So, let’s start by saying that my hospital stay with baby Freddie was not as I had hoped for, we had an awful birth right from the minute my contractions started, I was in labour for 36 hours and finally we got to the pushing part! But no baby had decided that he was going to turn and was now back to back! This meant it was time to go into theatre so on went the scrubs even my partner George was told he had to wear some, and the funny little hats they wear! And it didn’t stop there, there was then a possibility that baby had an infection so he had to have a canula and was on antibiotics twice a day for the first 2 days. We stayed in hospital for a total of 3 nights, and they were the worst nights ever I felt so alone, and I was so excited when they told me I could go home!
When I found out I was pregnant I started thinking about whether or not I wanted to breast feed and for different reasons which I will write about in another blog I chose to exclusively formula feed my baby. After a lot of researching I chose Kendamil! A few reasons I chose to use Kendamil in the end was the fact that it doesn’t contain palm oil, also doesn’t contain fish oil and it was made in the UK! One of the biggest reasons though was the price, it was a 900g tin for £10! This has now gone up in price to £12 a tub but for 800g instead.
So when it came to packing my hospital bag I looked everywhere for the Ready to feed (RTF) mini 70ml bottles to take into hospital with me but I couldn’t get my hands on any of them! So, I bought some of the larger bottles of RTF which were 200ml, I thought this would be okay! from googling beforehand people had said that the hospital should provide a cold water steriliser. So, in my hospital bag I packed the RTF 200ml and some Mam bottles and teats which are the bottles I had bought ready to use when we were home. I thought I would be able to ask the midwives to either sterilize them for me or ask them for a cold water sterilizer to do it myself, but no… that was not the case.
About 3 hours after giving birth it was time for baby Freddie’s first feed! the midwife asked me whether or not I had bought any formula to the hospital with me to feed my baby or if I needed to use some of theirs, I told them I had bought my own big bottles and I just needed them to sterilize my bottles or give me a cold water sterilizer, their response was sorry we don’t do that. I was devastated I really wanted to use this milk. Anyway they found some small ready to use sterilized bottles and teats they said I could use! I thought this would be great, Freddie took to the milk straight away.
Next came the problem of storing it, as the bottle had been opened it could not stay in the room with me, it would need to be stored in a fridge, me being a first time mum I had no idea that this would be so difficult and that every time my baby needed to be fed I would have to ask the midwives if they could get me the bottle of milk out of the fridge. Also, every time I asked the midwives for it, they asked me how long it had been in the fridge, one midwife said it can only stay in there for 12 hours, next one said it will last in the fridge for 24 hours. how was I to know what was right and what was wrong. When going into hospital as a first time mum worrying about what the birth might be like and everything else your kind of just expect the midwives to know the answer to everything but midwives across the country and in different countries will all say different things from experience and of course things may have changed because things are always changing with new research! In the end when I got home and did some more research into it, turns out the RTF bottles of milk that haven’t been drank from and have been tipped into another bottle for baby will keep in the fridge for up to 24 hours!
So, after all the midwives telling me all different things and getting annoyed with me pressing my buzzer every 3 hours to ask them if I could have the milk out of the fridge I finally gave in and asked them if I could use some of their milk that they keep at the hospital. so, if you choose to formula feed, or want to breast feed and things don’t work out, then the hospitals will provide milk for you, all you have to do is ask! the three formulas they normally keep are, Cow and Gate, Aptamil and SMA for people to choose which they would like to use.
I chose to use Aptamil only because it was the other one I liked the sound of. When I did some research, it said it was the closest formula to breast milk, it was also widely available in my local stores and because I know children who have also used this milk! I did know that you are not suppose to swap and change between formulas as it can upset the baby’s stomach and cause discomfort, so I was quite worried and scared to do this! We did a straight swap and changed from Kendamil to Aptamil on day 2 after I chose that using the hospital formula would just be easier for me while I was in hospital and Freddie didn’t react at all he was absolutely fine. When we got home we kept him on Aptamil for a couple more days just so we didn’t upset his stomach too much. But we really wanted to use Kendamil so we decided to do the swap back to Kendamil, We did a straight swap back but we were using the powdered formula at home which is also slightly different to the RTF’s. Freddie reacted well to it but he did suffer from constipation for a couple of days before his tummy settled down and got use to the new powdered formula.
In the end I was so glad I chose to use the hospital formula because it made my hospital stay with baby Freddie so much easier! they are just small 70ml bottles of formula which they give you little packaged sterilized teats that fit straight onto the small bottles which baby can drink straight out of. They would also give me about 3-4 at a time so I could feed baby as and when needed. This meant that I didn’t have to annoy them by buzzing every 3 hours! once the bottles have been opened, they can stay on the side and be used within 1 hour! otherwise whatever is left will need to be thrown away.
Please remember all hospitals are different and will do things differently, this is just my experience, but I do know that some hospitals do offer a cold water sterilizer if you want to take your own bottles to the hospital, I just suggest phoning in advance and asking if your hospital will provide one.
But just remember what is right for some people may not be right for you. But whatever you do choose to do is your decision and it is OK! If you decide you want to breast feed, then that is wonderful but if things don’t work out, just remember that formula fed babies are just as amazing!
Please if you have any questions about my experience or want to share some of your own, please comment and I will answer you as soon as I get the chance and some time without my crazy 8 month old.