i stopt pumping the milk yesterday night..the doctor told me the pump and dump for the last time take a hot shower and to wrap the breast very tight .how come my breast is still hurting and the milk is still coming out??????
Please find a lactation consultant or post-partum doula to assist you with this. Doctors do not know the first thing about breastfeeding/weaning. Sorry to the MD's on Mamapedia...
Can you give us more history? Why pump and dump and stop so sudden? Stopping cold turkey is going to hurt for a bit. Your body still wants to feed your baby.
Please tell us how old your baby is & why your stopping breat feeding. You can make yourself VERY sick if you quit too abruptly especially if the baby is very young. Even if you taper off you may produce milk for a very long time (I could express a tiny bit of milk for well over a year after weaning).
Not all doctors are well educated in breastfeeding. In fact to my experience, most are not. Please be careful and tell us what happens!
Hot showers will be your best friend right now!
I chose not to BF, and when my milk came in, I took several a day. They felt awesome!
Your body will produce milk until it detects that the milk isn't being used. So it will take a couple of days.
Between hot showers, get a tight bra (I used a sports bra) with frozen washcloths stuffed in the sides to help with the pain.
Hi N.,
when I stopped, i did it over a two week period, Normally I would pump about 5 times a day, when i was stopping- i removed a session, and made the time in between longer, for two days, then removed another session, did that for a few days, then removed another and so on... it was a slow stop, but it wasn't very painful. avoid foods that help the milk, like oatmeal and stuff. I have had friends who stopped cold turkey, and they were in so much pain, that just doesn't seem right.
That can help dry up your milk supply (not sure why you want/need to stop?), but there is a downside to it -- stopping too quickly can lead you to mastitis, plugged ducts, and other problems. You may be better off pumping or hand-expressing just enough to relieve pressure, but not enough to increase your supply or even keep it up to its current levels, so you don't end up with a worse problem. [My friend got a plugged duct from wearing a tight bra when she weaned one of her babies, even though he wasn't nursing much at all when s/he quit.]
Why did you stop pumping and breastfeeding? If you are meaning to wean, the pain and discomfort is your body's way of telling you it's not doing it job and trying to get you to continue breastfeeding and pumping for your infant.
Your body is biologically designed to breastfeed for at least 2 years after you birth a baby. Your body doesn't know or care that you may not personally want to make this commitment to you and your child's health, it just knows what it is created to do. Gradually weaning over a long time period is generally easier for everyone involved and the pain is almost non-existent when done slowly.
Once your body starts producing milk, it will ALWAYS produce a minute amount until your hormones stop producing at menopause. A Mother's body is designed to birth and nourish her children, so that is why the production never stops - because your body never knows when you will need that milk to flow again. Re-lactation is generally very easy, due to this biological process.
Hi, it will hurt for a few days and then the pain will start to subside as your body adjusts to not producing milk anymore. I stopped cold turkey at 8 months with my first daughter and just sopped cold turkey at 6 months with my second this week so am going through the same thing as you right now.
Don't do it cold turkey-ouch! When you ween a baby it's slow over time. I was able to let my kids ween on their own so I didn't really have to think about it. What I would do if I were going to wean from pumping is just pump when I felt engorged and only pump enough so I was comfortable. Don't totally empty the breast. Also, do one breast at a time because doing both at the same time can stimulate more milk production.
Good Luck!
you will still produce, but the milk will still be produced. wrap them tight.....wear a sports bra. take tylonol for the pain. in a few days you should notice less swelling and pain. sometimes putting cabbage leafs on your breasts can help. i had to stop bf with both my sons as i did not produce enough
