Can you restore your milk supply after a period?

[jrwxx]

My daughter did not latch so I expressed my milk for the first 5 weeks of my daughters life and fed it to her through bottles. I unfortunately ended up stopping and switching to just formula due to stress and not having the time to exclusively pump every 2 hours.

My daughter is now 4 months and a half/ 19 weeks. So I've not expressed any milk for over 3 months now. I ended up having my first period after pregnancy & birth just last week. I know this isn't ideal timing but since I have more time to sit and express now I've been thinking about attempting to restore and get my milk supply back.

So is it worth attempting getting it back?

If anyone has experience I'd really appreciate these questions answered-
1-Since I've had a period does this mean I won't be able to get my supply back?
2- If anyone thinks it's possible to restore how do I go about doing this? Start pumping again? Supplements? Massage?

I am currently trying to relactate - my dd is 3 months old and I stopped BF after 8 days for reasons I won’t go in to. I don’t think your period has much to do with it? I’ve read that anyone can relactate however it is difficult and no guarantees of how much of a supply you will get. Im going into it with no expectations.

What I’m doing:

Pumping with a double electric pump for 20 minutes 8 times a day, including 1 power pump a day and 1 pump in the night (around 3am). I am using a medela swing flex maxi but have hired the medela symphony for the first couple of weeks. I also hand express after each pumping session. A pumping bra is essential!

Keeping very hydrated and eating well

I’ve not bought any supplements, just some lactation cookies from the shop. Don’t know if I’ll
Keep this up though. There’s all sorts of stuff on Amazon such as lactation tea etc if you did want to go down that route. I just read that the most essential thing is stimulation.

Lots of skin to skin.

I’m offering the breast, but she’s not that interested as there’s no milk atm. I’ve ordered the medela SNS to hopefully encourage her to latch for longer. She will latch on with a shield and uses me as a dummy when she’s tired at night but I am prepared for her not to go back to breast at all and just have expressed milk from the bottle.

I literally only started on Saturday but I’ve gone from being literally dry to getting lots of drops after pumping so I’m hopeful. It’s exhausting already though and I’ve had to rely on lots of support from DH as I can’t do much when I am pumping. I’ve promised myself that if it gets to be too much for physically and mentally I’ll let it go and stop.

I hope this helps somewhat - good luck with whatever you decide :)

Also, forgot to mention that I’ve had two periods since birth too :)