nightfeeds: express or breast?

[benandmichelle]

Hi there,

I am curious....how many people feed from the breast in the night and how many from a bottle of expressed milk?.What should I be doing? I see no reason for me to give the bottle unless I am absent or I need the sleep and my partner gives him the feed. Are these the only reasons why people express for the night?

Cheers
Michelle

[Samuel's mum]

I recall your baby is quite young - 5 weeks? At this point it's quite important you do as many feeds at the breast as you can. Pumping does not stimulate your supply as a baby does (it does not 'milk' the breast as a baby's jaw does) and missing a lot of natural feeds early on can have long-term consequences for your milk supply. Plus having blocks of time when your breasts are not being fed from is also detrimental for your supply.
Night feeds also have an added benefit because the hormone which governs milk supply - prolactin - is at higher levels at night so night feeds have a particular bonus in boosting your supply.

Obviously if you are really in need of a sleep - your partner could give an expressed bottle while you get a bigger block of sleep. But I certainly wouldn't do more than one bottle a night if you can really help it and then at this early stage not even one every night.