How do you exclusively pump?

[Reddy01]

I was mislead by hv etc who told me to pump and formula feed since my LO lost 9% of weight in a few days. My baby now does not latch and I had bad nipple trauma and the other breast does not have as many ducts due to surgery so I'm not looking to get her back on the breast but I don't understand how people manage to pump enough to feed them breast milk exclusively.

I have been pumping since week 3 with a secondary pump (I had no idea about anything) and I was only pumping a max of 100-200ml a day. Having read more and pumped more often (including power pumps) I have managed to gety supply up to 400ml max a day. Now this isn't enough to feed LO who is now 8 weeks and I'm constantly having to top up with formula.

Other than diet (which I do need to improve) are there any tips for increasing my supply? I pump 7 times a day and my breasts tend to run dry after 20 mins of pumping. I will pump every 3-5 hours during the night also.

I have just started using a primary pump but the output is roughly the same and it also gets to a point where my breasts run dry.

Does this all mean I'll never manage to exclusively breast feed from pumping?

Also the support around here is terrible hence why I've come to here ☺️

I pumped every three hours. Make sure you are consistent. And drink lots of water. But dont be too hard on yourself. You are doing amazing

@Reddy01 as a mum of two who struggled to breastfeed one and easily breastfed the other, I would gently encourage you to consider whether pumping is the right way forward for you and the baby. It's so, so time-consuming; I found it massively impacted the enjoyment of my baby, and felt like a huge millstone around my neck. I wish I'd moved onto formula far sooner than I did. Giving it up set me free and I honestly think both of us were happier for it.

Totally appreciate you may wish to push through with pumping, in which case make sure you have lots of oats in your diet, take a fenugreek supplement, and (if you haven't already) rent a hospital-grade pump as they're so much better than the ones you can buy.

Is it your first baby?
I pumped like crazy every 3 hours and never got enough milk down (always had to top up with formula) with my first. I hated it. It was painful and extremely hard work.

With my second, my nipples were never painful and managed to keep my baby only on breastmilk as I pumped 200ml every 3 hours after 4 days.

Please try not to worry about it.
I was extremely sad, felt guilty, and kept thinking I wasn't doing something right. Pumping is extremely hard work, and you are doing your best!
Pump as much as you can; but don't feel bad about topping it up with formula if needed.
You can always put the baby on breast for comfort after bottle feeding when your nipples recover.

I exclusively pumped for 7 months due to problems with latch etc. It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done and had a huge negative impact on my mental health. To be successful you need to pump
every 3 hours or so, day and night. It’s relentless and despite it meaning others can feed your baby, you still need to pump! All I will say is if I had another baby, I already know I would even consider pumping again. Hard no!

If you do want to continue I would say you need the best pump you can get (I didn’t use hospital grade but did use mains powered Medela) and drink gallons of water.

Please don’t feel any pressure to exclusively pump - it must be your decision and yours alone. Bottle feeding is still feeding - you are doing your absolute best ♥️

I only managed to pump for a month and it destroyed my mental health and the first weeks with my baby. It’s so hard. My baby who was IUGR would not latch at all as he was so tiny and had to have formula top ups from birth due to hypoglycaemia.

I had to pump every 3 hours at least and more during the night to increase my supply and still needed formula top ups. This was super hard as I also had to feed my baby formula in that time, change him and burp him before even starting pumping. I didn’t find it sustainable and DH started doing a lot of feeds and I felt like I wasn’t bonding with DS at all. I felt guilty everytime I missed a pump. I wish I had switched to formula sooner.

Advice I was given to increase supply was to pump every 2-3 hours, and at night this is more important. Use a hospital grade pump. Look at pics of baby or hold them whilst pumping. I think that fenugreek can be used to boost supply too.

Fed is best and babies need a present parent. I pumped for the first three months but I was getting about 25oz a day so using very little formula. I think you are spending a lot of time on this for little gain. I doubt you will increase your supply much as it tend to only go one way. Sorry to sound negative but in your shoes I would reduce the number of sessions slowly and spend the saved time cuddling your lovely little bundle of joy.

