Expressing

[teaping]

I have an 11 day old baby and am EBF. It’s going fine but the midwife has told me to express to boost my supply a bit.

I’ve got a medela swing but I’m basically getting nothing out! I’ve tried three times now and once I got an ounce of milk but the other two I’ve got literally 3-4 drops in total.

There’s plenty of milk in there as I can hand express a bit. Does anyone have any tips / pointers as to where I’m going wrong? I know not everyone is hugely successful with pumping but I really hoped I’d be able to get something!!

Try a warm compress on your breast before you start (hot water on a nappy. Seriously.)

Make sure you're somewhere you can feel comfortable and relaxed. Look at your baby or a pic of them, think about them and feeding them, smell them.

Keep at it. The Swing is good at mimicking the sucking pattern a baby uses to trigger letdown and your body can "learn" to respond to the pump so you get more over time.

My body would never respond to pumps so I hand expressed. It was quicker and less faff tbh.

What time of day are you expressing? I always get more in the morning.

I had this pump and never got more than an ounce out, and that took forever!
I bought the Tommee Tippee manual one and can get 4/5 ounce now so might be worth trying a manual :)

The HaaKaa breast pump is good. You simply let suction do the work and it’s great that you can use it whilst breastfeeding on the other side. I hand expressed a lot as I found the manual pump I had very hard going on my hands. Definitely use a warm cloth and massage them for a minute to try and get the milk flow. Good luck!

If it's going fine then what'a the reasoning behind wanting you to express? Did she explain to you?

If it's going find then don't worry yourself about it - I got so stressed in the early days (and more recently again!) about not expressing much. I found there wasn't much rhyme or reason to it but would usually get my best "haul" firs thing in the morning or from my haakaa while baby on other side. Also look up power pumping if you really want to try x

Thank you all.

@BertrandRussell the baby seems happy and is feeding ok and is nearly back to birth weight but he’s doing a max of one poo a day and they are still brown and she said he needs to be doing a minimum of 2+ yellow poos a day before she can sign us off. He is doing several wet nappies but she said he’s probably not eating quite enough and that as he gets restless after feeding for a while (until I change sides) perhaps the supply could do with boosting a bit.

I am also being a bridesmaid in a few weeks and it would be so helpful if I could express enough to enable my husband to give him a bottle or two and take the pressure off me for the day, but it’s not the end of the world of that doesn’t happen.

I’ll definitely try the warm compress and massage, and will try after his first feed tomorrow morning. Having spent £100 on the Swing I’m really hoping I can learn to use this pump, but failing that I’ll look at the others you suggested. Thank you so much for the tips!

Have you tried:

1. Going back to the setting that mimics the kind of sucking a baby does to stimulate let down? I didn't realise that when a baby feeds there are multiple let downs in a feeding session usually so it makes sense that I can express more when I mimic that pattern with the pump

2. expressing at the same time every day seems to help

3. expressing with your baby in front of you helps

4. a bit of breast compression as well as a warm compress really helps me to get the milk out

5. I get absolutely the most amount of milk fastest if i express immediately after a hot bath.

Keep at it - it should get easier!