Poor supply on one side...

[PenguinPoser]

DD is 7 days old. Have been breastfeeding since birth (with a day of formula top ups due to jaundice and poor supply). My milk came in on day 5 with both breasts engorged and painful. DD prefers the right breast to the point where I can't feed her from the left as she won't latch. I suspect this is due to differing nipple shape. Have been seeing bf advisor but not again until Monday. She has advised against nipple shields.

I have been expressing from the left breast after feeds and using this as required mainly at night if I think a top up is needed.

My concern is that today my breasts feel soft again. Particularly the left one - almost feels back to normal. Yesterday I was expressing loads from it with a manual pump but today I've managed 20ml max all day so far. Still breastfeeding from the right and keep offering the left too but generally to no avail - she will now latch better but there's no milk coming so she stops.

What can I do about this? Is it normal for breasts to 'go down' again? Shall I keep expressing? Planning to try an electric pump later. I want to maintain supply on the left as I do think that with further help on Monday from my bf worker she should be able to feed eventually but now I'm panicking that I won't have any milk left!

Sorry it's long thanks for any advice!

I'm no expert but if you can carry on expressing on that side it should help at least until you see the BF worker. Good luck and congratulations on your baby!

Thanks pointlessfan - any other experiences or ideas anyone?

Firstly, a baby is far more efficient at getting milk from a breast than a pump so a pump is not an indicator of how much milk you have.

Lots of babies prefer one side to another, for lots of reasons. Check out the KellyMom website on this point (sorry can't link).

Sometimes the flow is faster/slower on one side and baby doesn't like that.

If you experiment with different holds, baby may be "tricked" into thinking they're on the other, preferred boob iyswim.

Sometimes baby can have a tightness in the neck on one side making that side sore for feeding. When my DS wouldn't feed from the left, cranial osteopathy was recommended. (We didn't go for it, but it's an option).

After a while your breast will no longer have that rock hard feeling but that's usually after a few weeks.

Maybe do pump to keep up one side's supply until you figure out what's going on for baby.

My DS refused the left boob from about 5mo so I fed from right side only until he weaned at 13mo (because I was pregnant). I used to pump a small amount from the left daily to use on cereal.

Don't worry about losing supply altogether - keep offering both breasts to your baby.

Good luck and congratulations!

Dd preferred the left boob when she was tiny and I tricked her by doing the rugby hold for the right sides. sometimes if she was really hungry she'd latch but mostly rugby hold. It got better as she got older. Left boob was always a bit bigger than the right though even when she was feeding happily from both.