Motivation: increase milk supply

[Lentosh]

Hi all,
I'm at week 4 postpartum and my milk supply has dropped as for various reasons (jaundice, latch issues, tongue tie released, nipple trauma) I wasn't removing enough milk. My baby isn't feeding at the breast but I'm trying to increase my supply - I'm eating well, hydrating and trying to pump every 3-4 hours for 20 mins. I'm trying to pump now, but there's literally only a few drops, it's been about 3 hours since I last started pumping and the breasts are so soft and it's like there's nothing there?
I've not seen an increase yet - is there hope??? Has anyone managed to increase their supply and has a success story to help motivate me and keep me away from looming ppd :(

Are you sure you have the right flange size? And all the parts fit together well?
How long have you been back at it, and are you putting baby to breast regularly to stimulate?

Fenugreek worked very well for me. Blessed thistle gave me migraines.

https://www.healthline.com/health/breastfeeding/fenugreek-breastfeeding#alternatives

Are u just looking to change to pumping only?
I dont have experience with pumps sorry as I couldn't really get along with them but my only experience with increasing supply which was recommended on one of the breastfeeding websites was basically you do bed rest for virtually 24 hours doing nothing but eat & drink as much as possible, relaxing, plenty of skin to skin with baby, putting them to the breast whenever they are awake, hand expressing into their mouth to help encourage them if needs be, and also attempting to nap whenever they do.
Someone else takes over all housework for this time (or you just leave it like I did....!).
The more you can stick to that the better. And be drinking gallons and gallons of water.
Good luck, its a really stressful time. Take it easy xx

Thanks for replies!

I think the pump parts are all fine and I used a measuring kit for flange size and have experimented with a few and feel like I'm on the right one now.

I'm not putting baby to breast at the moment as whenever he goes on he causes damage that means I then can't pump - not sure what to do here as I'm sure the contact would help but if I can't remove milk in taking steps backwards! I should do skin to skin more, am finding it hard to find the moments to do it - when he is calm and ready for a cuddle I am usually a bit too frantic and let him sleep in the crib to have a moment of rest!

I've not been sure whether to try fenugreek, as I've seen some people say that it may be hurt their supply whereas others say it's really helped! But could maybe try?

I've being considerably trying to increase my supply and pump more for the last 3 days, I know this isn't a very long time to see changes but I'm feeling so demotivated. I just hope I can see some improvement soon from what I'm doing???

I recovered from low supply (due to tongue tie) where milk almost gone and baby on formula to relatching and exclusively bf after tt got sorted.

Some things I did:

Power pumping https://thelactationcollection.com/glossary-term/power-pumping/

Pumping one side while baby fed at the other (even when very low supply - used nipple shield until latch improved)

Motulium (off-label use; not sure you can do it now)

Fenugreek tea

Porridge

As much sleep as possible (obviously tricky with a newborn and also pumping)

Congratulations on your new baby and sorry to hear of the feeding challenges. I also had issues with baby not transferring milk - realised at 4 week weigh in.

One thing is to make sure you are using a hospital grade pump (Spectra etc) and as someone says make sure you have right flange sizes. I couldn’t get anything with wearable pump (literally just drops). Also try to do compressions and massage while pumping and try to relax (easier said than done - feeding challenges were so all-encompassing for me).

I would try to get advice from a breastfeeding specialist. I did and it was helpful. Look up La Leche League as well.

I started giving formula top ups at 5 weeks as my baby had dropped weight. My supply increased with pumping on top of feeding and I was giving about 8oz top ups but only 2oz formula a day (the rest expressed milk). Pumping and breast feeding was not sustainable long term so I stopped pumping a few weeks ago. My baby is now 5m and I’m still combination feeding (about 2/3 breastfeeding, 1/3 formula bottle). I really despaired at times so don’t give up hope.

be kind to yourself. Your hormones will be all over the place and feeding is such an emotional topic for many.

Other posters reminded me to say hospital grade pump essential. I rented.

Also, use nipple shields. I needed to use them for all 3 of mine (poor latch for all babies in our house 😂) and bf them all for 1 year+. They gradually got better at latching and weaned off them after a couple of months. Amazing invention.

