I need someone to explain the let down reflex to me please, because

[McPhee]

I'm pretty sure I don't have one

Dd is two weeks old, so is it too early or is mine just missing?

What's making you think you don't have one?

Well is your milk not supposed to come out just as you get ready to feed? Mine doesn't even come out when I try and hand express, although it does when I pump.

How are you doing hand expression?

My milk never came out before a feed, even as I was setting up so to speak. But I would get a funny tingly sensation in my boobs.

I would get a very big sensation going from my pens down to my nipples, a huge tingling immediately followed by the dreaded gush!

Pecs, not pens!

My midwife told me to make a C shape around the breast, and slowly slide your hand down towards the nipple?

I get tingly sensations between feeds, rather than before one

Are my boobs odd

Mine never did. No tingling and no milk. Ended up formula feeding both mine. (Not what I'd planned and not saying you'll have to.) How is DD's weight? If she isn't massively losing weight then I wouldn't worry.

And I don't even leak in to breast pads.

When I pump, I can generally get about 3oz off of each breast at the moment. That's increased from 1.5oz last week.

I didn't feel the letdown til at least 5 months and I had oversupply.

I've never really felt my let down. About 30 secs/1 min into a feed my dd starts noticeably drinking, iykwim, and I can hear her swallowing, so I presume that's it. I'm awful at expressing, and I've never leaked, but my baby is huge so there's clearly something there! But I've never had that tingly feeling people talk about.

When she was weighed on Friday, she had exceeded her birth weight.

I could never express, even when I skipped feeds (even when I skipped 24 hours of feeds, it was hell!) and I fed ds for 13 months.

I don't think I felt the letdown at 2 weeks, I remember it coming a bit later. I usually felt it a few seconds into a feed, like a pins and needles tingle, and much stronger in the breast that wasn't feeding funnily enough!

Ok, not the best hand expression technique.

You need firstly to have something that reminds you of your baby nearby to help with oxytocin. Spend a minute gently massaging your breast.

Get your thumb and finger in a c shape, gently but firmly move your thumb and finger back from your areola until you feel a change in breast texture. Then you compress and release, no sliding. Think of your boob as a clock face and have thumb and finger at six and twelve. It may take a few minutes to get a flow. Once you've got something keep going till it stops. Then move to three and nine and repeat.

I'll give that a go Viva. Thanks, that sounds more do-able.

I sometimes felt it - more down my left leg, like a tingle about 20 secs or so after DD started sucking.

I breastfed exclusively for 6 months and had plenty of milk for DD but could never express more than about 3 oz at a time. Echoing what Viva said, expressing worked best if I had a photo of DD. I used an electric pump.

It took me until DD was 20 months old to master hand expression! I watched a whole bunch of videos online. :)

Also one that didn't feel letdown for many months.

I also never had a letdown sensation ( I fed dd1 and dd2 successfully past 18 months each time.

Tbh if DD is happy, plenty of wet nappies and putting on weight I'd just go with the flow (pun intended ;) )

let down feels different to different women, so not easy to explain. Some women don't get any physical sensation
For me, the baby starting feeding and then after a few seconds (maybe half a minute) I would get a tingling feeling (sometimes painfull) and the milk would flow much more easily. Often I could tell because the other breast would start to leak (with one of my dcs it would flood and I needed to carry a spare muslin at all times).
When I expressed though (hand pump) I rarely got a good let down. This made expressing very hard and I was luckly to pump 2 oz. The best way for me to express was to pump on left breast while feeding on right. This worked brilliantly and I got 4-5 oz. Some women find they can get let down to express by looking at a picture of their baby or thinking of them. That didn't work for me.

If baby is drinking steadily for 10 mins or more you must be getting let down as if you didn't baby would pull off and cry becsue he isn't getting any milk.

hope that helps

Dd was in scbu so I did lots of expressing in the first weeks. I found that the best thing to get milk flowing was a short video clip I took just before a feed, 10 seconds of that newborn hungry cry.

Volume of milk you Express is nothing like what baby can get, babies are super efficient compared to pumps. But a video of that cry helped a.lot.

Not all women feel letdown this is totally normal and your baby is doing well so nothing to worry about. I'd be careful about expressing so early though you could end up with oversupply problem if your not careful, 3 oz is a lot for a 2 week old.

Why are you expressing McPhee? Is there some problem with your baby's latch?

McPhee, in 3 children I have used not on breast pad, nor ever had a solid breast. I 'feel' no letdown either.

Two of my children doubled their birth weights at 10 weeks and this on is heading the same way.

I never knew when my milk 'came in'. Mws asked me on day 5 and. Had to lie and say yes I felt full because I didn't want to raise any alarms.

I've been bfing for 6y non-stop (3 children in a row) and I have only felt one let down and that was while pumping. Only really used breast pads with DD1, rarely used them with DD2, I think once or twice with DD3 and I suspect I won't need to with DD4 when she arrives.

Even though I have only felt 1 let down and barely used pads I managed to exc. bf DD1 (20m) & DD2 (newborn) for 2 weeks when DD1 decided she didn't want to eat food she wanted to bf instead - she certainly would have let me know if there was no milk!

Not feeling a 'let down' doesn't mean it isn't happening - if you didn't actually have a let down (or milk ejection reflex as it's properly known) then you wouldn't be able to express any milk and your baby well, wouldn't be here now if you'd been trying to bf them with no milk at all for 2 weeks.

BTW 3oz of milk is a phenomenal amount of milk to express on top of bfing your baby!

Oh the mammaries!

I may be wierd but I loved the sensation let down reflex. I very rarely feel it now and it's not as strong as it was. I miss it.

A few seconds into feeding and there was this tingling, almost exquisite pain/tingling sensation and then the milk would start gushing. I'm aware that some people find it excruciating and others barely feel it but if your DD is thriving you are letting down milk you just aren't feeling the muscles contracting.

I loved the let down feeling too Gilberte

OP it is completely normal not to be able to feel it though - I certainly didn't feel it until probably 4 or 5 months and then it went away again at about 12m. Loads of women don't feel it at all, loads of women can't express and loads of women don't leak. None of that means you can't feed your baby though.