Breastfeeding for 6 months but can’t seem to express!

[BadLobster]

My daughter is 6 months old and is exclusively breastfed. She’s always gained weight and had plenty of dirty/wet nappies, so I’m not worried about my actual supply. My problem is that I can’t seem to pump or express milk in any decent quantity. I think once I got like 80ml, but most times I try I get like 10ml.

Things I’ve tried:

• Medela hand pump (although this was right at the beginning and I was a bit of a mess - might give it another go if I can find it)
• nuliie hands free pump (this is what has worked best for me, but usually I start off well and then it peters out)
• hand expressing (I found a brilliant video linked from Reddit which showed a woman massaging and hand expressing. When I tried it was similar to the nuliie - starts well but peters out quickly.)
• massage/heat/looking at my baby/pumping one breast while she feeds from the other one.

I’m going back to work for a month in June while my husband looks after the baby, and then she’s going to nursery from August, so I need to get this sorted and build up a store before then or we’ll need to move to formula.

Any ideas? I know babies are more efficient than pumps but this seems such a big disparity! She does feed very often - I thought this was because she’s a greedy little milk monster, but could it be because I actually have low supply and I have just been feeding so frequently that it’s masked it?

My baby is 7.5 months and I've just gone back to work.

Hand pump is useless, too labour intensive to do it several times a day on both breasts. I have the Medela hand pump too, I use it ocasionally middle of the night if baby is sleeping through and I need to get comfortable or when I travel as there are very few parts to sterilize etc.

Hand expressing is not going to get you enough.

You need a decent double electric pump. I have the Spectra at the office and the Elvie Stride to pump in the car on my way home.

Flange size is enormously important. Make sure you get that right. You'll get more milk and be less sore.

Pumping is very uncomfortable. After 7 months of breastfeeding, pumping feels like absolute hell. It's a ton of work, makes me shudder, it's awful. I only have to do it 2 days per week and hate it.

You can rent a hospital grade double pump like the ones the poster above has mentioned, and getting flange size is v important

Your right pumping output is not an indication of supply

What time are you pumping? Middle of the night 1-3am or first thing in the morning should be best times as your supply will be well established now, prolactin is highest overnight so if baby isn't having a feeds at night anymore you may need to add in a wake up to pump yourself

As you have a bit of time before going back to work what about using a hakka whilst feeding on the opposite breast. I have always had good success with these, v cheap and simple but despite some referring to them as milk collectors they aren't, they work on suction so they are a pump

Apart from that just the usual advice of looking at pictures of / smelling clothing of your baby to get your hormones going, not looking at the milk as it's coming out

How long will you be at work for from June? Full time? Will baby be 8 months by then? Depending on how long you'll be away from them they may just be happy with some food and drink with dad, mine never took bottles and I did this and fed around it

Sorry also you can rent a hospital grade pump by the month so you could try it for a month you don't have to commit for years at great expense, you might be to build up a bit of a stash in the two months before June this way

Some people can’t express. I really couldn’t. My boobs just wouldn’t, despite EBF perfectly well! She can have formula alongside food in the daytime and still BF in the mornings and evenings and she’s likely to BF in the night and at weekends to catch up.

Thanks for the responses!

@1FirstTimeMum897 I did wonder about the flange sizes. Could have a play about with those, I suppose.

@Alwaystired2023 I’m not pumping at any specific time, so I’ll try morning. Baby is still feeding at night and to add a further complication she will only go to sleep if she is feeding (or in the car/pram) and we are cosleeping because she pretty much needs to have constant access to the nip or she’ll wake up. We’re working on this at the moment, otherwise her dad is going to really get his steps up in June!
I’m going back full time in June (leave the house around 7 am and back around 5pm). Baby will be 8 months. Then off again for 6 weeks for summer and when I go back in August I’m dropping a day. From August baby will be in nursery 3 days a week.
She’s just started solids this week, so it’s very early days on that front.
I think I’m going to buy or rent a Spectra to see whether that makes a difference.

@LuluDelulu Yeah, if we need to go to formula during the day we can. The next challenge is getting her to reliably take a bottle!

I found l needed to pump around the same time each day till my body expected that extra "feed". For me supply and demand always seemed pretty closely matched, so when feeding full time there just wasn't any extra to express. My supply dipped pretty quickly if my baby was ill and not feeding much to.

@LunchWithAGruffalo We’re not on a schedule here in terms of when she eats - she’s very snacky so it’s pretty much all day!
I will try and make sure I pump at the same time each day though and see if it works.

Currently sitting with baby on the left and pump on the right with a larger flange to see if it makes a difference before I shell out for a Spectra.

Defo try morning x milk supply should be highest then, great you are still feeding at night plenty of prolactin. I'm still feeding my 9 month old all night and I didn't have a schedule with them or my first baby who I fed for just over a year.. it will all fall into place. Hakka is a v cheap option if you want to try something different, or renting a spectra is a good idea

I found expressing hard too even though I EBF my 2 babies. I could only get a decent amount if I’d actually missed a feed.
Try hiring an electric pump as PPs have said. If no luck though formula at nursery isn’t the end of the world

I think you’ve had lots of good advice on this thread, I just want to pick up on a couple of things.

With flanges, you probably need one that’s smaller, not larger. You want a flange that your nipple just fits without chafing, almost the same diameter as your nipple. For most women this is much smaller than the 24-28mm flanges that come with pumps. 17 or 19mm inserts are the ones I give out most often when working with families.

Pumping regularly definitely helps your breasts get used to a pump, because it is different to a baby, so needs to become accustomed the new way of demanding milk.

you might find it’s cheaper to buy a Spectra in the long run - they resell at about half the new price, and are really well engineered, so second hand is no problem. Or you can buy one then sell it yourself, which costs less than hiring for three months.

You are doing great - your supply is perfect, because your baby is growing beautifully, that’s everything nature designed.

Just wanted to come back on and say thank you to everyone who gave advice.

I bit the bullet and bought a Spectra on the back of @RockCrushesLizard’s resale advice and I think it’s going to be a bit of a game changer. Just had a play about with it and got 80ml total. Might not sound like much but it’s the most I’ve ever got in one session. Just need to make sure I’m pumping regularly now!

Thanks again everyone!

The flange sizes are VITAL. I pumped 10ml before I was properly fitted and now I can easily pump a day’s worth.

The hand pump can be amazing - watch TikTok or YouTube on how to use it - there’s a technique.

I had a cheap wearable from Amazon, it did the job. Took a while of using it for body to get used to it then it worked