Breast, Bottle, or Both?

Breast, bottle, or both? Is what I am supposed to ask. A high percentage of my patients would choose "both". I don't ask that though. I ask Breast or Bottle? When the patient tells me that they want to bottle feed too, I have a long teaching moment about why it is so important to exclusively breastfeed in the hospital. There is a lot of educating my Latina moms as colostrum is not viewed as something good for the baby in most Latin cultures. There is a lot of encouraging them to "call for that pizza (aka breast milk)" every 2 hours by putting the baby to breast. There is a lot of explaining about how little a newborns stomach is (the size of a marble) and that they really don't need a huge bottle within the first 24 hours.

When I have a vaginal delivery, I always place the baby skin to skin. I always try to get that baby to latch on. I almost always call the nursery to see if I can keep the baby for longer than the hour that I am allotted to help mom to breastfeed.

Why is it that this is not the norm? I work with some awesome nurses. Really, I do. There are only a couple that wouldn't encourage a mother to breastfeed. There are a couple more that really don't care one way or the other. But, the majority really do give a shit.

I just wish our exclusive breastfeeding rates were better. Why do we even offer "both" as an option? I just don't get it.