Bottle Feeding

your midwife should support you no matter what your choice is, yes they will probably ask questions around your choice to find out reasons. just to see if it is something that they could possibly help with. There are plenty of reasons for not wanting to breastfeed ranging from going back to work to having had abuse in your past.. and it is your own choice to make. some people try it and hate it, others think they will hate it but end up feeding for a long time. it's up to you.   if your midwife is all anti about it then i would suggest getting a new one anyway because you won't feel you can fully trust her and tell her things if you can't keep lines of communication open.

I agree with Janine, your midwife shouldn't judge you for your decision. She is required to give you all the standard info on breastfeeding and breastmilk as part of the WHO guidelines on infant feeding, but if you make the choice to bottle feed then she should also provide you with info on sterilising bottles, mixing formula, different types of formula etc.

I'd probably mention it to her at your first visit and just see how she takes it. She may not worry about it too much initially as it's usually something that's discussed a bit later on, but if she has a real anti-bottle attitude then I'd definitely say look at finding someone else who is more supportive.

My midwife was great about bottle feeding, in fact we got to the point where she was almost telling me to gve up breastfeeding coz she could see how stressed I was getting.

Your midwife like everyones said needs to be supportive of your decision.
I planned to b/feed Haleigh but when I struggled with mastitis and the fact they are flat/ inverted my midwife pushed me, jsut lucky my plunket nurse was really good she made me feel better about bottle feeding.
so this time Ive told my midwife im going to try b/feeding but will give it up if i struggle again which she's ahppy about.

No matter what decision you make its your decision and your midwife should support you 100% Good Luck with your first midwife appointment.

Ive already told my mw i dont wont to do it, but will feed the colustrium. Told her last week.

Hope you have an understanding m.w and it should be no prob to tell her next time you see her. That way you can work out weather you need a new 1 or not.

Yea some people can be very one-sided. As found out through my bottle days.

i would tell her at your first visit incase she is very staunch opn her view, i gave breast feeding the flick after 4 days as i couldnt stand it my midwife was great or though made it clear that she thought breast was best however the plunket nurse i had was so horrible about my decision not to breast feed that i ended up asking her not to come back again.
as far as im concerned it was the best decision for both me and my daughter and i have no regrets on it.

its your body and its up to you what you feel comfortable doing.

i hate the thought of feeding my baby when i have visitors or in public so im not to sure what im going to do just yet with number 2.

Another source of good advice for me has been Bottle Babies by Alecia (I think) Ferguson. Helped me with the practicailities of bottle feeding and also helped me rationalise why I had to do it

My karitane nurse through plunket was great esp since there was only 3 mums in our pepe group who breastfed she actually gave us information on bottle feeding etc, pity I never got it when I first started out.
It was great it explained everythign you needed to know about mixing, steralising etc.

I've been debating if I should post or not and have finally decided to and hope it will be taken with the good intentions this is meant.

It is totally your decision to bottle feed and you should be given all the support you need from your midwife if that is the route you want to go and if she won't be supportive then I would find a new one. I would also let her know your intentions sooner rather than later.

Having said that I would really like to encourage you to consider giving breastfeeding a go. I was really funny about breastfeeding as I normally don't like anything being done to my nipples but I found it fine - well until the pain kicked in and I felt I had gave up and started bottle feeding.

It ended up being a decision that I really regretted and what I haven't shared on this forum is that I have just spent one month trying unsuccessfully to relactate. In the end Maddie had no idea what to do and we couldn't convince her nurse for anything and it does make me very sad and it's something I now can't go back and change.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that but I do want to make it clear that whatever you decide I do hope you get all the support you need.

Good luck.

Edited by Paws

Oh I went a bit off topic... I would tell your midwife asap as you need a supportive midwife throughout your pregnancy (and first 6 weeks). The sooner you get that support the sooner you can get things in place for bottle feeding (buying formula every grocery shop to build up a surplus etc)
Also during your pregnancy you may need to be on medication to stop lactating?? (not sure about this I am just plucking things out of thin air!!)