Nursing one baby can be challenging enough, but what about twins or even more babies? Having multiples doesn't have to mean more trouble, but you need to address the nursing process slightly differently.
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Valuable Tips For Nursing Multiples
- Understand that even if your babies might be identical twins, they could have different personalities and feeding needs. Therefore, you might not be able to feed them at the same time, all the time. However, if you have two babies to feed, you can try to do so if it doesn't work for them or are not hungry simultaneously, don't force this schedule. If you have more than two babies to feed, nursing them at the same time will be impossible. In this case, you will have to feed your babies separately, on-demand.
- Pump your breastmilk in between feedings: It is a wise idea to pump and store some breastmilk for future meals. Doing so will help you stay covered if your babies get hungry at the same time and you can't nurse them both. You could put the breastmilk in a bottle and feed one baby like that while the other one is nursing. Have as many bottles as your number of babies.
- If you want to nurse two babies simultaneously, try until you identify the most comfortable position for all three of you. For example, you might need to use nursing pillows to increase your comfort and keep the babies' heads straight. Positioning the babies in football holds or cradle holds can be a good start in this case.
- Pay extra attention to how your babies latch: If you nurse more babies, that doesn't mean your breasts are under stress as long as your babies latch correctly. Make sure each baby is attached comfortably to your breast so they can suck and swallow with no struggle.
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Will your body produce enough breastmilk for your babies?
One of the main concerns of mothers who have to nurse multiples is if they have enough breastmilk. The truth is that despite such concerns, your body will produce just enough milk to feed all your babies.
- First, however, you have to stimulate your breasts to maintain the milk flow at optimum parameters.
- Ensure you pump your milk in between feeding and keep the pumping schedule if your baby starts to take longer breaks between meals.
- Your diet needs to be healthy and balanced enough to cover the needs of your babies. For instance, nursing one baby requires 500 calories out of your diet each day.
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Therefore, nursing two babies require 1000 calories. Increase your diet by respecting these requirements, so your body needs to produce enough milk.
