Expressing questions

[shutupsteph]

Had a baby last week and really struggled with our latch so decided to express and feed through a bottle, topping up with formula, but I have a few questions about pumping

How often do I do it? Midwife said as close to when DS is feeding from the bottle but sometimes he'll be feeding every hour and sometimes he can happily sleep 4 hours without a feed.

How long do I do it for? I've been going in just over half an hour sessions but I've just read that I should be draining the breast each time

Do I pump one side and then pump the other at the next 'feed'? I thought I'd pump left for one session then pump right the next and so on as I would if DS was taking from the breast but can that slow down milk production?

And one more, if I express a bottle and DS doesn't take it all can the rest go back in the fridge if it's within the recommended two hours or should it be thrown away? We're still trying to figure out how much he wants per feed

At this stage you are recommended to express 8-10 times in every 24 period including at least once overnight (12-6 am) to establish your milk supply. Ideally you should pump from both sides each session, do you have a double pump?

Are you pumping then giving him the milk straight away or are you refrigerating and then re-warming? The first you might get away with putting excess back in the fridge for a bit, the second I definitely wouldn't, but I'm not sure on guidelines.

Finally do you have a plan to get help to get the latch sorted? Exclusive expressing is VERY difficult and exhausting even if you have good milk supply, direct BFing is much less hassle so please get some face to face advice on the latch.

Ideally you should be expressing every 2-3 hours. Expressing between 10pm-4am is extremely important so do it as frequently between those times as you can.

Ideally you should express for 20-30 minutes.

There are some pumps where you can express both breasts at each time, otherwise just do one each time.

As previous poster said, exclusively pumping is very hard work so do get some face to face support to try and address the latch problem to enable you to breast feed if that’s what you want to do.

And once your son has started drinking from a bottle with milk in, then it needs to be discarded an hour after he first started drinking it.

Offer milk one ounce at a time so as not to waste any breast milk.

And be aware that you cannot heat up breast milk in boiling water like you do with formula - use warm water, but not hot. If the water is too hot for you to put your finger then it’s too hot to put breast milk in too.

And don’t shake the breast milk either - as I know some women do that with formula to try and distribute the heat. Just swirl the breast milk gently.

I had the same with my DD - latch problems lead to 3 months of expressing. It's hard work - I used a double pump, expressed 6 to 7 times a day for 30 minutes each time. I still didn't express enough so had to top up with formula.
I'd recommend seeing a lactation consultant and also a paediatric osteopath as this has finally allowed us to start breast feeding.
Good luck!