When is the best time to pump?

[Lizbiz89]

I'm ebf and I'm starting to pump occasionally to help my lo gain weight. He's been a bit slow in gaining. Just wondering when the best time to pump is? He's currently feeding every 2-3 hours and I don't want to affect my supply. I worry that if I pump too close to a feed he won't get enough from my boob? Any advice would be really helpful.

First thing in the morning.

I did after a feed in the early days. Especially if dad was about and I could hand over a fed and happyish baby whilst I pumped. It also meant that baby had got it all started for me
Pumping would hopefully increase your supply as there are more demands for the milk. It's continuous made so it's not like you are stealing milk that baby would be drinking.
The middle of the night feeds are best for prompting supply so if you pumped after that feed that might be good but also very impractical!!

Once you give top up bottles you should express as close to that time as possible so your breasts have an idea that milk was required then.

Have you spoken to midwives/infant feeding team about the top up feeds? Did they have any advice about logistics?

I agree with first thing in the morning, it's normally when your breasts are the most full. Is it like this for you? I don't know what type of pump you have, but when I feed my little one in the morning, I put the pump on just on the other side. It helps if you have a wearable (in-bra) pump but it is possible with other pumps too.

If you need to pump more than once a day, you can try pump maybe 45 mins or an hour after your baby feeds and unlikely to want to feed for another little while so your milk has time to fill up again.

Hope that helps!

Your supply is at its greatest in the early hours of the morning. So preferably at 2-4am (although thats not when you want to do it). So as soon as you wake. When my twins were in special care the nurses insisted i pumped between 2 andd 4am. If you are expressing to top up due to poor weight gain our dietician advised to bf then pump after each feed. This will increase your supply for him. I found this too time consuming and exhausting though (after bf twins). So in the end the dietician prescribed a high calorie formula to give just a small quantity following each bf.