My brother wants to know when his wife should use her breast pump and I can't remember so I said I would ask you!!

[calzone]

OK, SIL is pregnant and due in about 2 weeks so DB has decided to be sweet and supportive and look some stuff up for her.

She is going to BF and DB is keen to help and wants to feed the baby so she will use a breast pump too.

So, his question is, when should she start pumping?

In the first 3 days?
How often?
Before a feed, during or after a feed?
In between feeds?

So many questions and I just dont know the answers.

Please help.

She doesn't need to pump, ever, if she doesn't want to....there's no 'should' about it

If he's keen to help, he can do a zillion other things instead. Every time he 'helps' by feeding a bottle of ebm, she has had to sit there for quite some time to get the milk out! Not to mention the bottle cleaning.

However, I know some people think all this is fab, and are happy enough with it, so who am I to judge? She can start expressing at any time, and before, during or after as she wishes. She might also get a better yield with hand expressing (no pump at all). She'll find it less difficult if she waits a few weeks, until things have settled down.

Too often, I see mothers who feel under pressure to express, so other people can feed the baby. It's a shame. Dads can bond with the baby in many ways. And it's really not that great a help at the beginning to feed a bottle of ebm, truly.

Unless she has problems best to wait until she is established with breastfeeding , at least a month on. She shodul eb feedign frequently during htose early weeks and expressing too may well prove a faff she won't need. During/after worked best ime but everyone differs.

I got a breast pump to relieve the engorgement when my milk came in as ds was having trouble latching on. However I believe you can hand express.
It's good that your db wants to help but if your dsil doesn't want to express there are other ways he can help - I pass ds onto dh for winding after a feed, so he feels involved.
I do express but it is a bit of a faff tbh.
I started at 3 weeks, enough for one feed on the night.

thanks everyone

I am starting weight watchers on monday night, its at bed time, so DH will be giving DD a bottle of EBM. She might get another one in the week if I can be arsed expressing, but def on mondays.

You're supposed to yield more in the mornings and if you express whilst feeding baby. I have only done this once but this morning(whilst feeding) I got 3/4 of what I got yesterday evening