Low milk supply and breast pumps

[Niknak90]

Hi everyone,Hoping I can find some encouraging stories from the MN community. I have a 10 day old baby who I am trying to BF. Since about week 25 of pregnancy my left breast has leaked on occasion and I was able to successfully harvest colostrum from it from week 37. My right breast has had nothing. I wasn't able to express anything from it and now 10 days into being a mum it still isn't producing anything. My left breast is providing milk but I'm already starting to look lopsided as a result.I had a BF specialist recommended hiring a medical grade pump out and doing things like power pumping between 1am and 5am , and pumping in 20 minute sessions 8 times a day to stimulate milk production. I'm currently using a Lansinoh double electric breast pump to do this which I bought in prep for BF but I'm wondering if its worth using one of these medical grade pumps as suggested by the specialist? I've been doing the methods recommended for about 2 days ( so not very long) but there's no change in my breast. Its still very soft and not producing anything, not even a droplet. Any tips or recommendations?Also just looking for success stories of others who have gone from zero milk supply at the start to being able to stimulate it using whatever method! Please give me hope I can fix this ❤️ my baby was in NICU for 24hrs immediately after birth so I had no skin2skin contact or BF until the following day. I know I'm lucky to be able to feed from one breast and I dont want to be ungrateful for that. But I'd love to be able to use both and give my poor left breast a rest.TIA from a very stressed FTM xx

I think it would probably be worth a go.

Are you still breastfeeding directly, as well as pumping? If so, I'd make sure you're latching baby as much as possible and doing lots of skin to skin. It's definitely not too late to reap the benefits of skin to skin at only 10 days old.

Its odd that you were able to express colostrum from the right breast, but it's now not producing milk. Nothing at all happens if you try and hand express with the same technique for colostrum?

Sorry I think maybe my original post isn't that clear. So I was able to harvest colostrum from my left breast which is now the one that is producing milk. The right one never produced any colostrum and now isn't producing milk either 😔 Just finding it so hard to fit in so much pumping whilst also trying to stay relaxed, do breast massage and keep feeding baby as he lost a bit too much weight in his first week. But if there's a genuine good chance I can fix this I'd want to power on through. Think I'm just looking for some hope that it'll work x

Ah, I see. My mistake! Unfortunately, I do think it is a bit more unlikely to work, if there was no colostrum either. Not to say that you should stop trying, if you want to continue.

If it was me, I would keep up with the specialists suggestions for a couple of weeks and try the medical grade pump, and then re-evaluate then. You're doing amazingly well to have been feeding your baby with one breast, and keeping up with a pumping routine on top of that.

If it comes down to it, combo feeding is a great option. You don't have to quit breastfeeding, just replace a few feeds with formula. Your baby and you will still be getting the benefits of breastfeeding.

I hired a Medela Symphony hospital grade double pump, think it was £50 a month. I had really low supply in both breasts, I pumped 8 times a day and after baby had finished feeding I would do an extra 10 mins with the pump. I would wake up at 2am to get an extra pump session. I remember it felt like the most terrible neverending saga for a few months to build a supply up and to be honest not sure I would redo it again as I think I missed out on a lot being tied to the pump most of the day. I also had one breast that barely had any milk and although it improved with pumping it was always less than the other one.

The Medela Symphony is in a completely different league to consumer pumps. It has a programme specially for establishing supply. It is possible to feed on just one breast long term though

I can't offer help only to say a colleague had this problem but it ended up being fine. She exclusively fed till over a year on the one side as the other never produced milk but it ended up not being an issue xx

I borrowed a pump from the local maternity department and it did help, but yes be careful not to let pumping take over your life. Any breastmilk your baby gets is a benefit and a top up with formula wont do them any harm, but can impact your mental health.

I had poor supply with both my babies, but older DS was happy with very long, frequent feeds, but my younger one got frustrated so I'd feed him both sides then top up with formula. fed them both myself till around a year then they took formula for a bit before swapping onto cows milk at whatever age it's medically recommended

Thank you everyone for the replies. I think i will try to give the hospital grade pump a go for maybe a couple of weeks to a month. With any luck I'll start producing milk on the right. But if not then it sounds like feeding one sided isn't the end of tbe world. Thanks again xx

Hi, in regards to hiring a medical pump you should be able to loan one for free from the infant feeding team. My little one was tongue tied and this is what i did. Also see if theres a bf group or team you can speak to in your area this really helped me and they were the ones who linked me to mum and me which loaned me the pump