Has my supply permanently dried up?

[StacieBenson]

Hi all

I've been exclusively pumping to feed my premature baby, as he's been having problems feeding directly from the breast. I had a really good supply but over the past two days it seems to have dried up - I've just expressed 10ml from my right breast in 20 minutes. Has my supply permanently dried up? The only thing that I can think of that might have impacted supply is that I've been trying to breastfeed more over the past few days after baby had a tongue tie procedure and I've pumped less as a result.

No and pumping is not a sign of milk supply either I have friends with 90th percentile babies who would get less then that.
Well done so far it's gruelling pumping, have you been feeding or pumping every 3 hours?
There are many factors to why you might be pumping less but feeling stressed is a big factor in your body releasing milk. Drink lots of water and make sure your eating properly milk can drop if your not getting enough.
I found covering the bottles with socks and watching something with a cuppa helped. There is also a thing called power pumping which can help.
Make sure you speak to the infant feeding team and get in person support too.

With one of my pregnancies I found it really difficult to express milk (even though my baby was fully breastfed.) Do you have access to a breastfeeding consultant you can talk to? In the short term it might be worth trying power pumping to see whether that helps. But do bear in mind that not being able to express doesn't mean your supply has dried up.

I've been pumping every 3 hours as this is the only way baby would get any breastmilk and I've previously been able to pump 80-100ml in one session. We've sought support from the NHS feeding team and a private lactation consultant but it's all been focused around trying to get baby to latch - to be honest, everything with the NHS has been a waste of time as baby wasn't latching at all before the tongue tie was treated and the NHS wouldn't do so. If baby can't feed and I'm not able to express then surely the supply will dry up? We'll have to supplement with formula as he needs far more than I'm currently producing.

There are special formulas developed for premature babies that have all the right levels of nutrients they need. The most important thing is that your baby is fed. Keep with the pumping and latching but please do t let your baby go hungry.

In that case I would try power pumping good massage before and during and also making sure you are relaxed.
Also speak to the Dr's if they will prescribe you domperidone especially given baby is premie. It's a antisickness drug but also has been shown to help milk supply. You can also ask about donor milk short term.

Milk supply is established in the first three months. The weaning process implies dropping one pumping session per week, so one or two unproductive or missed pumping session are unlikely to affect your milk production permanently. Don't worry and keep pumping on schedule :)
Also do you have a good quality electrical pump? Have you properly checked flanges sizes?
I highly recommend the website www.exclusivepumping.com

I have rented a Medela as we had one of these in the hospital. I feel like I have weird boobs as everyone says that double pumping on the Medela is the best way to increase supply but I found that it limited the amount I was getting in one session and the best way of getting more was to pump one boob first and then another. :/

Have you tried hand expressing? I never got on well
with pumps and found the amounts very inconsistent, but found that a combination of hand expressing and using the hakaa manual pumps worked best (I had a 35 weeker who didn’t consistently latch until he was 3 months old).

I also found the feeding teams advice useless- they were obsessed with teaching me about different types of latch and telling me ‘wouldn’t it be nice to not have to sterilise bottles’… he didn’t latch full stop for ages but no one had the answer to that!

Yes, hand expressing was much less productive than pumping for me. I really need the pump to get anything. Sounds like we had similar feeding team experiences, I got the impression that they weren't really sure what to do with a baby that doesn't latch. :/

Hi there,

similar boat. What helped me get a ton of milk was eating oatmeal and drinking lactation teas while looking at a photo of my baby. Doing any of these three really helped me.

Also, have you been sleeping? I always got more milk after a good sleep between 2-4 am in the morning.