Your Breastfeeding Plan is your plan of action. It helps your family and health-care providers understand your ideal hospital experience and feeding goals.
Consider working together with your partner to fill out this Breastfeeding Plan (PDF, 174kb). It will help you set your breastfeeding goals and it will help your health care team understand what you need during and after delivery. This plan can be completed with your doctor, your baby's doctor or the hospital staff.
My goal is to exclusively breastfeed my baby. Please do not give my baby any supplements before speaking to me or my birthing partner. I need all of my baby's suckling to be at my breast in order for me to establish a good milk supply.
Please do not give my baby artificial nipples including pacifiers or any types of bottles filled with formula, water, or glucose water. If there is a medical reason for supplementation, I would first like to speak with a lactation consultant or pediatrician about trying alternate feeding methods with expressed breastmilk.
When my baby is born, I would like to have him/her placed on my chest, skin-to-skin with me for the first hour. If possible, please perform routine newborn evaluations with my baby on my chest. Throughout our stay, I want to be able to hold my baby skin-to-skin as much as possible. A blanket may be placed over us, but not between us, if extra warmth is necessary.
Please help me start breastfeeding within 30-minutes to 1-hour of delivery. This means placing my baby skin-to-skin as soon as possible after birth and offering to help to begin breastfeeding when my baby seems ready (e.g. rooting, licking lips, etc.). Please do not force my baby to take the breast if he/she is not showing signs of readiness. Instead, keep my baby skin-to-skin with me until he/she is ready to try to latch.
Please examine my baby in my presence and do not take him/her away from me unless he/she requires medical treatment that cannot be done in my room.
If I have a cesarean, I would like to hold my baby skin-to-skin as soon as possible after the operation. If I am unable to for some time after the delivery, then please allow my partner to hold my baby skin-to-skin.
I would like to room in with my baby 24 hours a day to give my baby plenty of skin-to-skin time and so I can learn my baby's feeding cues and feed him at his first sign of hunger. If for some reason my baby and I are not in the same room, please bring him/her to me at the earliest hunger cues, such as sucking on hands, making sucking noises or rooting.
Please teach me how to get a good latch and how to correct my baby's positioning and latch if it is needed. Please teach me how to know my baby's early hunger cues and how to tell if my baby is breastfeeding well.
If my baby is unable to breastfeed or is separated from me due to medical reasons, I want to be able to use a breast pump within 6 hours of delivery. If you think I am going to need a pump longer than my hospital stay or if there is not a double electric breast pump available, please remind me to call my WIC office or health care plan for a pump.
Please do not give me a free gift bag containing formula or show me any promotional or marketing materials concerning artificial baby milk.
I would like to receive contact information for breastfeeding support in case I need help with breastfeeding after my baby and I are at home. Remind me to make appointments to follow up with WIC and my baby's doctor before I leave the hospital.
Download a Breastfeeding Plan (PDF, 174kb)
Don't forget to take your Breastfeeding Plan to the hospital. Ask the staff to attach your plan to your chart while you're still in labor so they will be aware of what you want. The plan will make sure that all the members of your medical team are up to speed about your preferences.
It’s never too early to talk with your doctor about what you can do to set up yourself and your baby for breastfeeding success.
Deciding on the right hospital or birthing center can be just as important as finding the right doctor.
The more you can do to plan and prepare for your maternity leave, the better off you'll be.