Are you a new mother to be and want to learn more about Breastfeeding First 24 Hours? I want to help with my experience, tips, and challenges for the first day.

In this article, I like to share my personal experience with breastfeeding in the first 24 hours with my lovely daughter.

A mother-to-be wants to get all pieces of information and doing all preparations for the coming little one.

Breastfeeding is one of the topics to learn and discuss before giving birth to our baby.

In my opinion and based on my experience with my daughter, I think that the first 24 hours are significant for breastfeeding our baby after it.

Breastfeeding is one of the most beautiful things a woman experiences in her role as a mother.

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Is Breastfeeding First 24 Hours A Choice?

I think breastfeeding is a choice every new mother makes before giving birth to her child.

• Many women choose to breastfeed their babies through a pacifier, and others do not want to breastfeed at all, preferring formula milk to feed and raise their babies. These are personal decisions, so I think it is a choice.
• On the other side, it can be a choice for the baby also. Some babies refuse to breastfeed or are breastfeed lactose intolerant.
• Between choices, many new mothers want to breastfeed their baby and can not do so because they do not get milk. Causes can be different.

Despite everything, all you need is good support and help to enjoy breastfeeding from the first day of your baby’s birth.

Some mothers may give up too quickly by working with the baby and their breast to get milk. In some cases, they do not have all the necessary breastfeed knowledge, information, support, etc.

The situations and circumstances can be various and different for every mother, but in the end, every one of us makes a choice.

There is nothing wrong with feeding our baby with formula milk, but the best thing for my baby has been to breastfeed, and if I were allowed to be a mother again, I would choose it in my heart.

I encourage every new mother to be to breastfeed her baby. Even when it may seem difficult to realize, you can do it.

In few words, I encourage every new mother to choose breastfeeding from the first day.

A positive story

I will try to bring positive and encouraging stories to this article.

My cousin has three daughters. She breastfed all three of them. She had difficulty breastfeeding her babies in the first days after giving birth to them, as babies refuse to breastfeed for the first few days and weeks. A baby in the first days can also be lazy and prefer the easiest way to feed.

She used breast pumps to get the milk and did not give up by feeding her babies partly from her breast and partly with a baby bottle.

She continued like this until her daughters, after about two months, decided to feed directly from her breast and not from the baby bottle. There are difficulties, but we must understand that breastfeeding is a physiological process. If you choose it, you can make it.

My story-Another a positive one

Before I gave birth to my daughter, I had various testimonies or information about breastfeeding from my sister, friends, or colleagues. Some of them even had negative experiences failing to breastfeed their baby. Some of my friends had a cesarean birth. I start to think that this fact can effect the arrival of breast milk.

My daughter did not rotate until the last moment, so she was in a Podalica position (with feet) in my womb. For that reason, and cause of the past amnesias I went through, the doctor decided that I should have a cesarean section.

I started to worry that it would happen to me that I would not have breast milk for my daughter. My sister, who is also a nurse by profession, calmed me down. Below, I will show you how I acted.

What do we need to know about breastfeeding?

When is the most significant moment to achieve healthy breastfeeding for our baby?

As a mother, from my experience, I think that the first 24 hours of the baby are the most significant for this process. I will elaborate on my opinion about it in this article.
It is a beautiful and full-of-benefits process for both the new baby and the mother.

I breastfed my daughter for 27 months and 20 days. In this article, I will share what I learned during my experience regarding this blessing that every mother must experiences.

I didn’t know many things before giving birth to my daughter. I learned and experienced a lot of things after giving birth to her. Now,  I can say that it is helpful to know about breastfeeding before giving birth to the baby.
Exactly, I want to share with you today the first 24 hours of my daughter’s coming to life, as well as a range of benefits and challenges I have encountered during breastfeeding.

What to do before and during the first 24 hours after giving birth to our baby?

The first thing to consider for breastfeeding is the right information and nursery training.

Every woman should prepare for breastfeeding before giving birth to her baby. First, be informed and get the right advice from the specialized medical staff.

You can talk with your mother, sister, friend, or your doctor, who has experience in breastfeeding and knows how to guide you properly. Also, you can choose a doula to help and support you with the breastfeeding process.

Many of us also choose to do prenatal training, where breastfeeding should also be a part. I have not attended such training.

As I mention, my sister assists me regarding these topics. You can choose to do such prenatal training. If you wish, be interested in the hospital centers where you perform your visits and examinations.

Before giving birth to your baby, you will notice that the breast occasionally releases fluid. It is called colostrum and is the first stage of the arrival of breast milk. In some mothers-to-be, it appears more noticeably. In some others, it is more noticeable after the birth of the baby.

