Why pump?

[JuniperandI]

Hello

So I'm planning on breast feeding and maybe manual pumping on the other side while baby feeds, just so DH can take a feed every now and again.

However, I've also considered the fact that there's electric breast pumps and some women feed and also pump. If you do, what made you want to do that? Going back to work, wanting others to feed baby, difficult latching etc? I'm just considering my options here 🤔

I pump so my husband can give a bottle overnight to let me have a little more sleep whilst he is on paternity leave. I also did it from the very beginning to ensure baby will actually take a bottle meaning weaning will be a lot easier. I do not want a toddler who will only sleep by comfort feeding!
Everyone is different though, that's just how I want to parent 🤷🏼‍♀️

I did to get my supply up originally.

Then I did it to have a freezer stash for anxiety driven reasons (got to chuck it all out soon). I also used milk so I could go to work and appointments.

After the first 3 months I stopped pumping unless I needed to desperately and I’m now 14 months into breastfeeding. Once I got more comfortable with just putting babe on boob in public, it all got easier

Once breastfeeding was established, I slowly built up a small freezer stash of expressed milk (24hrs worth) in case I became ill/was incapacitated/delayed away from the baby. Our child had CMPA which meant we wouldn't have been easily able to access formula at short notice.

I never really found pumping to give a bottle particularly convenient once you'd factored in pumping time, faffing with the parts, washing up etc. easier just to breastfeed directly! I only ever did it if I needed to go out somewhere and couldn't factor in timely feeds before/after.

I returned to work at 9 months pp and pumped 2x a day whilst at work to maintain supply, keep my breasts healthy, and supply two sippy cups of milk for nursery per day. I stopped this at maybe 14 months as baby not bothered and was happy to drink (oat) milk. I continued breast feeding until 22 months.

These are all very interesting reasons!

Did you buy a bottle warmer for on-the-go bottle feeds? I'm very keen to establish a routine of going out with baby but they're due in November so I'm worried about cold bottles.

Pumping is a pain and you want to avoid it in the early days unless you're trying to increase a low supply. Breastmilk production is based on a supply and demand basis, so the best thing you can do early on is just feed, on demand, as much as baby wants - don't mess around with the signals by pumping, signalling your "baby" is hungrier than they are if that makes sense.

Once you get to about 4-6 weeks in you can pump if you want to. Personally I never had much luck with any kind of pump and gave up fairly quickly. DS2 was in NICU overnight which really seemed to confuse my body meaning I produced less and it took ages for the mature milk to come in, so I tried pumping with him to stimulate supply, it was mostly a frustrating experience. He ended up needing to be mixed fed breastmilk and formula anyway. So I got a couple of the small ready made cartons in for DS3 rather than bother with pumping but I don't think he ever used them. He was born during COVID so I didn't leave him with anyone.

I think most people who use the electric pumps are pumping full time.

All the little slideshows on this channel are brilliant - would totally recommend for BF info.

Pumping is the worst. No way would I deal with all that hassle to feed her a bottle when I could just breastfeed. I know some mums are embarrassed in public but it makes life so much easier. You'll already be carrying around nappies, changes of clothes, all sorts. Last thing you want to do is add a cold pack/milk/bottles.
I did it to make sure she was getting enough during the first week because of jaundice. After that I built up a freezer stash for when I was at work/university. This time around I won't bother building up a freezer stash. I'll just pump at work/university and if it's not enough then husband/Grandma can supplement with formula. For my first I hated the idea of my daughter having formula but this time I'm not so worried.
I will say the manual pumps (Medela particularly) are far better in my experience than the electric pump I used at the hospital. More effective and didn't make me feel like a cow attached to a milking machine.
Also, you may not need a bottle warmer at all. My daughter always had it straight from the fridge.

I gave up because my baby refused point blank to take milk from a bottle.

I thought I would do it so someone else could give a bottle but it’s a pita and I found it more trouble than it was worth unless you need to go somewhere without the baby or are unwell. I pumped successfully for one dc who was tube fed in scbu (with excellent hospital pump) and a little bit due to pain if I hadn’t fed for while (with less good pump at home). I know someone who pumped for all feeds and bottle fed which is a mammoth undertaking. Pumping will improve your supply when you do it alongside breastfeeding but doing it instead of feeding leads to reduced supply - it’s just not as good as a baby. Some people pre-empt growth spurts by pumping and freezing so when the growth spurt comes you have frozen milk plus an improved supply. My babies all got lazy with breastfeeding once they started with bottles.

I did it so someone else was able to feed the baby so I wasn’t the sole source of food.

They always refused to drink out of a bottle however, so I mainly used it in porridge and stuff for them I think.

A huge amount of effort and between that and breastfeeding I felt like I was being permanently milked - often with little milk produced too.

It was a lot more difficult to pump than people let on. However next time I’ll do it again - just from earlier, so the baby actually takes a bottle. I felt very trapped by breastfeeding.

