right so I didnt have the esiest time breastfeeding in hospital and I ruined it by giving her formula until I came home and ever since Ive been working so hard on getting her back to at least expressed brestmilk and the breast, but beside pumping my massive boobs every hour or two Im still only producing enough for about 5 feeds a day and still have to suppliment with formula. I really want to at least get to doing all feeds on expressed milk but cant seem to produce enough milk I do have one duff breast which with alot of pumping is producing more milk but doesnt seem to come out of many ducts like the other breast which leaks everywhere. any ideas ladies on uping my milk supply. Im off to ebay to try and get an electric pump, my manual is killing my hand.

You might look into contacting your hospital for a hospital grade pump to borrow or rent to try.

Otherwise, your best option to getting production up is baby on the breast.


Good luck to you!

My gosh, I dont envy you hand expressing that much! Yikes lol!

Make sure you are eating well and drinking loads of fuids! You basically have to treat yourself like you actually were breastfeeding. That means regular pumping (baby would be eating regularly) and the proper diet.

Good luck! Your doing great, 5 feeds a day is a good thing.

hey hun its not hand expressing its a manual pump and its rubbish killing my hand Im just bidding on a medela electric swing pump fingers crossed I want it now!!!!!!! I am putting her to the breast but it is abit hit and miss whether she akes it or not so Im giving her the express feed then when shes lovley and calm popping her on my breast to finish trying slowly to get her used to it again my bad ruined it at hospital if Id only known what it was going to take to get her back on

Hang in there! You're doing great. Hope you get the Medela - it's a great pump, though I personally had a tad better luck with the Avent Isis. I don't know which manual one you have now, but you may check into it to avoid spending lots of $$$ (though you can always resell it! )

lol sorry misread, still manual expressing that much would suck...

Im going to be buying the medela pump too... Hope you get it! Good luck!

Hi,
well done for putting so much effort into getting your supply up - having a new baby is hard enough without having to go through all that palaver.
I bet you will notice a real difference when you get your electric pump. They can get much more out, and the more you remove, the more milk you can make.

My advice would be to carry on as you are doing now, but also: carry on pumping (when you get your electric) for a while after your boob seems empty - this sends the message to your body that more milk production is needed. ;

order some fenugreek tablets (you can get them online or in shops from Holland and Barrett). Fenugreek is a well-known galactagogue, or milk-promoting - herb. You could also opt for a short course of motilium 10 (it's actually for vomiting and diarrhea, but as a side effect raises the level of the milk-making hormone. you can take, say 4 a day, but this can work out expensive if your GP will not prescribe them for you. If you have a sympathetic one, it's worth asking for a script to save yourself a ton of money.

And more than anything, pop your babe onto the breast whenever you see an opportunity - e.g, when she is getting tired and needs to sleep, when she is crying, when she is just waking up, basically as often as she will take it, even if she doesn't really seem hungry - comfort nursing will help your milk production crank up.

Best of luck - you are nearly there already and it will be well worth it, I promise.

PS...

The kellymom website has lots of interesting information on rebuilding your supply.

Lucy

could you not breast feed direct? Or maybe you dont want to or cant?

I used to pump a lot because I found direct feeding so flippin painful and found pumping to be a real pain after a while - it took up so much of my day! I felt like a real dairy cow always in teh miling shed. I find that baby does so much better with direct feeding now I'm over the pain and he has increased the milk supply as he needs it - he's much better at increasing it than I was via my electric pump.

Manual pump? NO! dont suffer. Get electric.Soooooo much easier. If you cant afford then just rent one of those hospital grade ones. They are really fantastic. Go for Medela.

A couple of things I was advised about were:

switch feeding (or pumping) 5 mins each side,

and double pumping (or feeding on one breast, expressing on the other) so your body thinks it's twins. I found this really awkward but it might be worth a go.

Wish I could express 5 feeds a day it sounds like loads to me!