stimulating milk supply - tips?

[swerve]

I have a low supply of milk which is not enough for dd born last week. Does anyone have any good tips for increasing supply. I'm currently pumping after each feed to try and stimulate more.

What makes you think supply is low? takes a couple of weeks to get the supply established....best way to stimulate the supply , is to put baby to the breast as much as she wants....try lots of skin to skin , just take to your bed, naked , and feed and cuddle !

Association of Breast feeding mothers

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Breast feeding network

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La Leche League

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NCT

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Swerve, if you dd is feeding really ofgten and spends long hours, especially in the evenings or late afternoons, on your breast, then that is completely normal behaviour.
The best thing to get the milksupply right is to make sure the baby's latch is good and to feed as often as she wants and let her stay on the breast for as long as she wants, wait for her to unlatch by herslef and then offer the other breast, which she then will either take or not.
However, am just guessing here, as you haven't mentioned the reasons for you believing your milksupply is low.

swerve, if your baby is feeding effectively and often, there should be no need to express - in fact, expressing after every feed when you don't actually need to can cause problems with over supply.

If you post a few more details of your situation, then maybe we can help more.

Lots of night feeding, lots of skin to skin, take the baby into bed with you, feed as often as you can!

swerve,

feed feed feed your baby and have lots of skin to skin contact. if you have a sling carry your baby in it all day long as this will stimulate the hormones too.

Or u could take a herbal tincture for a quick boost. Motherlove do a great blend with fenugreek, blessed thisle, fennel, goats rue all of which are used for increasing supply.

thanks for these tips. I have had a bf expert over on friday who corrected my technique and concluded that I didn't have enough to keep dd from starving. We'd been through a 48 hour period of feeding every 1/2 hour and both of us ended up exhausted, clearly not helping. Doing better now she's topping up on formula (please don't yell at me for this - it's keeping us both sane!) But other than sleeping & eating (me)I don't know what else. Someone said I should drink guinness (euh!) but I'll try the herbal remedy.

Oats are good milkbuilders, too...so, if you like Porridge, then have that for Breakfast.

I had low supply too and used switch feeding (one for 5 mins then the other for 5 mins and so on). I always gave both sides in any one feed. I also expressed after every feed (nightmare).
dd was below birthweight at 1 month so ended up having to supplement at every feed with formula and I was heartbroken. I continued to express/switch feed, feed on demand etc etc. I eventually was prescribed Domperidone to increase prolactin (and therefore milk) and after a few weeks my supply had increased noticably. I then managed to get off the formula altogether and go back to b/f exclusively. As a postscript, at 6 months I went back to work and I stopped the Domperidone but carried on b/f 4 times a day 4 days a week (2x on 3 work days). My milk didn't dwindle at all, even after I stopped the tablets.

top ups might not be the best way to go, but i am not an expert, hope it all works out for you x

I always pump and freeze loads just to ensure i have enough in the knockers

swerve - where was the breastfeeding person from? Did she really say 'starving'??? How old was the baby at that time?

Good that she corrected your technique - was there no way she could have reviewed the situation again in a couple of days after the technique amendment, giving it a chance to work?

Having said that, formula is sometimes needed, very occasionally, to get through a crisis...but amounts need to be kept to a minimum or bf will dwindle.

Hope things work out for you.