My milk had not come in on day 2 and the

Call your midwife, your maternity unit or a lactation supporter today, before anything else today, and keep feeding at the breast until then — on day 3, no visible milk yet is still inside the normal range and it does not by itself mean something has gone wrong.

The first milk for these first days is colostrum: thick and golden-yellow, and very concentrated, so a newborn only needs about a teaspoonful at a feed. Most people notice their breasts becoming fuller — the "milk coming in" — around 2 to 4 days after birth, and some take a little longer. The amount your breasts make follows how often your baby feeds: the more your baby feeds, the more milk you make. (NHS, "Breastfeeding: the first few days", checked 14 October 2026.)

1. What you tried, and the better lever next to it

"I stopped breastfeeding once the formula started." This is the one to change first. Topping up with formula in the early weeks can lower your milk supply, and so can using a dummy — the feeding is what builds the supply. The lever the NHS names instead: keep feeding at the breast as often and as long as your baby wants, and if a supplement is needed, give it after a breastfeed, not instead of one. If the baby is being topped up with your own expressed milk alongside breastfeeding, that is the version most likely to protect your supply — ask the midwife today, before you decide the schedule yourself.

Skin-to-skin — keep doing it. It is good at any time in the early days and weeks, and it helps your baby use their natural rooting and latching reflexes.

One concrete thing worth asking about today: attachment. If your baby falls asleep before you hear the deep swallowing stage, the NHS points to positioning and attachment as the thing to have checked. A midwife, health visitor or breastfeeding supporter can look at one feed with you. That check is often more useful than anything you change at home.

Do not wait for crying. Feed at the early cues — restlessness, sucking fingers, turning the head and opening the mouth. A crying baby is hard to feed.

Night feeds build supply. Feeding through the night matters in the early weeks, which is exactly the part a school-week week squeezes out. If you can, protect one night feed where someone else does the settling and you only feed.

Tonight, about 20 minutes of setup, screenshot-friendly:

1. Ten minutes: baby skin-to-skin on your chest while you drink a large glass of water or a warm drink and eat something from your own kitchen — whatever is already there and needs no cooking beyond a pot.
2. Ten minutes: write on the fridge the times your baby fed and how many wet nappies you saw in the last 24 hours. The midwife will ask for exactly this, and it is also your own answer to "is this working?"
3. Then: sleep when the baby sleeps, even in shifts. Tiredness is the thing that makes families quit feeding early, not the milk.

2. What to avoid

• Do not skip breastfeeds to "prove" you need formula, or to save them up. Skipping feeds is the move that costs you supply.
• No powders, herbal teas, honey, fenugreek, or anything sold as a milk-boosting supplement unless your own clinician or pharmacist tells you to take it. You do not need a product to make this work.
• No buying prescription medicine online, and no starting, stopping or changing any medicine — including anything you took during pregnancy — on your own.
• Do not judge your supply by comparing it to another mother's day 3.
• Do not wait past today to ask for the attachment check.
• Do not decide on a long feeding schedule by yourself. What your baby needs in 24 hours is a number your midwife or health visitor should give you today; write it down when they do.

3. Red flags — when to stop the home plan and get help now

Contact your local emergency number or go to the maternity unit now, day or night, do not wait, if any of these are present (WHO danger signs for the postpartum period, via the pregnancy and childbirth care guidance):

• vaginal bleeding or leaking
• fits or convulsions
• a severe headache with blurred or flashing vision
• fever with being too weak to get out of bed
• severe abdominal pain
• fast or difficult breathing
• and, specific to after the birth: bleeding that is sudden and heavy, keeps increasing rather than settling, or soaks more than 2 or 3 pads in 20 to 30 minutes

Also on the same list: one calf becoming painful, red or swollen; a fit or a feeling of not being yourself; a breast that is hot, red and painful together with fever or feeling flu-like — that combination is an infection, not something to ride out at home.

About the baby, in the first weeks — same-day assessment, not tomorrow: feeding poorly, unusually sleepy or floppy, fewer wet nappies than before, being hot or cold, pauses in breathing, or green or bile-stained vomiting. A baby under 3 months can be seriously unwell with a normal temperature, so a normal reading does not settle it. On the way, keep the baby warm and bring the feed-and-nappy record of the last 24 hours.

Call your local emergency number — and tell me your country and city, and I will point you to the exact door to ring for a same-day lactation visit.

4. Two scripts you can screenshot

To your midwife or lactation supporter, today:
> "I'm three days postpartum. My breasts feel soft and I have not seen milk come in yet. The hospital suggested formula on day two. Baby feeds at the breast [times] in the last 24 hours and we have had [number] wet nappies. Could someone check positioning and attachment today? Should we give any supplement, and if so should it be expressed milk after a feed — and how many wet nappies do you want to see in the next 24 hours?"

To the ward, hospital or family, so you can hand it over:
> "We were advised formula on day 2. Please write down: how often to feed, how much supplement if any, and what would mean the baby is not getting enough. Please arrange an attachment check before we leave or today."
Say the two facts that change who responds: "she gave birth three days ago" and "this is day 3, no milk yet."

5. What success looks like in 24 hours

Not a promise — a direction. By tomorrow you would be looking for: your baby feeding at the breast as often as they want, and quick shallow sucks changing to deep rhythmic swallowing; you hearing or feeling a let-down, even if it is only warmth or tingling, or nothing at all — some women feel nothing and that is normal; your breasts feeling fuller or softer after a feed; and the wet-nappy count your midwife gave you today, written on the fridge and met. If the count is short or the baby is not rousing for feeds, that is the answer to act on — not a reason to stop feeding.

I cannot tell from here whether your milk is on its way, whether your baby is getting enough, or whether you need supplement — that is what the check today is for, and it is a check, not a guess about your body.