The second thing that I recommend to have ready is breastfeeding products.

There are several products that we must provide for better, comfortable, and healthy breastfeeding for the baby and the mother. I am listing some of them, which you can find in pharmacies near the area where you live, or buy them online.

Moisturized Nipple cream

It is one of the products that should not be missing in your hospital bag when you go to give birth to your baby. Nipple cream will help you a lot not only on days when the risk of creating cracks or redness of the breast nipples is higher but will be a friend of every mother for every day she will breastfeed her baby.

I recommend you buy an anti-allergic nipple cream. Choose a cream that permits you to feed your baby without washing your breast first. This way, the cream is even more effective, and you will not get too tired.
This cream is necessary, especially in the first days and weeks when breastfeeding is more frequent. In the first weeks, the baby must feed more frequently. This process does the breast to create various problems, so the cream is the one that helps us get through it.
I got a cream at the pharmacy with calendula and honey, which helped me a lot with any problems I had with my breast. It eliminates nipples’ cracks, redness, rapid healing of any wound created on my breast, and above all, it never causes any problem to my daughter. I used AVENT nipple cream. You can find it at every pharmacy if you live in Europe.

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Nursing pads for breastfeeding

You can buy washable pads, which can fit smoothly in your nursing bra. It absorbs excess milk that may be leaking from the breast. So your clothes are always clean. I recommend buying ultra-soft, hypoallergic, and certified products.

Breastfeeding Bra

It offers comfort and convenience during breastfeeding for both baby and mother. It properly maintains the woman’s breast. It is good to be soft cotton. You can find it in any baby and pregnant woman store.

Hospital breastfeeding dress bathrobe

It is needful during the hospital stay, and you can use it at home for your commodity. I recommend buying a cotton dress, suitable for the season when you will give birth to your baby. Buy clothes that are as light and practical as possible when it comes to feeding your baby.

Nursing cover for breastfeeding

It is a breastfeeding cloth to cover your privacy while feeding your baby. Choose a cotton material, which is suitable and comfortable sizes for you.

A manual breast pump

It is one of the first pumps recommended, as you do not have to invest in an electric pump when you have not yet given birth and breast milk arrived.

Manual pumps are practical to stimulate the breast to start to feed the baby. It helps when we want to squeeze the excess breast milk after feeding the baby.

The pump helps when we want to collect the milk flowing from the other breast while one breast is feeding the baby. Read more

The electric breast pump

It is another helpful product to have the maximum breast milk to feed our baby. The electric breast pump is a great helper to prevent the baby from lacking breast milk when you are not with your baby all the time.

You can collect the breast milk using an electric breast pump and store it in storage breastfeeding bags. I chose to be with my daughter all the time at home and quit my job.

I did not need an electric breast pump, but I guarantee you, it is one of the plates worth it if you have to work and could not stay with your baby for hours.

A relative of mine gave birth to a premature baby in the seventh month. The baby was at the hospital for more than three months. He was about 1.5 pounds, and she could not feed him directly from her breast.

Despite that, she fed her baby every day with her breast milk using an electric breast pump. Her son is a strong and healthy boy now.

After the hospital, she breastfed the baby for more than two years. I shared this story to let you know how helpful can be a breast pump. In this case, the breast milk came thanks to the pumping stimulus.

A breast milk storage bag

This is another breastfeeding product to use for storing your breast milk. If you can not be with your little one for 24 hours a day, the only way to feed him with your milk is to store it in advance.

I recommend buying and using high-quality and certified storage bags offering your baby the same milk quality as feeding on your breast.

If you store your milk, you don’t have to use formula milk for your baby. Feed your baby from the storage bag to the baby bottle for healthy and safe feeding.

What are some of the steps we need to take during the first 24 hours to make sure we get breast milk and breastfeed our baby?

• The first thing you need to do after giving birth to your baby is to try to breastfeed your little one. I remember as now the first moment when they brought my daughter to put her to my breast. I did not have milk yet, but I will never forget the instinct of my daughter. She had only a few minutes in this world and directed the small lips over my nipple. She sucked my breast as if she had done this action a minute earlier.

Dear expectant mothers do not have any worries or fears, as God has created these relationships perfectly.

Just follow the instructions and have the will to breastfeed your baby, as the breast milk will come, and you will feel the most beautiful blessing of breastfeeding your baby.

