I just ebm as lo fell asleep, but then he woke up when i emptied both boobs wanting a feed! i wanted to get a supply goin for my oh or goin out, this is y i wasnt goin to give it to lo! Will he still get milk or how ru supposed to get this supply goin if all lo wants to do is cluster feed!???

cheers x

Honestly, I would hold out on expressing at the moment unless you have to. Your supply is still getting going and expressing too much could lead you to overproduce milk which can make it difficult for your baby to feed. That's one of the reasons it's recommended to wait until 6 weeks.

Remember that expressing won't empty your breasts. The pumps are not as efficient as your LO at getting the milk out so there will still be plenty left.

Sorry to sound naive but how would it effect the baby to feed by over producing? is this to do with a fast let down? I didnt realise i had to wait until after 6 weeks, so best i do that then! thanks x

I didn't wait until after 6 weeks, in fact I was advised to start using EBM between 3-4 weeks as they are more likely to take it!

I have no idea whether expressing effects let down, but I have been expressing for the last 3 weeks and haven't had any problems even when LO has decided he is hungrey and I need to feed off a breast I have just expressed off!

Yes it can lead to a fast let down. I had to express early on because my baby was tube fed initially and it caused real problems with over supply.

I've just checked and the advice is not to express and give bottles until 4-6 weeks.

i thought bottles and ebm weren't advised early on due to nipple confusion? so you need to let baby get really good at breastfeeding before introducing anything else?

i expressed for the first 6 weeks as baby was being tube fed, and i don't have any problems with too much milk - the opposite in fact, i've really struggled to make enough milk.

I expressed from about 4 weeks. But I really wouldn't worry about "over-supply" my LO fed constantly for the first 3 months, I mean he was on the boob more than off. But when I decided enough was enough and put him on a 2 hourly scheaule, I never had any issues with to much milk. But no, you wont totally empty the breast. xxx

That's what I was told before hand, but when talking to MW after birth and BF consultant they both suggested between 3&4 weeks. I started at 3+3 and haven't had any problem with nipple confusion, but then I also think that if a baby doesn't want to take the bottle it doesn't matter when you start!!

Bana - don't know if this helps but I have started expressing just off one breast only once a day around lunchtime as this is when I know my boobs are fairly full and also our LO tends to pretty much always go a full 4hrs between feeds at this time of day. Leaving one of them ensures there's always plenty there for LO in case he does want to feed sooner than usual. Is there any particular time of day yet where they do tend to be happy to wait longer for a feed? It might be worth just expressing a bit at this time. I've only been getting about 40ml a day doing it like this but if we do that each day will start to build up a good freezer supply (like you say so OH can help out or further down the line if we do go out) without making my boobs over-produce.

I don't express ever in the evening as I always feel pretty deflated then plus LO always wants to feed lots in the evening. HV told me your body's been working hard using calories for rushing around after baby and doing other things so it struggles to make as much milk as during the night or earlier in the day.

All the best xxx

Tanya has just reminded me, HV recommended that I express off the breast baby has just fed off to get any excess. Definitely worth trying. I found our LO empties the breast pretty well during a feed tho so I wasn't having much luck expressing off the boob he'd just fed off.