Breast feeding + pumping

[CocoaDaisy583]

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some advice and personal experiences around breastfeeding and pumping. My little one is a week old and has been exclusively breastfed so far. He has a great latch, and overall it’s been a really positive experience.
That said, I’d love for my husband to be able to help with night feeds and he’s eager to be involved too. I bought a breast pump with that in mind, but I’ve since read that it’s best to wait until around 6 weeks before introducing pumping. I’m also considering pumping for a bit more flexibility during the day. While I know breastfeeding in public is totally normal, I’m just not quite comfortable with it yet, and having a bottle on hand would give me more confidence to get out and about.

What was your experience like? Did you start pumping before 6 weeks? Did it affect your milk supply or your breastfeeding routine?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

The issue with your husband helping with night feeds by giving an expressed bottle, is that you have to get up at the same time to pump anyway. Otherwise, it'll have a negative affect on your supply.

I would wait the 6 weeks. Pumping can give you an oversupply, which can be quite uncomfortable and lead to issues like mastitis. I think 6 weeks is also recommended to try and avoid nipple confusion and a bottle preference.

Pumping is hard work!! Way harder than just breastfeeding directly so keep that in mind.

Pumping is a tremendous amount of work. You won't understand it until you start doing it. I had to as I went back to work at 6 months (I don't live in the UK)

1. Night feeds. How lovely. Except you'll be up pumping like a cow while your DH gives that bottle. And your baby will be screaming and you'll have to listen to that and baby won't go back to sleep as easily. They breastfeed for comfort as well as nutrition. The benefit of breastfeeding is that it's available then and there.

1. Out and about. Taking a bottle of breastmilk is a pain in the arse. You have to sterilize everything, prep, keep it cold, warm it up somehow? And when do you pump? You're meant to pump at roughly same time as baby gets the bottle. Baby feeds every 2 hours until they're 4-5 months really. They can't go 2-3 hours until closer to 6 months.

I pumped from birth due to EMCS and needing to get supply up. I then moved to only BFing. Nights with a bottle were easier. But remember you need to express /pump / feed every 2 hours at this stage until 12 weeks

I had the same plans when my baby was born but I agree with the other replies, partner doing night feeds doesn't really help you. You would have to get up anyway to pump, and baby would likely be very unhappy. We found a compromise where my partner got up, did the clean nappy, brought baby to me in bed to feed, then took him back to his cot and settled him. So I didn't have to get up and could go straight back to sleep.

I also wanted to pump so my partner could help during the day but it added so much extra stress with sterilising and storing. Breastfeeding is so portable and requires no planning, thinking about bottles added to my mental load. It was so hard to find time to pump with cluster feeding too.

Once my supply was really established after about 3 months I did start pumping again occasionally so I can go out for dinner etc.

If you do decide to pump my number 1 advice is to get the right size flange. Most pumps are sold with 19mm + flanges and these are way too big for the majority of women. Check out Lucy Weber feeding support for tips.

Hi OP. I’ve pumped from when DD was born. She’s nearly 9m now and still takes a bottle despite primarily BF. She initially had colostrum with a syringe, then a spoon as she was a hungry girl and about 2 weeks in we introduced a bottle. Prior to this I was pumping and anything I got I started a stash with. When she started having a bottle, I did pump at the same sort of time (within the realms of convenience) except between around 11pm and 5am where if my wife fed her, I got the extra sleep then pumped first thing. I would add caution with this - I had a decent supply which always seemed a bit more than she needed. In the early days it was sporadic I missed a feed/pump overnight so didn’t form a consistent pattern than affected my supply negatively. To assist my supply, I always pumped at least once per day even if she didn’t have a bottle that day and ensured I ate well and drank well.

Be aware that babies sometimes go through phases of bottle refusal or breast refusal. When you are giving both bottle and breast it can feel like it’s all over if one day they only want breast and another they only want a bottle. I think it hits hard because there isn’t a lot of evidence out there in terms of being exclusively breast milk fed but via a combo of bottle and breasts. I did read refusal is common in both exclusively bottle fed and exclusively breast fed babies but because that’s the only option, it’s just a case of persevering. We applied that to our combination journey too and to be honest it’s worked really well for our family and feels completely achievable. We have an older DD too and it was great being able to still get 1:1 time with her as my wife could feed the baby etc.

As pp said, definitely ensure you have the right size flange. Momcozy come with decent size options and a card to measure with. That being said, the mom cozy was a good pump for on the go but not the best for getting maximum milk so I used a spectra s1 at home. We did the fridge hack too to minimise workload (store pump parts in the fridge between pumps and sterilise every 24 hours). I put expressed milk we were going to use in the fridge and froze anything I thought was surplus. Freezer stash allowed me a spa day with my sister which was heaven. I also like taking a bottle of expressed out if I am super busy as DD can hold it and feed herself now, just gives much greater flexibility. In terms of your partner, ensure he knows how to wash & sterilise the parts & bottles so it’s not just your responsibility.

ETA - get a bottle warmer if you do express. It will heat a bottle in around 3 minutes and can even be brought upstairs. Our DD is ok with a cold bottle in the day but not at night. We use the Tommee tippee one which I think we bought second hand for about £5. I think they’re not too pricey new either tbh.

Sorry also - thoroughly recommend lansinoh bottles to seamlessly move between breast & bottle. Also look into pace feeding. The last thing you need is DP chucking a bottle down babies neck and then them preferring that, the bottle needs to be given slowly so ensure it’s not an easier/more favourable
option than BF

Pumping is tedious, time consuming and a big faff. Much more of a faff than getting used to breastfeeding in public.

And there's not much benefit in the middle of the night or early morning.

With breastfeeding, you need to accept that feeding the baby is 100% your job and communicate that to your partner.

Once you accept that, you can create a more fair division of labour.

My DH did all night time nappies. He brought baby to me to feed then settled him back to sleep. He did all the cooking, shopping and a lot of the cleaning in the first 3 months.

Pumping will just add to your work without much benefit to you.

Come to think of it, my baby was 1 week old when I changed my first nappy ever. DH had done all of them. And I didn't change many more until he went back to work at 3 weeks. Because my job was to establish BF.

I support women with breastfeeding and I always say that if there's no real reason to pump in these early days, don't do it. It's a hassle to find the time, you sterilise everything just for the baby to wake for a feed as soon as you start.

In these early days pumping risks overstimulating your supply, increasing risk of blocked ducts/mastitis.

For these first 8 weeks, if you want to continue giving BM you need to be stimulating your breasts/removing milk at least once between 12-4am. That means in the middle of the night you don't sleep through while your DH gives a bottle, you have to sit pumping instead.

I would suggest instead getting your husband to do everything else. Hand him the baby to take for a walk/a cuddle/a bath while you go to bed for a sleep. He can do literally everything else with the baby while you rest and provide the feeds at this point.

I planned for my partner to give a bottle of expressed milk before bed while I went to sleep early. Like other posters I found it hard stressful and faffy, and just another thing on the to do list. It was much easier just to quickly feed and get back to sleep. I found beastfeeding in public becomes normal really quickly and I am normally quite shy.

Sorry just realised this is an old thread!