Anyone had to express feed, how long were you able to continue a supply?

[stillwaitingforbaby]

My baby was born last Thursday, we had a traumatic delivery and were both on anti biotics for 5 days post birth. We are home now and all is well. I managed to BF for the first 48 hrs but then nothing was coming out, baby was becoming frustrated and was unwell on anti b's with a urine infection. We decided to FF which I don't regret, it really helped sort him out. Anyway I had been expressing only tiny amounts since then and had almost given up until suddenly my milk came in last night. We've tried getting him to latch but he won't have it, so I'm expressing my milk and feeding him through a bottle, topping up with a F when needed.

Has anyone else experienced similar, if so how long were you able to continue to express before your milk stopped? I had wanted to BF for a few months but I'm guessing this may only last a matter of weeks.

Thanks in advance

Congrats on the baby, and sorry to hear about the birth.

It can vary massively - I managed a month, but not only was my milk drying up, but I then got put on anti-b.s that meant I had to throw the milk out, AND dd was sleeping through, so I was getting up at 4 am to express milk & throw it away while dd slept!

However, I know people who've managed for 6 months, so just keep going for as long as possible.

I did 3 months. But I really couldn't get out of the house and it was driving me nuts so I stopped. Supply was still fine though.

I did it for 7 months as my daughter had a tongue tie and could not breastfeed. I would say her diet was 90% BM and 10% formula, but some weeks I managed 100% BM.

Best info from:
www.expressyourselfmums.co.uk/Expressing-breastmilk/exclusively-pumping.htm
(loads of equipment and pump hire from that site too).

www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/bf-links-excpumping.html

forums.ivillage.com/t5/Exclusively-Pumping/ct-p/iv-ppexcluspump

Tips I could give would be:

The ONLY way I could produce enough milk was to hire a double hospital pump from medela, which cost about £40 a month.
I never managed 12 pumps a day, I think 8 was my max averaging 5-6, topping up with formula kept me sane.
I warmed my breasts with a 'Microhottie' before pumping, which helped produce more milk.
Once my milk supply had been established I bought a double pump off ebay, so i could pump and still move above and do housework etc
www.amazon.co.uk/Medela-Freestyle-Double-Electric-Breastpump/dp/B001HMU86Q/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=drugstore&ie=UTF8&qid=1326311098&sr=1-1-catcorr

Let me know if you want to know anything else!

It really depends on how much you are expressing (not how many mls but how often).

Double electric pump (pref. hospital grade) at least 8 times a day, including at least once overnight, will help maintain a supply as long as possible which could be years if managed well (I have heard of some US mothers expressing for 2y+).

Lots of info on EPing (exclusively expressing) here.

There is also the possibility of getting baby to bf directly if you wanted to explore that option?

Hi, i had a very traumatic birth with my DD1, she has cerebral palsy as a result of this and never learned to breastfeed although she could take a bottle quite well(she is now 100% tube fed). other than having TPN in hospital for the first 3days she only had my expressed milk for the first 14mths of her life. it was very hard work and extremely stressful at times as mostly i was only 1 feed ahead of her but i'm so glad i did it, i think it helped her massively and it also helped me at a time when i felt so helpless.
I'm now 6mths into ebf my DD2.
for the 1st few weeks i pumped every 2hrs pretty much day and night then every 3hrs, i couldn't drop to less than 6 expressings a day without it effecting my supply.

Thanks for all the replies and info, have been looking at the links and am arranging the hire of a double pump from my local NCT.

My supply seems to be increasing today so feel a little more confident.

Really appreciate everyone's help.

A friend of mine has exclusively expressed breast fed her DS for a year now. He never attached to the breast and she was determined to feed him breast milk. Basically she expressed every time he fed. Initially her DH fed him whilst she expressed then she would do it before or after a feed.

Was full on commitment though and in my humble view did restrict her social life a bit compared to being able to stay out and feed whenever. She rightly is very proud of their achievement. Used a normal electric pump but has had it changed under warranty a few times

I agree with Scotlass, it is a huge commitment to express exclusively, and some of the mothers on the forums are very anti formula, be careful not to get sucked into that.

In hindsight I do wish I supplemented with formula more and enjoyed socialising, getting to know other mums and spending time with my baby a bit more. Your baby's health is only one aspect of being a good parent.

If you are serious about it, invest in loads of spare pump parts, it will make life a lot easier.

I expressed for the first three months. DD refused to latch after a very long labour and c-section.

I expressed three times a day initially and for the first weeks she probably had about 75-100% breast milk. As I needed to get out and about more in the daytime (and I didn't mind that I was giving DD formula anyway) I cut to expressing twice a day for the next two months. At about 1 MO she was getting about 50% breast milk, but by 10 weeks my supply had started dwindling (partly because I had the occassional night off expressing) and I eventually stopped a couple of weeks later. By that point she was only really getting one full feed of breast milk (out of four feeds daily).

I used a Tommee Tippee Closer To Nature pump and it probably took about 30m morning and evening. From memory I got around 120ml each time, but that dwindled to around 90ml when I stopped.