to your midwife or maternity support worker if you need support to recognize the sound of your baby’s swallowing. The number of wet and dirty nappies your baby is producing can also be a good indication of how much milk your baby is getting in the first 24 to 48 hours. Your baby will probably only have two to three wet nappies.
The number of wet nappies should then start to increase, with at least six wet nappies in a 24-hour period from day five onwards. The colour and consistency of your baby’s stool or poo will also change during the first week if your baby is feeding well. The first pool your baby has will be a black tar light stool called nihonium as your baby takes more ilk. Their poos become looser and change colour from black to green to brown and eventually to yellow by about days four to six. By this stage, your baby should be having at least two poos a day; some babies will have many more poos than this, and that is absolutely ine.
If your new baby goes for longer than 24 hours without having a poo, please speak to your midwife or maternity support worker, as this may be a sign that they’re not quite getting enough milk. Your baby’s weight can also provide an indication of how well your baby is feeding. It is normal for babies to lose weight when they are weighed at about day three of age. From then on, if they are feeding well, they should start to gain weight, reaching their birth weight by the time they are about two weeks old.
