Why express when breastfeeding? Excuse my ignorance!

[bradleybecky]

Sorry this may sound like a silly question. ..first time mum here....when breastfeeding...does anyone pump? If so....why? And how early/late? Do babies feel the difference? Do they reject the bottle after getting used to boob?

I pump so that OH can give DS his last bottle before bed. I also have a stash in case of emergencies or in case we're off out anywhere for a long time (I'm not comfortable BF in public yet)

I tend to pump first thing in the morning and then again in the afternoon. The rest of the time DS is getting enough from my boob anyway so I don't worry about supply.

I expressed for one feed a day which allowed me to go to bed early and dad can for the 10/11 pm feed. Means you can get a good six hours sleep

I avoided pumping until 6 weeks as heard that it could confuse supply. I was still struggling with bfing at 6 weeks so used to pump to give myself a break. When DS was 12 weeks I was still struggling with bfing so switched the bottle of breast milk for formula. Now (16 weeks) he has one bottle a day and i bf the rest of the time. For me pumping allowed me to keep breastfeed for longer, now that he'll take formula though I don't bother to pump if I'm going out so would only really pump for my own relief

I pumped with DC1 because I was worried that otherwise he wouldn't learn how to accept a bottle and I wouldn't be able to give up breastfeeding when / if I wanted to, or just leave the baby with DH for a few hours. So I used to give him a 'practice' bottle of expressed milk once a day.

With hindsight I wish I hadn't bothered! I disliked expressing, and I didn't realise how infrequently I would actually want / need to leave the baby for longer than one feed (I was a SAHM at the time so returning to work wasn't an issue). I eventually breastfed until he was old enough to go straight to a cup (12/13 months). What a lot of wasted time spent expressing! I didn't bother with DC2 or DC3.

I expressed a bit because I was going to travel overnight.
Then tried when I got back to work, but soon gave up. I still breastfed, but ds had formula once during the day.

I too am a first time mum. DS 6 weeks now and BF.
I have expressed a few times for DH to do some weekend afternoon feeds enabling me to get a long nap and bath to relax and catch up on sleep.
Sounds great but I hate expressing. I find it so hard.
DS feeds so often It would take all day of pumping between feeds to get a substantial amount out. And my boobs would be so sore by the end of the day.

Also I always felt like DS was not happy feeding after I had expressed. It might be in my head but it's as if the milk he was expected just wasn't there (because I had expressed it?)

So yeah I have expressed but is hard and only just worth it.
But DH loves the bond he gets when feeding.
also DS never had a problem taking a bottle once he figured out he got food out of it!

I pumped here and there for other people to feed her. She would take bottles from them but was never happy taking a bottle from me.

My breasts leaked all over so I expressed to capture some of it, and then DP could do some feeding while I got some sleep. Ds happily drank anything milky. Stopped around 6 months when bf got much easier.

Didn't express much for dd as less leaky and she really didn't like bottles, so any milk had to be snuck into her mouth via fingers and sippy cup/syringe.