Breastfeeding help!!

[YummyMummy2019]

Hi ladies,
I'm hoping to get some real advice from real mums!

I want to breastfeed exclusively - no bottles is my ideal plan. If I can manage.

But I've been informed to pump between feeds to keep up my supply?? So I have a few questions..

1: is this necessary at all?

2: how often and for how long should I express with an electric pump?

3: what the hell do I do with all this expressed milk since I don't want to bottle feed baby??!

Thank you all in advance xx

Its not necessary at all.

I think a lot of the pumping advice comes from American websites. American women tend to go back to work much much earlier than British women so do need to express.

To build supply, feed your baby on demand. Don't skip night feeds. You might be shocked by how often your baby wants fed, its normal.

Who told you you have to pump?

Of course you don't. How on earth would women have "kept up their supply" before the 20th century? All you need to do to have adequate supply is make sure your baby is transferring milk effectively and give them free access to the breast.

You CAN pump down the line if you want to be able to go out for a few hours and leave a bottle, but it's by no means necessary or mandatory.

Breastmilk is made on a supply and demand basis so that would create oversupply which would be very uncomfortable for you! I think this type of advice tend to come from people who don't understand how newborns feed - they feed A LOT in the first few weeks so people think their supply must be low. This isn't true in the vast vast majority of cases, it's just the baby building up your supply for you. It settles down.

What? Why would you pump between feeds?

Whoever told you that is completely wrong. Even when I was pumping I only did extra sessions to ensure I had spare milk in case I spilt some extra, otherwise you just get loads of leaky messy useless oversupply.

You don't have to pump between feeds. Babies work on supply and demand. They will feed feed feed to encourage your supply to meet their needs.

You don't need to pump. The baby will be feeding so often to begin with that you won't have much time to do so, anyway. As pp say, the baby will 'put its order in' by cluster feeding to the amount it needs.

I know you say you don't want to bottle feed, but it can be useful to get them to accept a bottle occasionally, so that you are able to leave them for a little while when they get older. It can be the case that if you don't introduce a bottle before a certain age, they subsequently refuse to feed from one, which can then be a real bind. Just something to consider.

No you don’t have to pump.

There’s no point if you aren’t planning on using what you express. I’m only expressing so that DH can feed the baby every now and again to allow me some rest!

Baby does feed an insane amount as a newborn. We’re 3 and a half weeks in and it’s rare to put him down because he always wants food.

If you decide to meal prep, I suggest you go for foods you can eat one handed. It’ll help!

It’s not normally necessary.

I had to but that was because I had supply issues due to spesis but in retrospect I think I was given crap advice.

No don't pump, completely unnecessary. I don't think your supposed to pump for the first 6 weeks anyway (unless you need to of course) otherwise you can end up with an over supply which can lead to problems

As a side note, breastmilk is supposed to be really good for skin so can be used in the bath. Also breast milk ice lollies are great for when they're teething

Whoever told you that, ignore any and all further advice that they offer you! What nonsense.

Total nonsense! I've been breastfeeding my DS for 14 months and even went back to work I September without needing to pump. He's never, ever had a bottle and now just feeds when I'm at home, around his usual meals!

OMG thank you all so much! I was completely panicked about how I'd possibly manage to feed babe every hour and half to two hours AND pump.

I had issues with my first son where he wouldn't take to the breast you see so ended up bottle feeding him. so the million and one mums at work who are older than me thought they'd pass on the advice I MUST use a pump regularly

Thank god not the case!

Thanks ladies
Xx