Gina Ford Routine - expressing question?

[Lulu41]

Having read the book would like to know if it is essential to do the expressing part of the routine to increase milk supply?

I didn't - found expressing impossible before about 4 months and just didn't have the energy anway. Didn't find it a problem with supply once I sussed out that evenings spent screaming were down to tired baby not hungry baby! I would take GF as a starting point and don't stress about following it perfectly.

good luck!

Hi Lulu41, umm not sure really, I followed GF with dd who is nearly 2 and was breast fed for 5 months. I didn't express as per the book as basically I was too lazy/knackered!! However, it did take quite a while for me to establish a good milk supply and dd was very slow to put on weight for the first couple of months, so if you can express per the routines I think it probably does work. Ds (7 weeks) is also in GF routines but I only managed 1 month of breast feeding with him, again I found expressing a pain but this wasn't the only reason I changed him to bottles.
Good luck and hope everything goes well. I can recommend the Medela mini electric breast pump though mine didn't get used very much

I followed the GF routines - but only expressed once a day, in the evenings. As jamsy says, the GF routines are a great starting point, but I found sticking to them rigidly was impossible. Adapt them to suit you and your baby's needs

I didn't express as per Gina, but did after morning and evening feeds - when dh was there to take the baby. I found this really helped to build up my supply and cope with the growth spurts ( could tell when dd was taking more as I could express less afterwards), and it meant that I had a supply of ebm so that dh could do some of the night feeds

I think the expressing is designed to overcome the usual problem of cluster feeding when babies go through growth spurts eg. a breastfed baby will need to usually increase the frequency of feeds during a growth spurt so that the breasts produce more milk.

With the expressing the breasts will be producing that extra milk anyway.

My mw told me that if you just express for no particular reason, ie when you've got no particular need to increase your supply, it can actually lead to problems and mastitis.

Surely if you need to express for any reason, you'll know about it or have advice from a mw or health professional so why should you do it just because an author who's never met you and can't tailor their advice to your situation says that you should?

Actually wobblymum ... I think that GF's advice on that is one of the more sensible things in her book. I have a friend who had a real problem with her milk supply ... she did the 'increase your milk supply' section in the book and within a week she was on top of it all ...

Ghosty - I don't mean if you have a reason to express, like if you want to increase your milk. I meant if your supply is fine and everything's going fine, but you express just because GF has written that you should. Apparently in that case, it can cause problems. If there's a reason why you'd want to express anyway, then that's sensible but it seems weird to express when you have absolutely no need to or wish to just because it's written in a book.

Thanks everyone for your advice xx