I also did power pumping! I really would try and get support from a lactation specialist though. If that isn’t possible then take a look at instagram page of Olivia Hinge, midwife and lactation consultant (olivialactationconsultant) - lots of useful info

Also silver nipple cups (like little thimbles) - they saved my nipples! I told my husband I’d rescue them next after the baby they were that critical! While pumping look at baby and or watch something feel good to get oxytocin and therefore milk flowing!

Thanks again for the replies!

I am using the spectra S1 and have had a few appointments with breastfeeding specialists, but after the appointments I wasn't able to replicate good feeds and practising with baby latching just led to more damage.

I am trying power pumping, that's why I'm up right now! It's going slightly better than it did last night when I only got 40 ml combined from both breasts in an hour...

With nipple shields, they seem useful, but would they help stimulate more milk production if there's a barrier between baby saliva and the breast? I am using the silver nipple covers, they've been so good for healing and not letting the nipple dry out so much between pumps!

I should do skin to skin more, am finding it hard to find the moments to do it - when he is calm and ready for a cuddle I am usually a bit too frantic and let him sleep in the crib to have a moment of rest!

Try and slow down a bit more, all the rushing around wont help. Have u got other children who need looking after or is he your first?
Even if you can't actually put him to the breast (yet) the skin to skin is still so important.
Get in bed in just your knickers and him in just a nappy and have some lovely cuddles. This time goes so fast, try and enjoy it regardless of what will be over the feeding situation!!

Try and slow down a bit more, all the rushing around wont help. Have u got other children who need looking after or is he your first?
Even if you can't actually put him to the breast (yet) the skin to skin is still so important.
Get in bed in just your knickers and him in just a nappy and have some lovely cuddles. This time goes so fast, try and enjoy it regardless of what will be over the feeding situation!!

Thank you, I am finding it really hard to slow down, sometimes when he's napping I'm still running around trying to do housework and can't seem to let go of little jobs that need doing all the need for things to be clean to feel relaxed?

Yes, I will try to do more skin to skin tomorrow, and I think I am probably not sleeping enough as nights are disrupted and then I'm not really sleeping during the day when he naps...

I don't have other children no, I was hoping to have at least another but frankly have no idea how I ever could balance having more than one given how little time I'm finding at the moment to look after me and him!

Tbh my DC1 never latched so i pumped, but only ever managed to get up to about 40% of what he needed and always had to use formula.

It was exhausting and stressful and double the work, especially pumping through the night. I eventually stopped. Didn’t even try with DC2.

Just saying that if it doesn’t happen for you, don’t beat yourself up and put your health first.

Nipple shields gets such bad press, but the thing is they allow you to latch baby on. I had never heard about saliva being important, just latch being key. If you're in pain, you can't feed at all and pumping is painful too.
And the healing-recovery cycle is exhausting when you need rest, sleep and good vibes to produce milk. So they're a massive benefit in my opinion.

If I didn't have them, I wouldn't have been able to bf any of my dc. With nipple shields, I went on to exclusively bf each baby for a year. So totally positive experience with shields from my perspective.

Baby 1 was premature, so we only started to try bf at about 2 weeks old for very short amounts of time. Small mouth and poor latch so quickly used shields. We built up to exclusive bf (with shields) by 4 weeks and weaned off them prob about 8-10 weeks.

Baby 2 latch issues. She couldn't latch without them. So without nipple shields, would not have been breastfeeding. Weaned off them around 6 weeks.

Baby 3 tongue tie that prevented her tongue from creating any significant suction. Milk supply down to 10 % by 10 days. TT snipped at 6 weeks. Used nipple shields to help her learn to latch. Weaned off them by around 10 - 12 weeks. This was after she was exclusively bottle-fed for 4 weeks.

This is good to know, thank you. Can I ask, did you find the weaning process okay, did they not find the shields quite different to an actual nipple or was that not a problem? They look a bit longer than my actuals are... and my mum has said something scary about my brother when he was a baby biting on the end of the shield!!!