Pumping and Inreasing Supply

First, congrats on your new angel and may he gain quickly and come home soon! What pump are you using? Handheld pumps are only about 20-30% effective at emptying the breast and electric pumps are around 50-60% effective. Only the baby is 100% effective, but that time will come soon! :)

First let me ramble off a few things that can help your supply, then we will discuss how to get more from your pump. Eat oatmeal. Buy brewer's yeast (at any health food store) and sprinkle it into your everyday foods...scrambled eggs, oatmeal, meatloaf, chili, spaghetti sauce, etc... Brewer's yeast (no subtitutions!) and oatmeal are natural lactation boosters. Now for herbs (and please check with your doctor before taking any of these...some cannot be used with certain other meds or if Mom has a pre-existing condition like diabetes or seizure disorders) You can try fenugreek, blessed thistle, or goat's rue. Goat's rue helps you make more glandular tissue and will boost an already lactating Mom's supply. Fenugreek and blessed thistle are used by lactating Mom's to boost and also by adoptive Moms or Mom's trying to regain a supply that has diminished. They work well! You can use them all in conjunction (as long as your health is ok for them). Motherlove herbal company makes a Goat's rue tincture and a supplement called "More Milk Plus" that contains fenugreek and blessed thistle. These come in a tincture or a capsule. Here is the link.
http://www.motherlove.com/products_extracts.php
Last but not least, you can always try medications. The first one is called Reglan and must be prescribed. The other is called Domperidone and isnt available in the US, but its success rates are huge and you can buy them online from in-house pharmacies in other countries. Thats only for desperate situations and yours sounds easily fixed, so I dont think you'll need to go that route!

Now for maximizing your pumping sessions. Massage your breasts before pumping, working downward toward the nipple. Have a picture of your baby nearby to help the milk ejection reflex (or let-down). Now pump. When it seems you are pumped dry, begin massaging your breasts again. Maybe take a warm compress to help your milk let down again. Now try pumping again, but this time while pumping, see if you can massage your breasts at the same time. This will be hard if you have a double pump, but you can either have your husband help you or make a "pumping bra" out of an old sports bra. Cut slits in them to hold the pump in place so you can pump hands free. Then your hands are availabe to massage! Once you feel you are "dry pumping" again, turn the pump off. Hold the breast cone and try to hand express your milk into it. You won't believe it, but you'll get a lot of milk this way! The pump can only stimulate so much before it stops working. But your hands can get much more! If you arent familiar with hand expressing please watch this video link I sent. Not only does it teach you how to hand express, but it explains why I am having you pump and express and how it will affect you supply, that was shown in several studies. It will help you so much and is one of the most valuable videos I have in my collection!
http://newborns.stanford.edu/Breastfeeding/MaxProduction....

And finally, here are some more links about making more milk and what can help. Notice the first KellyMom link has several more links to click on at the bottom of the page to read and learn more!
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/low-supply.html
http://www.kellymom.com/herbal/milksupply/herbal-rem_j.html
http://www.exclusivelypumping.com/2007/11/30/pumping-for-...

And let me quickly remind you that the breast makes milk only when the breast is being emptied. So the more you can empty your breasts, the more milk you will make. This is why exclusively pumping can be so difficult because the pump just can't effectively empty the breast.

I really hope this helps and I have no doubt you'll be off and nursing your little bambino in no time! If you need any help or have any questions, please let me know. Good Luck Momma!
~Tara Breastfeeding Counselor and Mom of 3 breastfed babies, Buffalo NY

*EDITED TO ADD*
I forgot to mention how to up the fat content in your milk. Eat high fat foods such as eggs, avacado, olives, coconut, nuts etc... All healthy fats. I used to eat 2 eggs a day, add sliced avacado to my turkey sandwiches and eat macaroons! Ben and Jerry's ice cream is also very high in fat which is great (and tastes soooo good) but if you are trying to avoid eating high sugar, won't be a good idea. If you dont mind the extra sugar for now, stock up on some! What a fun way to increase your fats! This will help "bulk" up your milk and add calories so your bambino will gain quicker and come home quicker! Hang in there Momma...every day brings him closer to home!

