Breastfeeding

[Aypi]

Hi, I had my baby on Saturday and I have always struggled to breastfeed with my other two children because I don’t have enough supply.

I don’t want to breastfeed this time but my breast are starting to fill up I expressed some milk and now their filling up more what can I do to stop them filling up.

[Seb9]

Thees not much you can do to stop them filling in the early days as your hormones will be telling your body to produce milk for baby.If you got something like a Hakka or manual pump to just gently hand express some of the milk off to give you just enough to relieve pressure. You could then feed this to baby as well so they do get some of your milk and anti bodies, but don't express enough to encourage more milk to be produced.

If you don't release the pressure you might end up with Mastitis or blocked ducts so look out for any symptoms of red patches or a high temp as you'll need antibiotics very quickly.

Every feeding journey is different though so it may be that this time round you have a good supply or you could maybe try combination feeding if you've got milk there that's available for baby and use formula too and give baby a bit of both, until you can switch to formula completely? That way you're body can settle to not making milk more gently than trying to stop really quickly.

[Bigblueskies]

Hi Aypi

Congratulations on your new arrival!

Some good advice above, try to avoid leaving the milk as it will make you uncomfortable and can cause mastitis.

It sounds like your supply is probably fine for your baby at this time so you could try breastfeeding but if you prefer not to, then the postnatal midwives will be able to advise how to stop gently so that you don’t get an infection.

Expressing will stop your supply over time as it doesn’t trigger the same hormonal response as feeding your baby directly from the breast (as I was told). So you can definitely get some relief that way to gently stop the supply.

Please also speak to your health visitor, it is a stressful and intense time especially if you already have little ones to look after alongside your new baby.

Big hug!

[Bailey135]

Buy some mini ice packs from Amazon put them in your bra. Tighten your bra nice and tight leave it on as much as possible x

[SRA8]

The more you express the more milk you will produce. Milk production is initially driven by hormone changes that are initiated by the removal of the placenta. Once that stablises it is driven by supply and demand, so the more you remove the more you will make.

If you do want to exclusively express/pump this can be done for as long as you. I did it for 10 months. I know mother who have done it years. Again expressing does not kill supply. It does the opposite.

Very few people have true supply issues. Normally there is an underlying cause. My son couldn't effectively remove milk/latch well. Once I stopped directly feeding and switched to exclusive pumping my supply improved week after week.

There's support avaible if you do want to continue.

If not, try not to express, if you need to for comfort do the absolute minimum. Wear as tight a bra as you can. Do not stimulate the breast at all. Cold compress can help with the discomfort. Some people mention herbal remedies but there isn't any good scientific evidence to back this.

Good luck.