Little milk from pump 4d post c-section

[katerose2022]

I had my baby boy by c-section at 38w+6 four days ago. We've both been doing fine so far, apart from the breastfeeding. I wasn't able to hand express any colostrum, so the midwives at the hospital offered us bottled formula to feed him. He's been quite lethargic, sleeping a lot and feeding very little even from bottle. He latches and sucks well on my breasts but gives up quickly as nothing was coming out. Community midwife came yesterday and weighed him, he's lost 300g (9% of birth weight) already, so she advised us to increase feeding and me to use a pump instead of just hand expressing. My breasts do feel full and I get the occasional sensation of both breasts suddenly getting hard and full, not sure what it is.

I used my Medela manual pump a few times since then. Milk (or colostrum?) has started slowly coming out but I was only able to collect a bit more than 1ml at each pumping (I tried 15mins each breast). I feel like I do have supply just not enough is coming out? Baby can still latch and suck but again only for like 10 seconds then he lost interest.

Any advice please? Getting a double electric pump? Midwife will come again tomorrow but I'm just desperate trying to offer my baby boy more to feed on. Thanks a lot!

OP can you contact your local NCT or la leche league for (free) advice? Near me all have Facebook pages/online or in person meet ups! The children’s centers sometimes also used to do great drop in feeding sessions (both bottle and breast) where they made tea/coffee and toast!
im not a midwife but I was advised post c sections that it’s not unusual for milk to take a few days to come in! Baby’s job right now is to simulate milk production.
I wouldn’t be be the best to advise on top ups as I chose not too - but again this is because I’d support that explained that newborns born via section often retain more water than those born VB (so have higher weight loss).
Understandably I don’t know your baba - and a fed baba is better than a hungry one. BUT just trying to say in a very clumsy way please don’t panic at low milk expressed rates. Baby is usually far more efficient than a pump! The feeling of panic is horrible. Hope you can access some free support asap x

@Callmemummynotmaaa Thank you so much for your warming comments! They did calm me down. I'll try calling those support numbers and get some advice :)

Don't panic yet. It's quite normal for milk not to be properly 'in' until around 3-4 days post delivery and if the C-Section was elective (without labouring first) then it can sometimes take longer as your body wasn't ready to start feeding a baby just yet.
Plenty of successful breastfeeders have terrible trouble getting milk out of a pump. I could barely get 20ml ever, but successfully EBF all my children and BF until they were toddlers.
Just keep putting him to the breast very often.

Get an electric pump, hand pumps are a nightmare. But try not to worry, it takes a while for milk to come in properly 💗

Hi, I also struggled to breastfeed after c section. My little girl latched well and midwives encouraged me to keep breastfeeding, as well as pumping (I also got very little). I know a few people whose milk has come in eventually after c section, within about a week (though mine never did). I would just say keep an eye on the lethargy, especially if he’s not feeding much from the bottle as he may be dehydrated - this is what happened with my little girl and we were advised to up bottle feeds and keep a chart to monitor how much milk she was taking. Hopefully he’s fine and getting enough and I don’t want to worry you - just wanted to share our experience, especially as I had to really fight to tell the midwives something was wrong as they were very keen to tell me to keep breastfeeding and that she was ‘getting what she needs, quality over quantity etc’ then it turned out not to be the case. She was absolutely fine once we increased bottle feeds so nothing to worry about, just maybe something to keep in mind x

I had a very fast home birth with DS2. I was a wee bit traumatised if honest and my milk didn’t come in until day 5. He lost weight and the midwives put so much pressure on me to express. I went to the breast feeding clinic on day 5 and the consultants were not happy with the advice and pressure I received from the midwives.

In hindsight I wish I’d relaxed and trusted my body.

Not easy but please try and relax, eat and drink well, and put baby to breast as often as possible. Even just for comfort.

Huge thanks for all your comments! Just ordered a tomme teppe double electric pump, will see how that works.

Our hospital midwives got us to bottle feed when the baby went past four hours after birth without any feed. We've now increased the feed amount and frequency as well and baby seems to be able to feed more from the bottle.

I guess as everyone's said, perseverance is the name of the game. I'll try to relax myself as much as possible while exploring all the possible solutions.

Thanks again for all the advice!

You could also try a haaka especially when you're feeling full, but do lots of skin to skin with baby with no pressure to latch and hopefully they will! Definitely reach out for breastfeeding support, midwives are well intentioned but don't really know much about it... If you can afford to get a lactation consultant to do a home visit (Google IBCLC)

Pump with the electric pump at least 8 times a day, including at least 1 or 2 at night.

