|Infant Feeding in Emergencies: A Guide for Mothers (WHO - OMS, 1997, 48 p.)|
Even if you stopped breastfeeding several months ago you can probably still squeeze a drop of fluid from your breast. Your milk-making system has not completely shut down. Re-starting breastfeeding after you have stopped is called relactation. Women who have never given birth have breastfed adopted babies, this is called induced lactation. The first is easier than the second.
The three principles of easy breastfeeding still apply.
· Good attachment
· Supply and demand
The aim is to persuade your baby to play her part. If she is now fully bottle-fed, she may have temporarily forgotten her natural skill to breastfeed and she needs reminding. Some babies just restart suckling easily, others need gentle persuasion. The delicate period is when you want your baby to suckle a lot to stimulate the milk, but she still needs to get enough to eat. She needs to be hungry enough to suckle effectively at the breast, but not so hungry that she gets frustrated when the milk supply is still low.
Every baby is different. Some babies who are bottle-fed, attach well at the breast. Others are so used to the bottle they do not work at the breast. Ask someone to give you emotional and practical support through the first days: for example perhaps a relative or friend could help with housework, queue for food or care for your other children. You will need to spend a lot of time with your baby at the beginning.
· Put your baby to the breast frequently, at least 10 times in 24 hours.
· Offer your breast whenever she wants to feed. Never force the breast; try to remind her how pleasant breastfeeding can be.
· Make sure that the position and attachment are right and comfortable for both of you.
· Whenever possible, enjoy skin-to-skin contact, even when the baby is asleep.
· It helps to sleep all night with the baby skin-to-skin.
· Do not use a dummy.
· Whether you are bottle-feeding or cup-feeding gradually reduce the amount of milk in these feeds as your milk increases.
· Use gentle hand expression to stimulate the breast.
· If you can squeeze a droplet of milk onto your baby's tongue, do this to awaken her interest.
· You can try dripping artificial milk from a spoon onto your breast so that it trickles into the baby's mouth while she suckles.
If the baby is getting frustrated before the milk comes back you can try making a breastfeeding supplementer. Only use this method if you know you can sterilize the equipment for every feed. Ask a health worker for very fine infant feeding tubes. Put donated expressed breast-milk, commercial baby milk or diluted cow's milk in a cup, jar or other available container.
Place the end of the tube along your nipple, so that the baby suckles the breast and the tube at the same time. Hold the tube in place, ideally with surgical tape (Figure 7).
Ask someone to hold the cup, if you find it awkward to hold. To start off the milk can be held higher than your breast and baby. As soon as the milk flows through the tube, hold it lower. The idea is to make the baby stimulate your breast-milk by effective suckling, so only a trickle must get through the tube. Reduce the milk in the cup by a teaspoonful10 at each feed as the breast-milk increases.
10 If a teaspoon is inappropriate, use an equivalent local measure for up to 5 ml, for example, a soft drink bottle cap.
Stay confident. Many women, including grandmothers, have successfully restimulated breast-milk, many years after they stopped breastfeeding.