less milk from one breast - what to do?

[workstostaysane]

feeding a 1 week old and there is a lot less milk coming from one breast. the right one is fine and he takes a lot from there but have felt for the past couple of days (since milk came in really) like the left is more swollen and not letting out as much. this eve i tried to express a little and got a trickle from the left but plenty from the right.
any tips on what to do to increase left hand supply?

your left breast sounds more engorged than the right one because you have been favouring the right one. Engorgement can cause difficulties in removing milk first of all then later the supply in it will drop and the engorgement would relieve itself. Naturally you want your supply to be about equal on both sides.

get some hot wet flannels or get under the shower and start to hand express off the milk on the left breast. it will help to soften some of the tissue around the breast so your baby can latch on better. then get your baby to latch on that one first to keep the flow going.

Agree with foxytocin (I love that name so much btw!) Also, babies do often have a preference for one breast and will remove more milk. My DD always preferred my left and it always felt fuller and looked larger until supply leveled out. Try the shower idea and see if it helps.

and if it is preference as charchar says (love your name too) then if you feed from the left in a rugby hold, your baby will be fooled that he is really on the right side.

I wouldn't worry too much about an even supply for the last eleven months I've been feeding ds mainly from left breast with only a little bit of back-up from right side due to his marked preference to the left. I'm a little bit wonky looking if I don't stuff something into right bra cup but ds is thriving.

thanks all. the latch on is ok, its just that the supply runs out quite quickly and he is ready for the 2nd side soon after.
will try to keep latching him on the left first to see if the flow gets better.

it doesn't matter, using it means that you won't lose it. by putting him on often the supply will rebuild. it doesn't matter how often you swap sides during a feed.

thanks again