How to Increase Breast Milk Supply?

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I would recommend meeting with a lactation consultant before your birth who will be available for you immediately. They usually have them in the hospital, but they may be off that day or have other people ahead of you.

Mother's Milk Tea is good, as is a supplement called Mother's Milk Plus.

Fenugreek, oatmeal, etc are all good.

I would not assume you will have a problem this time. In fact, you may have had enough supply last time, but perhaps as you indicated, her latch combined with being a preemie didn't lead to a good breastfeeding relationship.

Unfortunately what you can pump is not necessarily an indication of your supply. Those babies, latched properly, nurse more efficiently than a pump will pump.

That is why I recommend getting a lactation consultant on board immediately.

I wish you luck and a wonderful nursing relatinship. It is such a rewarding experience!

3 oz total in 2 hours is actually pretty good especially in the first 2 months or so. .5 oz every hour on each size is about right equaling 1 oz an hour and you don't get that right away unless you are feeding every 2 hours or pumping every 1.5 to 2 hours. 3 oz every 2 hours is more then enough in the beginning. Just believe in yourself that you can do it and have the drive to do it and it is possible. If you want a little encouragement read my history on the issue, and you might be surprised what is possible if you work hard at it. I wish I had my desire this time around with my first two!!

As far as latching I had a very. very hard time the first few weeks with pain and latch. this time around was forced to pump the first few weeks and breastfed once a day if I could and now she has been able to perfect her latch and does great.

Breast milk is a supply and demand type thing. The more your baby demands, the more your supply will increase. If you're nursing every 2 hours, within a couple of days, you will notice that your breasts are producing every two hours. There are a few periods of growth spurts that are difficult during nursing, when your child starts demanding more than you produce (I believe they are at 6 weeks and about 3 months) and at those points you just need to let the baby suckle so that your breast will produce more during those hungry periods. My suggestion to you would be to get a couple of books and READ! I spent my entire second pregnancy reading books about nursing because I was determined to nurse. I was uninformed during my first pregnancy and was unsuccessful because of it. Reading will help you to know what's normal (like when those growth spurts are!) and what you need to watch for. It informs you on different positions, latching instructions, plugged milk ducts (which can be painful, but massaging and warm compresses and continuing to nurse help - quitting nursing doesn't!) and multiple other things. I'm not sure how free and open you are with your breasts, but for me personally, having the lactation consultant there grabbing at my boobs did not help - it made me uncomfortable and I was unable to relax enough for my milk to let down. So in short - arm yourself with LOTS of information and determination, and you will be successful! Good luck!

You've probably heard that breast feeding is about supply and demand. If baby is having trouble latching on, it can effect your supply. You could try pumping after every feeding. I did this so I would have a back up supply for my mom. (I didn't know if I would have time to pump after my husband went back to work.) This really helped my supply. Just a thought!

The most important thing to do right away....nurse as soon as you can after the birth. Make sure your dr/midwife/nurse know you want to do this immediately. Skin to skin contact is important too. Then in those first couple days nurse EVERY time they seem to want it. If your milk isn't coming in real quickly this is REALLY important cause that is what is going to make it come in. Don't say...oh she's not satisfied and give her a bottle, which is what alot of people do. Let her nurse as much as she wants. If the milk isn't coming in, she will make it come in. If you fill her tummy up, she won't have the need to suckle and thus not make the milk come in as well. I know it seems ridiculous at times how much they want to nurse but it is probably because there isn't much there yet. I know even with my second who nursed like a champ for the first moment, there were some times in the hospital where I couldn't get him off me for even a short time and my nipples were sore and bleeding/blistering a little, but I kept at it and it happened! Go to a LLL meeting near you BEFORE you deliver to get to know some people there so you know who you can call when you are having trouble and/or do some research about LCs in your area. Some LCs are good...some in hospitals just do it to have the extra letters after their names and get paid more and aren't really very helpful (experienced that with my first one). Don't let any of them give your baby a bottle or pacifier. Pacis and bottles are fine later on once they get the hang of it, but it is confusing to a brand new baby who is just learning.

You don't want to take alot of the herbs early on when they are so young because they do get passed through the milk and you have to take them in very large quanitites to make much difference. The mother's milk tea is ok, but the herbs in that are not really enough to do much (although drinking lots of tea gives you lots of fluids that you need). Fenugreek and blessed thistle are the main ones. And More milk plus supplement is good too (I think it has mostly the same stuff in it). Fenugreek helped me alot when I was pumping at work to help boost up my supply when it would get low from just mostly pumping and not nursing directly. Lots of water, good nutrition, oatmeal and dark beer are helpful too (just drink the beer right after a feeding so it has time to get out of your system).

