"Breastfeeding support in hospital"

After giving birth to my son, I had on my birth plan that I wanted to breastfeed and stay in hospital for 1 night for support. Due to bed shortages instead of moving to the maternity ward I was moved back to the midwife led unit with my baby, and stayed there after giving birth.

The information and advice I was given around breastfeeding made the start to the feeding difficult. I was told to feed every 4-6 hours and when I went home I believed 4 hourly was appropriate and my son lost a lot of weight. The breastfeeding support team advised I should have been told 2-3 hours, 3 at the very most. 

During the night I stayed at hospital I was woken several times for checks for both me and baby and was not supported to feed every 2-3 hours, but every 4 hours. When my baby didn't latch, the staff member massaged my breast to express colostrum (with my permission) and fed via syringe. This was fine except I didn't learn how to hand express, and I didn't learn how to latch. The support I was given to latch my baby was minimal, and I was told he had a good latch when the feeding was painful and my nipple was lipstick shaped, indicating a poor latch. When the breastfeeding support team came out to help, they showed me how to get a deeper latch so there was definitely room for improvement. 

Overall if I hadn't sought further support after leaving hospital due to being desperate to breastfeed, the initial weight loss may have led me to supplement with formula. When the midwife came out this was initially suggested despite WHO recommendations about exclusively breastfeeding.