Increase milk supply

[sunshinebaby2018]

How do I increase my milk supply?

Is it all down to having baby on the boob 24/7 and pump as well 24/7??

We have twins 4 weeks old they combination feed>>
boob - expressed breast milk and formula top up

It takes about 45 minutes for each baby to feed including cuddle time and then I pump.

Midwife said to pump 8-12 times per day which I find super hard.

Also lately I get like 20-40ml in total per pump session which is disheartening

I have reached 100ml in the past but been a while and maybe I have been slack on the pump...

But then I do offer to babies all the time!

Any tips to increase my supply

I need that so
1/ i can offer a full feed to each baby (60ml) just from boob eventually
2/ to have a small stock build in fridge for dad and grandma to bottle feed some time

Thank you

Are you feeding/pumping at night time? Between the hours of 2-4am is the crucial time for milk supply.

Are you also eating and drinking enough? To feed two babies you really need to significantly increase your calories and drink a LOT of water.

Don’t listen to people who tell you to bake lactation cookies or drink herbal tea - there is zero evidence that what you eat or drink affects your milk production. As long as you’re getting enough calories and fluids you are doing as much as you can do.

As someone who breastfed for 2 years I know how much pressure we put on ourselves to breastfeed but honestly, the first two weeks are the most important in terms of giving your babies your immunity, anything after that is a bonus. The only reason I carried on for so long is because my daughter wouldn’t take a bottle and she had CMPA.

Don’t cause yourself unnecessary stress and sleep deprivation. You are doing an amazing job keeping two babies alive, there is no shame in switching to formula if it makes your life a little bit easier.

Alternatively, you need to pump, eat and drink around the clock and get those babies to feed constantly.

60 ml is a huge amount for a baby of this age for every feed. I'm just wondering who's given you that figure?

Is your supply really low OP? Have a read of this on Kellymom and see what you think.

If you still think your supply is low, I'd give one of the BFing Helplines a call this morning.

In the meantime, if you want to increase your supply, could you offer the breast again instead if pumping?

Don't worry either about how much you're pumping, it has no reflection whatsoever on how much you are producing

There are some good resources on feeding twins here too

I was told This is how we calculate how much a baby should be fed. It's baby's weight in kg x 150ml ÷ number of feeds in 24 hours. So for a 3kg baby it would work out:

3kg x 150ml ÷ 8 feeds = 56.25ml per feed.

I am stressing because I can only pump 4 instead of 8-12 times per day and I produce from 10ml to 140ml per pump which is totally random and dont feel my supply is increasing

I would like any top ups to be breast milk in bottle rather than formula and ideally to exclusively breastfeed both babies which I know it hard to achieve

It would be unusual for a BF baby to only feed 8 times in 24 hours though. I'm not saying that you're doing anything wrong, it just might be a bit unrealistic to expect to give them this much and only feed 8 times.

When you BF the babies, do they seem satisfied? Do your breasts feel fuller at the beginning of the feed?

@BunnyRuddongton sorry i should have been more clear!
They feed 8times per day mixed feeding: i put them on the breast for like 20-30min each then top up with 60ml either expressed milk or formula and they eat as much as they want from that.
I can never tell how much they had from me!
Some times they eat the whole 60ml top up sometimes just 20ml so I assume the difference is what they had from me?

Did you manage to read the article on increasing your supply?

@BunnyRuddongton could u please resend the link to it?

No problem, it’s here

How are you getting on now?

Pumping is less effective than the baby at increasing supply. An extra couple of hours decent suckling should help.

Fenugreek capsules increased my supply. It's a herbal medicine you can get from Holland and Barrett.

@Whuut There is no empirical evidence regarding fenugreek and it can actually decrease supply in some women

The only way to increase supply is............. remove milk from breasts

OP are you feeding both twins at the same time or could you use a haakaa or similar to catch letdown etc
The figure for amount per feed surely includes what they get directly from you as well though? Why are you needing to top up by the way? Are they gaining weight on a line? FInally, are you using paced feeding?