Should I be expressing?

[LanaLily11]

DD is 9 days old and originally only took to one breast so I brought a pump, before using it, she started to latch on said breast. I haven’t used the pump yet because I don’t know if I should be using it?! I have some bottles but not sure if to get DH to give her expressed milk in a bottle just yet as I’m worried she will struggle to latch back on at such a young age?

My question is should I pump to increase supply and throw it away? Freeze it?

I’m new to all this and need tips!

TIA

I was determined to give DS a bottle as I'm returning to work at 6 months and was terrified of getting a bottle refuser. I did lots of (very confusing) reading about this and decided in the end that four weeks was a good midpoint for me between doing it too early before supply established and doing it too late when he was more likely to refuse. That worked well for us, though I was very lucky that feeding went very well in general. If it's feeling less established then you might want to leave it longer.

That said - why do you want to pump? It won't increase supply as well as just putting baby to the boob as often as possible, so definitely don't feel like you have to! It is handy being able to leave baby more easily than if they won't take a bottle, but everything I've read says that some babies start refusing bottles even if they've had them before and you have to give them very regularly to minimise the chance of this - so I pump daily, which I hate. If I were having a whole year off work I would happily ditch the expressing and just feed at the breast every time - it's so much nicer to do and none of the hassle of the washing and sterilising. I think there's an increasing feeling that it's something you 'should' do, but I think that comes from the US and their very short maternity leaves.

At only 9 days, if all is otherwise going well and she is gaining weight and having plenty of nappies, then I would just focus on feeding from the breast. It’s hard enough at that stage without squeezing in a pumping session which is a right pain! In my experience, my baby was much more efficient at building my supply than the pump and I ended up with oversupply without even trying.

If you need to pump at some point or you want to start giving bottles eventually, you have it. I wouldn’t probably bother now unless you need to.

You'd be best to wait for a few weeks to establish your supply and avoid nipple confusion. 6-8 weeks is a good time x

Unless supply is an issue there’s no need to pump to increase it.
We gave DD a bottle at 6 weeks as we were told to wait until breastfeeding was established but not to wait too long so 6 weeks seemed like the perfect time.