At what gestation are babies able to breastfeed?

[tracym]

I'd say it varies from baby to baby.

My 37 weeker was slow to feed, he could do it but only for a few minutes at a time. We'd have to strip him naked, wake him with wet washcloths (it was summer), tickle his feet..anything we could to keep him awake so he'd get a full feed.

My 33 weeker was first put to the breast at a few days old (the week after delivery is still quite hazy so I'm not exactly sure how many days old) and she took to it like a pro. She was only allowed to feed from the breast once a day to start with as not to expend more calories than she was getting, so she received the rest of her feeds via gavage with fortified breast milk. It took until a week after her due date before she was receiving all of her feeds at the breast, one day she ripped out the NG tube and the nurse wasn't due back until late the day after (I declined to learn how to insert it myself) and she did great at the breast for over a full day and we never looked back.

[amandaoasis]

Bennett developed the suck/swallow ability between 33 and 34 weeks. However, breastfeeding at that gestation was quite difficult for us, so I continued to pump. He never got the hang of actually breastfeeding...I pumped for 8 months before giving it up.

[aajatwins]

I have no idea what the technical/medical answer is for this. but my boys did fine at 36 weeks. It may vary from baby to baby, too.

[jean]

At what gestation are babies able to breastfeed? At 28/29 wks with our first I had to pump b/c he couldn't coordinate sucking/swallowing yet. I was wondering at what gestation they are able to do that..