Working privately with a LC will get you a lot better support than just talking to one in the class or seeing the hospital LC when you deliver. It's not the cheapest, though. If you want to go the class route and whatever LC ends up being at the hospital, I would strongly recommend having someone from LLL phone number, because as you prob know from your experience, they aren't around when you are having trouble alot of the time.

OH, and if you do end up with PPD....there are meds you can take that are ok to take while nursing. Don't take your Drs word for it, call an LC and check with them. Most Drs and most meds automatically say that it shouldn't be used with nursing cause they haven't done testing and want to cover their butts.

I highly recommend The Nursing Mother's Companion http://www.amazon.com/Nursing-Mothers-Companion-Revised/d...
I referred to it soooo many times when I didn't know what was going on.

Good luck!

Been there. I became an ardent student of breastfeeding after struggling in the beginning with my son. I learned a lot from reading kellymom.com (like how much to expect to be able to express - for me it was only 2 oz every couple of hours). After 13 months I am still nursing and loving it.

Anyhow, the three things that help and and are absolutely crucial to maintaining my sensitive milk supply are:

1) Nurse at night - I cannot go longer than one 6 hour stint without noticing a drop in my supply the following day (I use to get up to pump since my baby was such a good sleeper)

2) Let the baby nurse on you instead of a pacifier. My son refused a pacifier at 5 months, so instead of popping one in at bed/nap time, I let him use me. This was a huge boost to my milk supply.

3) Make sure I eat a lot of iron (oatmeal, peanut butter, molasses). Anemia lowers a mother's milk supply.

i feel for you , you can keep pumping every 2hours initially and in night atleast 3 hours. also you can take fenugreek seed capsuls, or from asian stores you can get the fenugreek seed and everyday early morning soak little in the warm water and drink that drained water. hope that helps.

Make sure you drink plenty of liquid and eat enough! My bf was having issues with her second daughter, who is 2 months, and the lactation consultant told her to eat more fats and to take Fenugreek and blesses thistle, 3 pills, 3x per day of each and to pump, pump, pump! Also try pumping right after your baby nurses, you wont get much at first but it will help by telling your body to produce more milk. My son is 7 weeks and Im going back to school soon so i just started taking the herbal supplements yesterday, Im hoping to increase my milk supply alot cause he is a pig! Good luck!

As a mom who breastfed for 11 months and worked full time, I can tell you that just because you are only pumping 2 oz, does not mean that the baby is getting only 2 oz. they can get alot more than your pump can. I pumped on both sides for 45 minutes and would only get about 3 oz. My son was always chubby and in the 75th percentile for weight. He was definitley getting mor ethan 3 oz!
You can try mothers milk tea, drink lots of water, nurse on demand in the beginning, and do NOT supplement for the first few months.
Good luck and congrats on your new little one:)

After doing lo0ts of remedies, healthy nursing tea worked wonder and increased my low milk flow.

i wish i'd known about the herbs with my first baby. i had to supplement with formula too. with my second baby, i had plenty of milk, which was a good thing because he hated bottles. but with my third, once again i just wasn't producing enough. i started out using fenugreek, which worked well. but as she started needing more milk, i had to increase the fenugreek. at the higher doses it made me dizzy, so i switched to More Milk Plus. the More Milk Plus is more expensive, but it worked faster and better for a long time. but then when she was about 18 months the More Milk just didn't seem to work anymore. since she was nursing only 2-3 times a day by then, i tried the fenugreek again since i wouldn't need to take so much. it has worked well for me. More Milk Plus i have found at Good Earth. i have found fenugreek there and at pharmacies. good luck!

i used mothers milk tea with my last baby and it worked wonderfully! also make sure you are drinking LOTS AND LOTS of water! that will make a huge difference too! good for you for wanting to nurse again! it is such a wonderful experience.

You already received great advice, but I will add - LOTS of water, but drink only with thrist. I think too much is not good. Check with a LC. I used Fenugeek, Mother's Milk tea, oatmeal - 2-3 times a day, almonds (I ate the chocolate covered ones), papaya. Do google searches on increasing supply and you will find many more foods that can help you. I struggled with supply after I went back to work cause I have a very stressful job with limited breaks to pump. Use/rent a hospital graded pump if possible - I call it the super sucker. Also, I got a prescription from my doctors for Reglan, which helped my supply immensely and it is a drug not for that. Completely safe to pass thru to the baby. However, if you suffered from PPD, they will not prescribe cause it has some depression side affects, which fortunately I did not have.