expressing - what is going wrong?

[hoochymama]

i'm trying to express some breast milk so I can go out next weekend for a few hours, but it really isn't working. I've got the medela swing.

I used to have the medela electric, but didn't get much out of that either, though it seems to have got worse (about a month ago I could get 2-3oz in half an hour.

I've tried massaging, pumping at the same time as nursing dd, but I only got out around 1oz in about 45 mins.

Any tips? or are some people just never going to get on with expressing?

hoochy - call the manufacturers. They're usually very helpful about techniques.

I didn't find any off the shelf ones any good so I hired a hopital grade one from Medela.

It was fantastic and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Midwives will sometimes loan you a hospital grade one for a day or two.

If you only need a couple of feeds worth, and are expressing in addition to feeding (rather than instead of), then I think pumping is not the way to go.

Hand expressing is much easier when the amounts of milk are small. You can hand express straight into a wide mouthed bottle, so can keep two in the fridge, express into one, and then keep putting the milk once cold into one bottle. Once you have 4oz, put it into a bm freezer bag and freeze flat (makes it defrost faster). You can then hand express after each feed, and before you go to bed if your dd has a longer sleep then, and the amounts will stack up very quickly.

I must say, that although I expressed 5 days a week for a year with my Ameda Lactaline and was very successful with that, I could never get anything out with the Avent hand pump I got with the steriliser

Unfortunately expressing won't work unless you relax, which is easier said than done when you have a deadline to work to...

Try to relax, and 'zone out' when expressing. Set the machine up to mimic your baby's rythm and strength. Don't look down to see what is/isn't coming out.

Good luck

Watch tv while expressing. The letdown is a contrary little sod.

Also, women differ. I can't get along with Medela, but am a real dairy milker with Ameda. I'm sure others are the opposite. If you can borrow an Ameda, or do a short term hire, maybe it'll suit you better?

It's a little awkward, and you feel you need 3 hands but feeding on one breast and pumping on the other can work well. Alterntively if you feed your baby mainly from one breast and they only take a small top up from the 2nd breast pumping from the 2nd breast as soon as the baby stops feeding can work well. Also think about time of day - a lot of women's supply drops in the evening so trying to express then is harder, but just after the mroning feed can be way more productive.

I've found that expressing for an hour in the middle of the night can yield twice as much as daytime. Night time telly can be a bit crap though.

thanks everyone, there's some useful tips there, I'm definitely not relaxed when I pump, always feeling there's not enough coming out and constantly checking. Need to chill out a bit!

Hoochymama, the other thing that I found worked for me is just expressing quite a lot. After many sessions of expressing, it was as if my body kind of 'learnt' the art of expressing- almost as if there was an 'aha, that's what expressing is like' moment, and then I got bigger amounts. I think bf & expressing are 2 different things, some women (I've heard people say this a lot) bf very successfully, but don't necessarily find expressing easy.

thanks Maria, will just keep trying! One more question for everyone, I know everyone says to express in the morning, but I just dont' seem to have the time.

When dh gets back from work is a good time, as he can look after dd, but I worry that after expressing in the evenings, I will be 'low on milk' for dd's evening feeds and leave her hungry (she falls asleep a lot whilst feeding so it can be difficult to get her really full up for the night)