Expressing and reduced supply - any advice please?

[Franchini]

Hi all
I have decided to give up on breastfeeding (long story) and just feed my baby expressed breast milk. I have got a Medela Swing breast pump. My baby is three weeks old.
My supply from each boob seems to have decreased over the last two days and I am only able to get off about 40-50 ml per boob per expression. I was getting off about 90ml per boob. I have been expressing for two minutes extra after the milk stops coming out (as per lactation consultant advice) and I have been expressing everytime my baby has a feed except during the night when I dont express on one feed.

Any advice on how to increase the amount of milk would be appreciated as my baby has now decided that she wants 120ml per feed and I'm not really producing enough today to supply her with this amount. I am worried that when she needs even more I will have to give her formula.

Thanks

How often are you expressing?

Exclusive expressing is possible and Truthsweet will give you some good information on this.

Do you want to discuss your breastfeeding challenges to see if anyone can help?

I expressed for about 3 months. You may need a better pump - I can recommend the Lactaline which is hospital grade. Your boobs are never 'empty' as such, I never stopped producing milk when pumping (it just slowed right down to a tiny trickle) but it could be that the pump you're using isn't efficient enough to get the milk out once you are past the "flooding" stage!

Expressing around 4am was always a mega-productive time for me! I'd certainly try and express more often if you feel your supply is reduced - your breasts will only produce more if you stimulate them to do so. Babies naturally go through growth spurts where they feed very frequently so I'd be adding in a couple more sessions to build your supply. Maybe try expressing first thing, then having breakfast and a shower, then expressing again - the hot water can get your boobs going.

Expressing full time is very hard work but it is do-able! Good luck.

Jut noticed that you are not expressing on the night feed - this is a bit of a problem if you only want to feed EBM. Those night feeds were crucial for me - DH used to actually do the feed, change, settle and back to bed within half an hour or so, I would often be on the breast pump for an hour.

If you don't want to express every night feed you will almost certainly have to embrace mixed feeding and supplement with formula.