Breastfeeding is about supply and demand. The more you nurse or pump, the better your supply. If your body is not seeing the demand for your breastmilk, production will go down. Its best to start with the breast right away because this is when your supply is established. You will have colostrum at first. If baby is nursing consistantly, your milk will come in. When your milk comes in, your body has to get a feel for how much your baby needs. The first few weeks you will deal with a lot of cluster feeding. It will seem like your baby is always wanting to nurse. This is how baby gets your milk supply established.

If you do choose to nurse and bottle feed right from the beginning, you should still be pumping everytime baby is getting a bottle. This will help signal your body that the demand is there. Some women dont respond well to pumps. That is something to keep in mind. Babies are usually better at getting the milk out than a pump too. So pumping may or may not be enough to get a good supply established.

Pace feeding is also important for babies that are both breastfed and bottle fed. There are some good videos on youtube that explain pacefeeding.

Nipple confusion is also a thing. Sometimes babies will start taking a bottle and wont want to go back to breast because the nipple is different. Its a lot less work for babies to get milk from a bottle than it is to get it from the breast.

My 2 oldest kids were bottle and breastfed. We started bottles later on with them. They did fine with it. My third refused bottles.

I think a lot of people go into breastfeeding not realizing how challenging it can be. Its painful for the first couple of weeks. Its really hard to push through. But it can be really amazing too. Whether you choose to breastfeed, bottle feed, or both there will be challenges. You get to decide what works best for you and your baby. What works for one will not always be best for another.

Some people get really judgy and hateful about this topic. Ignore all of that and find what works best for you.

breastfeeding

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