BREASTFEEDING TWINS-ADVICE ON EXPRESSING

[valz]

Hi Ladies, i need some advice on expressing milk. my midwife advised me not to express until the twins were 3weeks old, that way my milk supply should be well established. So i started expressing this week, but im not sure how often i should do it, i am looking to express to have a back-up when needed so i am still breastfeeding at every feed. can i express between feeds or will this decrease the milk available for the twins at the next feed? they usually feed every 3 hours. i read that breaSts produce on the demand of the babys but if im expressng in between is this helping produce more milk or using up the milk for the next feed? how often can i express a day? any advice would be great.

Hi Valz. Expressing won't decrease your supply but it is worth waiting a couple more weeks to allow your body, milk supply and the babies' needs to be in sync (am very tired so aware that I may word this badly).

At 3 weeks the babes are likely to be getting ready for or having a growth spurt, so you may not find much time for expressing. Good to hear that they are feeding well though. Do take advantage of their sleeping to rest where you can.

I should think that a 10 min double express a day should be fine to build up a supply in your freezer.

Hi valz. Mars is the expert, so def follow the advice there on waiting a bit.

I expressed a fair bit for my twins, but mostly so they could be fed by bottle when I was very tired and needed some sleep. At other times I had too much milk, expressed it off, and built up a supply in the freezer, but now all needs chucking away! I'm still bfing at 10 months...and have never needed the frozen supplies. Are you sure you're gonna need them? If you really want to express, pick a time of day when you have more milk. I used to do it in the evening before I went to bed, then dh would do a late feed - otherwise my boobs would be bursting around midnight. Other people do first thing in the morning as this may be when they have a lot of milk.

I'd echo MarsLady. I'd probably wait until after the 6 week growth spurt to do it regularly, unless you're feeling especially full. the 6 week growth spurt you will find yourself feeding ALL THE TIME!! So not much time for anything else.

I used to express every morning about 1/2 hour after my boys had fed and gone down for their morning nap. Used to take about 2 or 3 espressing sessions to get enough milk for a whole feed for both (expressing is not as efficient as babies feeding directly so you never get as much as they do).

To be honest, I found it so time consuming that I just used to do it if we had an event to go to or if we went out for dinner. I found it much easier just to feed tehm myself otherwise.

Expressing increases your milk supply because every time you extract milk from the breast, either by baby, hand or pump, it sends messages to make more milk so you will not leave less for the babies.

what do yu do if u have to much milk, after having to ebm feed in hospital due to poor feeding. My breasts are so so sore and engorged, but the babies dont need as muchas i have. they are 4 days old tomorrow

that should calmdown over the next few days as your body adjusts to how much the babies want

Yeah if you're REALLY in pain, just express off a little bit to relieve it. If you express off a whole feed, it'll send signals to produce more milk, which will mean you have even more!!

Store it up in the freezer to make up a whole feed later when you want to go out for dinner!