3 of those could be a power pump session, 10 minute pump 10 minute break 10 minute pump 10 minute break 10 minute pump (classes as 3 sessions but to be be safe maybe count it as 2 at first)

When I had my daughter 20 months ago I was told not to pump at all for 6 weeks??

I had an EMCS and my milk came in at 5 days x

Really sorry I missed a crucial line of your post. Sorry op.

Babies are way better than getting milk than a pump I barely got any but I know I had plenty!

I used the medlea hand pump them switched to an electric from Amazon but can't remember the name: that was when my supply dropped suddenly when my daughter was 10 months due to the dr prescribing the combined pill and killing my milk supply

Is he jaundiced, OP? Jaundice is a vicious cycle as it makes them too sleepy to feed but they need to feed to expel the stuff that makes them jaundiced. My DD1 was quite jaundiced and we got readmitted and she had to go for light therapy.

I'm surprised the midwives suggested bottle feeding four hours after birth. That's very unusual. They would usually advise syringe or cup feeding with a newborn whose mum wants to breastfeed. Agree that you should call La Leche League or the National Breastfeeding Helpline to speak to someone and get some face to face support ASAP. Is he having plenty of wet nappies?

Please get yourself expert input so as to protect your supply and help get feeding established. La Leche League and the National Breastfeeding Helpline are great and free. But if you can afford it a visit from a well recommended IBCLC can be genuinely transformative.

Has baby been checked for tongue tie by a specialist? They often get overlooked by doctors and midwives. An IBCLC can help with that. Some are qualified tongue tie practioners too.

In the meantime keep baby close and do as much skin to skin as you can, keep offering baby the breast, use paced bottle feeding when you do need to give formula, and keep pumping.

These first few weeks can be so very tough, but that doesn't mean breastfeeding won't work for you. But you definitely need the right support.

Thank you all!

We've actually got yet another community midwife visiting us this afternoon (three different ones three days in a row now). She seems quite knowledgeable about breast feeding and has offered some similar advice eg frequent pumping to keep supply going.

She also examined the baby as her colleague did yesterday. No jaundice and baby's weight has gone up a bit since we increased feeding, now only 6% weight loss since birth. All the other indicators are normal too and no tongue tie.

She "manhandled" my breasts and the baby to latch and suck, not the most pleasant experience but it allowed her to declare that the baby has no problem latching or sucking, it's likely that my supply is not enough yet to keep the baby sucking. Suggested trying nipple shields.

Look forward to the arrival of the electric pump tomorrow...

I agree re electric double pump- you can't rent from hospital or madela and get a bra to wear so you can be hands free.

I couldn't breastfed but i managed to pump with electric pump for 6 months, it broke on holiday two weeks ago so I bought a manual pump and I only got 30ml the first day and 5ml the second day and then my breast milk dried up. When I got home and tried another electric I only got 20 then 10ml (compared to 150ml pumping 3x a day before the holiday) so my breastmilk expressing journal has now finally come to an end a lot longer than I thought it would last! I only managed it due to electric hands free. I feel really proud of my efforts though and all that goodness that my baby has got.

Also - kept hydrated make sure you're eating enough xx

There are loads of support groups on Facebook well that I found useful in the early days.

I founds the boots nipple shields the best and the bellababy double electric pump or Amazon is also really good and reasonable.

With the breast pump you need to make sure you are using the correct flange size for your nipple as that can really affect how much milk is pumped.

CCongratulations! My advice is contact your local NCT breastfeeding team and get a home visit arranged for Tuesday. They're amazing and will have you on the road to success very quickly. Your baby may need a tongue tie assessment.

Update: A day of two halves. Both tommee tippee double electric pump and nipple shields arrived.

I first tried the electric pump. After running it for 30mins on both breasts, I was hugely disappointed to see that it barely yielded the same amount of output than me using the Medela manual pump for 15mins each side (at the cost of my sore hands). I guess I can't really blame my low milk supply on the pump but nevertheless a big disappointment.

Then I tried the nipple shields (Nuk ones). They were hard to attach to my nipples fully, but once mostly attached, the baby latched onto it like a magnet! This was after I pumped and got very little milk out, so I was surprised to see that the baby was still able to get something out and sucking really enthusiastically. Never before on my breasts so all a bit surreal.

He still drank quite a bit from the bottle feed so I guess he didn't get that much breast milk out after all. But the efforts he made were amazing and I'll see if it can build up to something.

Thanks again for all the super helpful comments!