• During the following hours after the birth, we should breastfeed our baby as often as possible. Until to understand the process, ask for the assistance of hospital nurses. My husband and I stayed only a few hours after giving birth to our daughter and thought she was breastfeeding properly. She was getting more air in her stomach than milk. Luckily my sister assisted me in how to breastfeed my daughter rightly. The baby’s lips should be interlocked well around the areola of your breast. In this way, the baby can suction properly without filling the abdomen with air, which causes gas and abdominal pain.
• Third, seek the cooperation of nurses not to feed the baby in large quantities with formula milk. In the case when the breastmilk didn’t come yet, we use formula milk. We need to care that the formula milk is not too much in quantity. If our baby feels full, he will not need other food and maybe will refuse our breastmilk.

The last step is to be patient and persistent

• In the first 24 hours, even if you can not get up or move, as in my case that had a cesarian birth, you should breastfeed as often as possible.
  Even if it seems that the milk has not yet come properly, the baby should breastfeed many times. My sister is a blessing to me. I could not move the first night. She stayed with me and helped me breastfed my daughter as much as I could. I had great results the next day. My breastmilk came. I only rested for 1.5 hours during the first night. On the first night, a mother starts her journey with her baby. She learned to sleep less and feeds her baby often.

What are the benefits of breastfeeding for the baby and the mother?

The benefits of breastfeeding are many. I proved by myself that it is the best way of feeding a baby for both the baby and the mother.

Baby’s Breastfeeding benefits

1. Breast milk is the best source of nutrition for the baby providing all the minerals, vitamins, and nutritional values ​​needed to grow up healthy. Breast milk is even so good that I read that it is considered effective against Covid 19.
2. Through breast milk, the baby gets all the antibodies from the mother to be protected and healthy. Thus, breast milk reduces the risk of respiratory infections, diarrhea, asthma, type 1 diabetes in children and enables us to raise healthy and non-obese children in the future.
3. Breast milk helps the nervous and psychomotor development of the baby. Breastfed babies have a healthy development.
4. During the first months of breastfeeding, the baby also faces a range of vaccines. Breast milk is the best, physiologically perfect.
5. Breast milk does not cause allergies or nutritional problems as you might expect with formula milk, which can cause the baby to dislike it. My friend had to change several formula milk brands for her baby until she found the right one that the baby accepted and did not reject.
6. With breast milk, you should not get up at night to wash the baby bottle or warm the formula milk as you are ready to feed your baby.

Mother’s Benefits from breastfeeding

1. Breastfeeding will help you eliminate the pounds gained during pregnancy and have a healthy body.
2. As the merits of breastfeeding, you will have less postpartum bleeding. Your uterus will move faster to its location and size.
3. The risk from postpartum depression will be lower during the breastfeeding period.
4. You will be healthier during the breastfeeding period. I had the best blood tests ever, and I had no problems with my organism during the period that I breastfed my daughter.
5. Breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, or rheumatoid arthritis.
6. Breast milk will save you a mountain of money you have to spend on formula milk.

What are some of the challenges we will face during breastfeeding in the first hours?

The challenges you will face during breastfeeding in the first 24 hours after giving birth to your baby are different, as babies are also different. Some that may be more typical are:

1. Your child may be lazy and has no desire to eat. You will notice that the baby often falls asleep during breastfeeding. The baby may look like he is feeding. He is not getting all the necessary quantities of his food. Do not give up, but find a way to incentivize and encourage the baby to feed. So we can gently tease it on the cheek or ear so that it wakes up and continues to drink.
2. The baby may cry a lot because he can not get enough food. In this case, we will feed our baby with formula milk partially. We do not feed up our babies with formula. The baby must feel hungry to make him feel hungry to continue breastfeeding and stimulate the breast for milk to come fully.
3. The nipples may start to become irritated and problematic in the first few hours. Do not worry about that situation and use the nipple cream properly. It recommends using it preferably at times when you will not breastfeed the baby. In this way, the cream also has time to act.
4. The baby may be underweight or too small to be fed directly from the breast. In this case, use a quality breast pump so that you can incentivize the milk to come and manage to feed the baby with your milk.
5. The baby may be lactose intolerant, and in this case, breast milk may adversely affect it. In this case, you need to use high-quality formula milk.

My last thoughts

At the end of this article, I want to encourage every new mother to enjoy the blessing of breastfeeding from the first moment that she gives birth to her little one.

It is one of the best things you may happen in your life. Having your baby in your arms and feeding on your breast is a blessing that you will remind all life. I encourage you to breastfeed as long as you can, possibly not less than six months.

It happens that we read different information about breastfeeding every day. I appreciate everyone who writes and shares their positive experiences with breastfeeding.

It is helpful to educate and provide supportive information for new mothers to be. When you are in the sweet expectation of becoming a mother, I think you need all the necessary information about the unknowns to wait.

I hope that sharing my experience about Breastfeeding First 24 Hours has been helpful for you.

Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or a question about the topic, and if you find this article helpful, I invite you to share it with your friends.