Can you breastfeed following a C-section?

I just had a planned C-Section March the 3rd. I planned to breastfeed and
they gave me Libby in the recovery room. She latched on real well. I had
to use the football hold, any other way was to uncomfortable. However,
even that hold was hard on me. Libby hated breastfeeding though. I wanted
her to so bad, but after that first time she didn't seem like it anymore.
I cried because I wanted her to. Anyways I got off the subject. It is
possible, even with the drugs you will be taking. The hospital is not
going to give you anything to hurt the baby if they know you are nursing.

On Wed, 26 May 2004 07:33:02 -0500, "Donna Metler"
wrote:

Is
this the same for a planned C-section as for an emergency one? Or did my
doctors just give me stronger meds since I didn't have a baby to take care
of and it didn't matter?

With my planned c-section, they brought the baby into the recovery
room so we could start bf'ing immediately. It was very nice to have
my midwife, my DH and my baby all around me as I recovered.

--
Daye
Momma to Jayan and Leopold
See Jayan and Leo: http://www.aloofhosting.com/jayleo/
Updated 28 Feb 2004

I've had three sections; for each I had morphine in my epidural for about 24
hours after the birth, then something like Lorcet to take home that lasted
about a week, which I took along with Tylenol and Ibuprofen.

I've always been a little surprised by the assumption put forward in most
parenting books that nursing post-section is difficult. There may be a little
more difficulty with positioning due to the incision, but I've never had any
trouble at all. In fact, there may be a slight advantage in that you aren't
going to be feeling like doing anything more than lying in bed nursing the baby
for a week anyway!

Leslie

"Donna Metler" wrote in message ...
I know that after my last one I was on some really heavy drugs for the first
day or two, and on pain relievers for several weeks. I can't imagine this
would be good for the baby, since they almost completely knocked me out. Is
this the same for a planned C-section as for an emergency one? Or did my
doctors just give me stronger meds since I didn't have a baby to take care
of and it didn't matter? It will be another classical C-section, so the
incision is quite large. I would really like to breastfeed.

Yes, absolutely you can breastfeed after a c-section.

At least some of what you were on was the mag sulfate, which
exacerbates the feeling of being on heavy-duty meds which have knocked
you out. I had a spinal, then two Demerol shots, then nurses kept
giving me Percocet even though it seemed to have no effect on me, plus
IV mag sulfate for days postpartum, plus labetelol for four months
postpartum -- and the IBCLC was unconcerned about all of it. It was
more of an issue to teach a 34-weeker how to latch. :-)

DS is still nursing several times a day. Once he figured it out, we
had no problems whatsoever.

--
C, mama to nineteen month old nursling

Leslie wrote:
I've always been a little surprised by the assumption put forward in most
parenting books that nursing post-section is difficult. There may be a little
more difficulty with positioning due to the incision, but I've never had any
trouble at all.

I've heard it's quite common for it to take longer for your milk to come
in post c-section.

In my case, it took me almost 5 days for my milk to come in, and in my
family I hear that is not the norm. I have no idea if it would have been
different if I'd had a vaginal delivery.

"Donna Metler" wrote in message
...
I know that after my last one I was on some really heavy drugs for the
first
day or two, and on pain relievers for several weeks. I can't imagine this
would be good for the baby, since they almost completely knocked me out.

I breastfed twins after a planned section, with very little difficulty,
considering. (I mean, there were various small things that seemed difficult and
worrisome at the time, but nothing that we didn't end up handling in the end.)
I had a morphine drip in the hospital, which didn't have a great deal of effect
as far as I could tell, except to give me a cottonmouthed feeling, but it
didn't make me woozy either. Then Tylenol with codeine to go home with. That
did not make me woozy, but I know it does have that effect on some people (I
was astonished that my husband refused to take codeine during the day when he
had a bad toothache recently -- it never affected me that way).

--Helen

Shena said:

I've heard it's quite common for it to take longer for your milk to come
in post c-section.

In my case, it took me almost 5 days for my milk to come in, and in my
family I hear that is not the norm

I wonder what the medical reason for that would be? In any case, my milk took
three days to come in with the first baby, and has taken around 24 hours with
each of my other births.

Leslie