2 moms found this helpful

Hi S.:
Congratulations of the birth of your baby and your decision to breastfeed him. I have four grown children and BF was so beneficial-I can't say enough. I am also a postpartum doula and a La Leche League leader.
Be sure that you are pumping at least every 2-3 hours, round the clock,as that is when he would be feeding. Are you using an electric hospital type pump? they are more efficient. You can rent them. Are you resting as much as possible? If you were home with him you would be laying down a lot, as you are a postpartum Mom. Are you drinking a lot of water and eating enough? Do you have someone at home taking care of you? These are all very important for you to increase your milk supply. Also, make sure that he is not given any artificial nipples as that will make it difficult for him to learn to breastfeed. They can feed him with a syringe if he's not being tube fed. Also, keep asking the doctor for the opportunity to try feeding him. Contact the hospital lactation consultant to be there when you start. Contact La Leche League in your area-LLL.org and you can ask to speak to someone who has Breastfed a premie. Keep at it-you can do it and you will be so glad that you did.
Cathy
B

1 mom found this helpful

hi S., congrats on your new baby, and great job on choosing to breastfeed him. you will love it. tara gave you wonderful advice, and some great links, too. i just wanted to throw in my 2 cents. first, a couple of things that may seem obvious but are sometimes overlooked.... drink lots of water! especially right before and during a pumping session. dont consume anything with caffiene or any meds that will dehydrate you. while you are pumping, relax. do what you need to do to relax, i used to drink some herbal tea beforehand, put warm compresses on my breasts, and watch seinfeld :) alone in a room. sometimes a heating pad on my back/shoulders while pumping. be aware of your own body, if you are sitting there and your shoulders are up, etc, realize you need to take a deep breath and physically relax yourself. it makes a huge difference.
also, be sure you are using a good electric pump and pump both breasts at the same time, at least every 3 hours. i know you are exhausted, but overnight pumping is essential to keeping your supply up. of course, eating well and sleeping are essential too, so go figure. do the best you can, if you can even get in just one pumping session overnight, it will really, really help. it can be challenging to keep your supply up while only pumping, the more you can do it, the better off you will be.
the oatmeal thing really helped me, be sure it is real oatmeal. and you can put maple syrup in it, the cheap fake kind, it has fenugreek in it.
massaging while pumping like tara said is very helpful, it is also helpful to turn the cone around on your breasts - you can kind of turn it and pull on your breasts in different positions, like if you think of your breast like the face of a clock, you want to "pull" at a few different hours around the clock, know what i mean? play around, you will see. there are many milk ducts in your breast, and if you watch closely you can see the milk coming out of different spots as the ducts empty in turn, its interesting, and it will give you a good idea of whats going on there and how to get the most out.
get your baby nursing as soon as possible. once he is on and has the hang of it, feed him as often as he wants, and always empty the first breast first, before switching. he needs that hind milk to grow and for brain development, and you need him to get it in order to increase your supply. wake him when he falls asleep nursing and keep going, at least until he empties one breast and starts on the other, empty both in a session if you can, at least in the beginning. switch the side you start on each session. if you nurse him as often as you/he want, he will take care of increasing your supply in an amazingly short time, you will be surprised! just stick with it :) ...
i dont know how the people in your life are in terms of support, you sound very determined so it might not matter to you, but i found it harder to stick to it when people try to tell you otherwise. surround yourself with positive, supportive people, and that includes your doc and the nurses too. my last baby was 9 lbs 4 oz at birth, then lost a lot of weight quickly, we couldnt get a good latch and he slept allll the time. he had some trouble gaining the first few weeks, and lots of people tried to get me to supplement. i stuck with it, i got some great advice about latching on, he had nothing but breastmilk, and after a couple of months i swear you could store loose change in the folds in his skin! he is a meatball, and doing wonderfully!! i am so thankful that i stuck with it, as i did with all 3 of my kids, and they each had one challenge or another in the beginning. you are going to do wonderfully, and you will be so glad you did it! best of luck to you. please feel free to email me if you need any help, or if you just need support. it can be challenging in the beginning, but remember that having a newborn is challenging regardless of how you feed, dont let anyone make you feel like its the nursing that is making it challenging. breastfeeding is what we were designed to do...(my mother in law looked at my little meatball recently and said "hmmmm, i guess that breastfeeding does work!" duh! very satisfying, i must say :) ....and as tough as it might be in the beginning, it is also so wonderful and amazing and short! enjoy him! good luck, D.

