Expressing Breast Milk-How Long Can It Last?

[VelvetQuilt]

Hi all,

I'm combination formula and expressed breast feeding my now 2 week old son (struggled with breast feeding) and I'm really interested to know how long I'm likely to have before my breast supply runs out?

I know the best way to keep up the supply is to breast feed, but my son's latch isn't great and we both end up getting upset and frustrated by it-hence the decision to express instead.

My let down is fine at the moment and I manage around 100ml from each breast in the morning and evening (I express X2 a day) but I wondered if there was a way to keep it going for longer? I have no idea how long this will last so hearing other experiences will be really helpful.

Thanks!

If you want to keep it going for longer i would suggest more than 2x a day - ideally every 3 hours during the day and every 4 hours at night.

Do you have RL help - perhaps the latch could be improved?

I kept it up for 14 months. Now, that is not AT ALL to say that I think you/anyone else should feel obliged to do this (all my friends thought I was deranged and I don't blame them) but merely to show that it is possible to keep it up for essentially as long as you would like. Although I was doing some feeding from the breasts during the beginning of this time, the main thing keeping up my supply was expressing. So here are a few suggestions:

• at this earely stage, as MNWL says, try to express a little more frequently. You can give yourself a break at night if you need it, but your prolactin levels are highest at this time of day so it's worth trying to do at least one session
• try expressing for three minutes 'on', one minutes off, three minutes on etc. Doing this will stimulate more let-downs than just staying on the pump for say 15 minutes.
• pumping frequent small amounts is better, at this stage, than pumping a large amount spaced out over more hours
• do some breast massage as you express - this helps avoid blocked ducts and helps you empty your breasts more effectively, as pump is less effective than baby.
• you can store your breastpump in the fridge in-between feedings so you don't have to wash it after every expressing session. Just keep it in a clean sandwich bag.
• try some relaxation as you pump (I know, hard with a small baby). Take deep breaths and if possible have baby close by so you can see and smell him as you express.

How long would you like to keep up expressing for, and would you like to carry on combination feeding or maybe move to exclusive expressing? Would you like to try getting baby back to the breast? It's possible to do it, in whatever format you chose, for as long as you'd like. It's also fine to just want to make it 'one more day' at this stage - I don't want you to feel like I'm pressuring you to set a distant deadline. I would like you to know, though, that it can last for as long as it's right for you and your family.

My DS was in NICU, so for the first few weeks of his life he was tube fed expressed milk. In order to do so I found that I needed to at least aim to express every 3 hours in the day. A lactation consultant told me to do so overnight too. A registrar who had also had a prem baby told me that was rubbish, and so I ended up expressing as I went to bed at 11 ish and as I woke up at 6 ish. In the main I used to express somewhere between 5 and 7 times in any 24 hours. To start with I managed about 10 ml, quickly increasing to 30-40 a time. After about 4 weeks I got to the 100ml!. I also found once I got there after about 4 weeks the 24 hour amount was pretty stable, and if I expressed less often I didn't get less milk. For me it did however matter that I didn't extend the gaps in the morning so the best times were 6 ish, 9ish and 12 ish. If then there was a gap until say 5 , 8 and 11 that was fine. But if the gap was 5 hours in the morning it was useless!

Othe things I discovered was unlike many people if I expressed while doing the mundane, watching telly etc I got more than if I was with DS. It goes againts all conventional advice but worked for me. trial and error can therefore be a good thing.

As for how long you can carry on, I know from my prem mums it depends, and in my case after 4 weeks DS was getting 1 BF a day and after 8 weeks 2 BF a day. After then we moved away from expressing onto BF but I still end up expressing 1 or more feeds a day because it suits us. Today for example I have done a KIT day and been away from DS so he's just had EBM after his now 7am feed. I'm at 7 months and always been ok with supply. How much of that is becuase I did some BF as well I have no idea, but certainly in the first weeks I didn't

Great advice, thanks everyone!

I have to admit that I tend to ignore my let down during the day, which normally occurs when my son is sleeping on my chest...partly because I'm a little scared to put him down in his basket to sleep at times in case he wakes (he rarely does) so I next time I really should just put him down and get on the pump.

I had NO idea you could stretch it out that long! The midwife I'd seen had led me to believe that without him regularly breast feeding my supply would gradually run out. I have tried hard over the last few weeks to breast feed him but we had a delayed start in the beginning, then he got distressed in the hospital as his latch wasn't working and I was struggling to get to grips with it so they offered a top up of formula. Having seen him turn into a completely different (and contented) baby we decided to combination feed and let me try to bf at a more relaxed pace until we got it nailed, but it didn't happen that way. He prefers one breast to the other and his latch is very hit and miss, he gets frustrated and angry very quickly and is all arms and fists, resulting in both of us in floods of tears. We've managed a couple of days solid bf on and off but not enough to give me the confidence to keep going, having seen several bf peers who have sat with us and visited regularly. It just got to the point where I dreaded feeds and we weren't a happy and relaxed household.

So for now, we're continuing with ff and expressed milk although I would LOVE to be able to feed him solely on breast milk. And who knows...if it's possible perhaps I will try him again on the breast once I've got over the shell shock of the past fortnight!

Looking forward to keeping things going now and happy that I can still give my son all the benefits he needs in his early months, which is so, so important to me.

Thanks again!

x

I'm really glad the information was useful. I used to think that the HVs saw my expressing as 'second rate' to feeding straight from the breasts 100% of the time, and several told me I'd never keep it up, supply would dwindle etc. Whilst I will admit you need to think about keeping up your supply more with expression than if the baby is feeding straight from you, I disagreed with them completely that it couldn't be done. Lots of bf mums in America express for more of the time because they have very little maternity leave, so I got some good tips from US sites like this as they had info about everything from safely storing milk to keeping my supply going to how to schedule expressing to suit your schedule. Seeing the HV faces when I told them we'd made it to a year was sooooooooo worth the effort .

I think you're doing a brilliant thing for your son, and I know that whatever you end up doing will be in his (and your) best interests. BTW, I don't know if it's any help but I ended up hiring a breastpump (hospital grade) from Medela.co.uk (have hired it again for DD2 as it's a double pump and fast and easy).

Have you seen a specialist breastfeeding counsellor (not the NHS MW or HV!)? Local NCT groups often have breastfeeding counsellors. They could help with your latch. Or find a local breastfeeding support group.

Massage and/or hand expressing alongside pumping can double how much you get.

newborns.stanford.edu/Breastfeeding/HandExpression.html

It definitely is possible to express long-term and keep supply up but you need to be expressing as much as you would need to feed to keep your supply up. I know a friend express-fed her 1st LO after similar issues to you (and crap advice in hospital!) and managed it for 6 months, but she found it a struggle (it's harder to look after a baby plus find time/space for pumping) so I'd persevere with getting help with your latch, whilst keeping your supply up.