Power Pumping

[HandbagFan]

Hello

Looking for experiences (good and bad!) with power pumping please. I've given it a go for the first time today and will be daily at least over the weekend while DH is here. Did you try this? What were the results?

Currently I'm pumping c.500mls per day across 7/8 sessions and baby is eating a little over 700mls of milk a day. I'm taking fenugreek capsules, eating porridge, drinking lots of water. Also looking to increase skin to skin time. Just want to get supply up so as we tackle our bf issues so I know he's getting as much breast milk as he can and reducing the formula top ups.

For context, DS will be 5 weeks old on Sunday.

Thanks!

[Runningupthathill82]

What's power pumping? I exclusively expressed for 3 months, so know a lot about pumping, but not sure if it counts as "power pumping"?!

[HandbagFan]

www.pregnancy.com.au/breastfeeding/breastfeeding_information/increasing-breast-milk-supply-power-pumping.shtml

[clarella]

I'd be careful about over pumping; you can end up with a windy baby due to over supply.

I'd call the Nct be lines or be network or lll for advice to be honest.

[clarella]

In many ways your plan without the power pumping should be enough to get things going.

Have you sought advice? And feeds observed etc?

[HandbagFan]

clarella the plan without power pumping has only got me to where I am - I've been pumping nearly five weeks and get 30-80mls per pump depending on time of day.

The skin to skin and getting him to bf when I can was the advice of the health visitor and breastfeeding peer support worker at the clinic I went to this week.

I have considered LLL / a private consultant but want to give the NHS support a proper go first.

[TheDisillusionedAnarchist]

I did power pumping for a while. It did work. I had much lower supply than you though. It got me up to 30mls in a session from average 15mls so was effective but a lot of work.

[clarella]

Of course - I'd just ring the helplines though for more info. Lll especially should know about power pumping.

[HandbagFan]

TheDisillusionedAnarchist thanks for sharing. I'm not desperately low but want to see if I can get more - I'd love to be able to remove the formula top ups. How long did you try it for? My plan is the four days over Easter and see where I get to...

Clarella I think I'll try LLL next week then. I've been reading a lot on their site and their book. Have you had positive experiences with them?

[clarella]

My local lll group is amazing. All volunteers but it's the FB group who are of huge support. We post questions and lots of mums with experiences reply. Regular meetings too - There's a consultant running the group who is there to give support also. She doesn't charge as has own job (running bf support) so really it's all peer support, but extremely knowledgeable.

I'd just ring as many lines as possible for advice!

[AlleyCatandRastaMouse]

I had a very hard time BF my 3rd due to TT issues and eventually I put him onto expressed bottles for a while as it was not working. I did a fair bit of power pumping to boost my supply. The drawback was the nasty fast let down and oversupply I experienced trying to get DS back on the boob.

[clarella]

I think this is where I'd be careful regarding the power pumping as I responded very quickly to badly advised expressing in the early days - I over pumped - and ended up with over supply and a very windy baby. But I understand you'd want to drop the top ups.

At the same time a brief Google on the lll website about power pumping says it's effective.

Dr Jack Newman is exceptionally good at bf advice.

Have you / baby been properly assessed for tongue tie?

Sorry I'm not sure if you are expressing and bottle feeding or feeding at breast with top ups?

[HandbagFan]

No tongue tie - checked in hospital by the breastfeeding consultant and I've not seen any symptoms.

Currently expressing and bottle feeding during the day with formula at night. I use night pumps to catch up with some stock of breastmilk for the day time.