Please one of the BF helpers read this, I'm fed up of getting no responses to other BF questions I pose!

I've read that your milk production will increase with baby's demand - if they feed longer as if wanting more, then your breasts will start producing more to meet their demand.

But does anyone know if this works the other way too - if baby takes less (in my case dramatically less) than I produce, will my breasts start producing dramatically less to match?

I ask because when Andrew was in SCBU, I could express 60-70ml at a session (every four hours), but since I've been trying to BF him with little success (he's too premmie to latch for long), my expressing has shot down to about 15-20ml at a session. Which is now going to cause problems, as I'm rapidly using up my frozen supply!

I've got an appt with my doctor to get Domperidon next Monday, but I may even run out before then ... Plus I'd really rather get my supply back up naturally.

I'm about to start more frequent expressing (every 3 hours), plus I'm hanging on for over 2 minutes after the last visible drop. (double expressing, hospital grade pump)

Any other recommendations?

Hey hun, I admire anyone who has expressed this long for their lo!

Are you expressing every 3 hours through the night as well? Are you and lo having lots of skin to skin contact? When he does latch on, how long does he feed for?

Perhaps have a 'nursing holiday' if you can, so for a day or so just concentrating on lots of skin to skin, feeding and expressing sessions.

xx

Edit to add I have also read posts recommending Fenugreek to help increase milk supply x

I'd say we have one successful BF session a day, whereby he's at the breast for 20+ minutes with intermittent latching. The other times, he struggles to get or maintain the latch.

You might be right with the "nursing holiday", I'm guessing you mean spending 24hrs in bed just skin-to-skin with baby (though it might be hard to do that when I'm expressing!) and letting him feed when he wants. I'd have to have bottles on standby. Not sure what my OH might make of that idea, so I think I'll run it past the SCBU Midwife at her visit tomorrow, and then make out the idea came from her!

Can't get to H&B to get fenugreek any earlier than I can get to doc for domperidon. But thanks for the suggestion.

To answer your question, yes it does go the other way. The problem is that expressing is just not nearly as good as the baby latching so the breast is never really emptied, this leads the breast to think that the baby doesn't need it all and so it produces less, it can become a vicious cycle. I'm afraid I don't know enough about expressing to really help there, but I really advise going to bed and stripping the both of you down so you can get loads of skin to skin, another thing that can really help is to take a bath together.

You have already been through so very, very much! Well done you, getting this far is an amazing achievement! To look after a premmie baby and continue breastfeeding him is just an astonishing feat of love.

I'm afraid you are right; less milk being removed from your breasts means that less milk will be made by the breast. The obvious answer is to pump - generally you should pump as frequently as you would have been feeding, which for a newborn is 10 - 12 times a day.... there are other things you can do to help, though, and here is a link to some ideas: http://www.lowmilksupply.org/

I guess that people are a bit wary of replying to your queries because premmies are such a specialist area. Are you in touch with anyone else who is exclusively breastfeeding a SCBU graduate? Do you have any local contacts who are breastfeeding experts, eg, LLL Leaders, BF Counsellors, baby cafe leaders etc? Are you a member of any of the BF organisations? It makes a real difference to have a cheerleader to remind you of what a fab job you are doing, and whom you can run any worries past.

Blessings to you - and really, truly, congratulations! Well done on getting this far!

Melanie

Thanks for your replies.

I'm just surprised that, even though I've continued to express since starting BF. production has gone down. It's as if my boobies can tell that Andrew is only taking a small amount by natural means and so are now producing that, and ignoring how much I'm trying to express on the side.

Might be laying my hands on some fenugreek thanks to some Fairies I know :wink:

Hey Marleys

Hopefully, as Andrew gets bigger, his latch will improve. I know it's scary though. I bought a good book with lots of advice in it about increasing supply ... Breastfeeding Mothers Guide to Making More Milk, worth a look, it's very comprehensive.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but didn't want to read and run

kellymom.com has great information on increasing supply/nursing a preemie:

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/preemie/index.html

Their forums are also very helpful.

Like everyone else I have to say well done! for getting on so well so far. You seem very dedicated and I'm sure you'll be successful at establishing a nursing relationship.