My son wouldn’t latch at all. I desperately wanted to breastfeed, so my husband I went out and bought an electric double headed breast pump. I managed to exclusively pump to feed for 6 weeks, then supplemented with formula for a further 6 weeks.

it was exhausting and it was painful. To try to keep my supply, even in the middle of the night, I’d have to get up, feed the baby with what I expressed earlier, then express, then wash and sterilise everything so it was ready for a few hours time.

With my second son he was BF constantly - I was getting maybe 20 min breaks. It was so, so painful I hated every second. I managed for a few weeks then tried to express to make it easier on me. I gave up a few weeks later when I was sobbing with painful boobs and blood pouring into the bottle of milk and I realised I couldn’t do it anymore.

when I had my third and final son I went straight to bottles for my own mental health. I hated every aspect of breastfeeding.

I pumped exclusively from a few weeks pp till my baby was 11 months.

For us it was a combination of things. My very fast let down and oversupply and my baby's tongue tie which the mw failed to diagnose despite me going to her twice. Consultant snipped it eventually but it was too late and my baby just wanted a bottle.

If you're out and about, it would be so much simpler just to bf rather than faff with bottles.

With dc1 i went back to work at 6 months and so built up a supply for nursery from about 3 months.
With dt I pumped a lot so I could be one and bottle feed the other when I was out for speed.
I also had small amounts for adding to food when weaning (two of mine had allergies so was easier) frozen in ice cube trays.
I'd always use it as a last resort its hard work. Never had a bottle warmer wasn't really worth it for the small amounts.

Initially I just used my Haakaa when feeding the babies. Then I bought a handsfree pump to use when I was doing the school run. It kept my supply very, very high and - madly - helped my mental health, because I was sadly very fixated on losing baby weight. Lost too much, if I’m honest.

Long story short, I ended up having to buy another freezer for my milk. It was ridiculous. My husband gave them the very odd bottle of EBM.. and my mother on the rare occasion she had a baby for 2/3 hours to let us get something to eat/go to the cinema - but I didn’t leave the kids for any longer than that until they were 1 and I had to return to work.

I never ever took a bottle anywhere, mind you. If I was with the baby, then the baby got a boob.

I am not some raving lunatic either, I’m actually very, very lazy and cba with bottles. I remember at mums & tots, the other mums would use breastfeeding as some indicator of superiority.. I was like 👍🏼 whatever you want, I just cba washing bottles lol

I pumped for 5 months because I had supply issues and we had tongue tie issues too. Initially my supply was building nicely in the NICU but then 1 comment from a NICU nurse (I say comment, it was terrible advice) and my supply started to drop. I wouldn't advise anyone to pump unless they have to. It nearly caused me to have a total mental breakdown.

I had five days of exclusive pumping and it was awful. I can't even imagine what five months must have been like. I'm so sorry you went through that.

Just a different perspective, but I have very little choice.

My baby was unfortunately born at 33+1, and my milk didn’t come in for 8 days. All of his feeds had to be carefully measured to ensure he was getting enough to remain alive and well, so I had to pump it out so they could measure and give it via his NG tube.

Because of all the stress and trauma, I also had supply issues but was desperate to keep going because I want him to have the best chance at fighting off all the winter bugs with my antibodies, which he won’t get from the horrible preemie formula. He also tolerates breast milk so much better, the formula makes him refluxy, but being so early he also doesn’t have the suck, swallow, breathe reflex down, so he can’t be exclusively breast fed. He also has latch issues.

Honestly, it sucks and I hate it. Constantly chained to a pump. It’s been a horrific experience and having a low supply has added mountains to it.

I pumped because my baby was tube fed for the first week of her life in scbu, and also had an undiagnosed tongue tie so couldn’t latch. By the time that had been snipped she would only accept a bottle but I wanted her to have breast milk. It was insanely hard work. I also built up a stash of frozen milk and was able to give her a bottle everyday for three months after I stopped pumping. She was combination fed.

I wouldn’t have chosen to pump but unfortunately my daughter had a tongue-tie and breastfeeding was incredibly painful for me so the midwives on the postnatal ward told me to stop breastfeeding and give formula. The infant feeding support in hospital was dire but I saw a private lactation consultant once I was home and she supported me to do triple feeding with a hospital grade pump to re-start my supply. She also diagnosed the tongue tie (I was repeatedly told there was no tongue tie while in hospital). Once my supply was established I no longer needed to pump or give formula but did occasionally use a wearable pump so we had a little milk in case of illness/ emergency/ appointments etc.

Most people I’ve spoken to (at baby groups etc.) who pumped from fairly early on did it because there were issues with breastfeeding rather than actively choosing to pump.

Thanks everyone. Sounds like a lot of you pumped because you had to, not out of choice.

We'll just have to see my journey goes!