1 mom found this helpful

First of all, good for you for making this a priority. I had a 28-weeker and felt totally helpless at first. Pumping is the best thing that you can do for your son! Sean and I never got the hang of breastfeeding, but I continued to pump for a year. Through that year, there were lots of ebbs and flows to my milk. The lactation consultant was shocked when I'd make extra milk right before he had a surgery -- usually under great stress, it'll go down, but my body must've taken over and gone into production mode. Don't be alarmed if it goes down -- it'll come back up. I bought a pumping strap that allows you to pump "hand's free". That really helped. I'd get uncomfortable sitting there holding the bottles and would stress myself out looking down and seeing if I was making enough! If you have the hand's free thing, you can sit and read or do crossword puzzles and it'll become automatic. The other thing I would suggest is to guzzle water. When you think you've had a lot, drink MORE! Also, I would put 100-calorie snack packs in my bag. I'd sit with Sean for hours and forget to eat, so I could conveniently have a snack in our pumping room. I tried that Mother's Milk tea and saw no real results. Also try to massage yourself while you're pumping -- you can feel the milk ducts in the back and sides.

I hope this helps -- please feel free to email directly for anything else. I know how tough it is to be a "NICU Mom".

Hugs,
R.

1 mom found this helpful

The best thing you can do to increase supply is to increase the frequency of pumping. I had a preemie and this made all the difference. I pumped A LOT and ended up having a good supply for when he was ready to nurse and we nursed until he was 18 months (gestational). I pumped at least every 3-4 hours (no less than 8 times a day, including middle of the night pumpings). Of course this was a pretty hard schedule (and I actually ended up with too much supply for a while) but I, like you, really wanted to be able to nurse when he was ready. Also, it was hard having my baby in the hospital and so pumping gave me a way to feel like I was doing something for him. All that said, it was exhausting to pump this much so if you don't end up being able/wanting to do it this frequently don't beat yourself up. If you can just do it as much as you can it will definitely help. (And I found that frequency mattered as much as duration of pumping sessions.) I hope this advice helps. I really feel for you and hope your baby is doing great and that he'll soon get to be with his loving mama.

Best,
P.

1 mom found this helpful

Try using a device called "LACT-AID" It looks a little like the liner of a platex nurser, but there is a fine tube that extends down to your nipple. You can fill the bag with your own breast milk, so when the baby is put to breast and begins to suck, he will get nutrition simply via gravity, as the milk drips from the tube with no effort on the baby's part. This does two things: first, it teaches the baby that food comes from the breast and second, it helps him learn to suck without wearing him out. This devise was specifically designed for situations just like yours where the baby can't afford to expend the energy to nurse and may have a reduced sucking reflex.

All the advise others have given you is good, like drinking and pumping - especially at night, etc. But there is nothing like the sucking of the infant! It helps both Mom and baby. Don't stress - like others have said, and don't surround yourself with anybody who is negative. I had never been pregnant when we adopted our oldest daughter - I now have 5 girls - and I was able to successfully nurse her for 14 months by starting out with the lact-aid device. I jsut didn't tell people I thought wouldn't belive I could do it. Please consider giving it a try. I loved mine and used it for our second daughter as well. After 25 years of marriage, and at close to 50 years old, I got pregnant - thought it was menopause!!! So I have had experience nursing both adopted and natural children.

I would talk to your doctor about starting to use it right away. I am a labor and delivery nurse and I have suggested this device to many other moms who have also had great success. If you want more information, just respond to me and I will get you the numbers where you can order the Lact-Aid. They will overnight it to you, so you could start using it on Tuesday.

It is a passion of mine to help moms with breastfeeding, so I would be more than happy to speak with you about this if you want. Just let me know and if there is anything I can do to help, I will be there for you.

~~S.

1 mom found this helpful