I lasted pumping for 3 months but was mentally unwell with PND…I wish someone had told me earlier that it was mad to sacrifice my mental health and bonding time with my baby in the pursuit of trying to sustain breast milk for a baby that never fed successfully. I have no complaints about why the importance of breast feeding is promoted but we aren’t in a third world country and formula works out fine for many.

Drink extra water. Eat flapjacks as oats can help with supply. Make sure you are eating enough. Keep going!

I’m so sorry the health visitor let you down. Would it be possible to hire a proper lactation consultant (IBCLC registered) to help you pump and/or try and get baby back on the breast if that is what you want?

For DC1 I pumped and pumped and pumped and it no doubt damaged my bond with him as well as my own wellbeing. I swore I wouldn't do it again. But then DC2 came along with all the guilt and hormones and I ended up exclusively pumping and found myself shouting at the baby to stop crying because I was too busy pumping to pick him up. It's a complete headfuck and I agree with PPs that you are doing amazingly and reducing your expectations might be beneficial. If you really want to exclusively pump, do it more often, particularly in the early hours of the morning, and drink more water - but I don't recommend it.

I EE’d for a year.

Things that helped my supply:

Lots of water
Having DD with me when I pumped
Pumping every 3 hours night and day
Fenugreek
Lots of oats and green veg
Getting as much rest as possible (did only the bare minimum housework and napped when DD did).

That sound tough, I couldn't do it. My son was premmie so I had to express every 3 hours to give him milk when I wasn't with him, I breast fed when he was and that was hard. But I only did it when he wasn't with me. To try to pump whilst also doing everything else involved with having a newborn must be so hard. There are things like Brewers yeast which is supposed to help, it can be baked into flapjacks, oats are supposed to be good too and lots of water. There is no shame in using formula.

Every three hours, day and night using a medela symphony.
Power pumping to begin with.
Drinking water like a fish and eating lots of high fat products like yoghurt.

Thank you all for your advice. I am quite surprised at how many were in similar positions. I will consider giving it up once baby is a bit older. We still manage time together with classes etc so I dont feel like it's affecting the bond or my mh yet. I do pump on the go with momcozy but. I've got a second hand hospital grade pump. To see if it helps. I will focus more on diet but but the sounds of things it might not be enough.

We were doing more formula to begin with bit we found that LO was better with the breast milk and with the formula she was having tummy issues. We swapped formulas to a non cows milk and she was better but she just never seemed to get on great with it when it was the primary source of the feed. I was hoping to do breast milk until weaning but maybe I will need to reconsider... I say as I type this pumping after feeding and bedding her 😂.

Honestly, thank you for sharing your journeys with it as it does help me feel a bit more normal!

Babies change very quickly at this age so will cope better with formula at 3 months than newborn. You might also want to get on the nhs track for allergies if non cows milk is better as you may run into issues when you start weaning. Mine have now outgrown all allergies but had restricted diets when tiny.

I agree with this plus if you haven’t tried already switching formula brands can help. My DS was awful on Kendamil and had a lot of symtoms mimicking CMPA but when we switched brands he was fine.

@Pinkstuffs it's funny as I've heard a few people say this. She is fine with it for top up feeds but we changed from the cows milk one to the goat one early on as it did not go well. I have heard that there's another goats milk one nanny care that was meant to be good also but just never know these days!

@SpringLambie I have noticed she's better now than a few weeks ago so I'm hoping her little system is growing and developing as usual. I might give it another month or so of pumping and then stop. Like others say, I don't want toiss out on things and so far I don't feel like I am but as she grows I might find that I need more time with her than to pump.

Prolactin is highest through the night. So to have a good milk supply you really need to be extracting milk throughout the hours of midnight till 6am. Then every 3 hours during the day too.
Make sure you have the right flanges for your pump too, this can make a huge difference.

And take each day as it comes. If you follow all these supply tips and keep pumping you might find you get into a routine and it will all work out for you both.