7 days post c section and no milk

[mvilma6]

Hi,

7 days ago i had a c section. Baby was 34 weeks and is in NICU. Been pumping with a hospital grade pump every 3h during day and 4h at night but my milk has not arrived and the volume i get is so small:20 ml (between both breasts after 1h pumping)

Any advice? Do i need medication?

Thanks

So I was getting less than you for the first week so opted to be a combi feeder. My milk vastly improved when I came home. I found I had to be sitting comfortably, keep well hydrated and eat well , as well as using a less scary but still effective pump. I now get a minimum of 60ml between the two in 20mins. I mean obviously ask the medical professionals if you can but it’s not unusual that your milk doesnt come in right away. Also how often are you pumping? Needs to be quite often to take effect.

Have you been able to hold baby at all ? that really helped when I was pumping for my preemie as the 5 days I couldn’t hold him I had no milk at all.
Is donor milk available ?
I think there are some medications you can take it would be worth asking a midwife or dr I think Domperidone is one but it may have side effects so they can be cautious prescribing
Good luck x

Hi, thanks for your messages. I do skin to skin with baby every other day, i pump every 3h during day and 4h at night. I talked to nurses in NICU and they say not too stress, carry on... But its so exhausting and heartbreking. Baby is being fed a mix of mine and formula milk as i dont cope with demand. Today is day 9 and no improvement

How are you doing? Have you had any improvement? I wonder if you could increase the frequency of your expressing overnight. As exhausting as it is, the hormones responsible for lactation most receptive to stimulation overnight and I think you would notice a real difference in your milk volume if you could manage to express every 2 hours or failing that every 3 hours. At this stage the priority is to establish a supply and you can certainly relax the frequency in due course.

Have you managed any skin to skin today?

Keep going - breast milk massively reduces the risk of bowel nec in preemies. I know it's stressful and difficult, but please do persevere if you possibly can.

It took 9 days after both my c-sections. On both occasions what finally did the trick was fenugreek. I didn't bother with capsules

I didn't bother with capsules but swallowed a teaspoon with water three times a day. More information here kellymom.com/bf/can-i-breastfeed/herbs/fenugreek/

They only need small amounts at this stage - 20ml will be enough. Try eating more oats - I literally snacked on oat bars while at hospital. My supply went crazily high afterwards - started to be able to pump 120ml between feeds.

Aw, sending you a big hug! My little one was in NICU after a c section, he was full term and very poorly. I remember similar struggles! Please try not to put too much pressure on yourself, listen to the nurses. My LO was combi fed for the first week-ish, and when I exclusively breast fed he lost a little weight so we went back to combi feeding. It's a traumatic and exhausting time for many reasons but the one thing to be assured of is that your LO is being fed very well and you are doing your very best ❤

I struggled with expressing after c section/ baby in nicu. I never got loads of milk but fenugreek definitely helped, along with lots of skin to skin. The middle of the night is the best time to pump so make sure you don’t miss that time. Good luck :)