Hospital births and breastfeeding

Having a medicalized birth in a hospital can have long term impacts on the chances of exclusive breastfeeding. In this area I have to hand it to the Philippine Milk Code, their regulations in hospitals work really well, although in its present form the code is unnecessarily restrictive in other areas.

The Medical City adheres to some basic rules which are listed in the nursery. First, regardless of manner of delivery, the baby is put to the boob as soon as he is cleared by doctors, in our case under 2 minutes even if I had a c-section. Second, babies are not given any formula by hospital staff and all the staff we encountered encouraged breastfeeding. Third, rooming-in is encouraged by the floor staff, although it was discouraged by our OB. Rooming the baby with you as soon as possible I think is critical to bf success, that baby will want to be on your boob constantly, and scheduled visits to a nursery will derail this. Fourth, even when we pressed, our pedia never recommended a baby formula brand.

Most important, Medical City had midwives making rounds every couple of hours checking in on mom and baby. They are the de facto lactation consultants. Be prepared though, if you have never had a baby, you will be surprised at how midwives will just reach in there and pinch your nipple to get the baby to latch properly. At that moment you will realize, those are milkbags and no longer your property but your kid's. They taught me to use warm compresses to make the milk flow and made me feel better that the little droplets of colostrum I would get at every feeding is enough because the baby's stomach is only as big as a calamansi.

Digression: One warning about midwives in hospitals, they will teach you how to swaddle and bathe your baby, don't try to do those fancy moves at home! They have the most complicated expert ways of swaddling, very hard to replicate, find a simpler method or buy a swaddler. They bathe the baby with one hand while holding his entire body in the other, moving him from batya to batya, not safe if you're not an expert, stick to a little tub.