Breast expressing

[Sam456west1999]

Hi, I’m 21 weeks with my second child. I don’t want to breast feed I would like to express but when I start to express ? And how long do I leave it in between expressing ? I have so many questions about it

[Seb9]

La leche league has some really good pumping resources and they have a helpline and meetings you can go to where you can get advice on pumping.

laleche.org.uk/exclusively-...

I only pumped a few times as I just didn't want to deal with all the sterilising etc as well as breastfeeding, but if you're going to exclusively breastfeed, investing in a really good double pump would be my advice. If you can afford it the handsfree one too, so you can pump and carry on doing stuff.

You could also start hand expressing colostrum from around 37/8 weeks and start freezing some. I started off with a few drops and by her birth date I could express any 5ml each time. I got syringes from my midwife and I ordered some online from Amazon. It meant my husband could offer some colostrum to baby in hospital while I had a shower and when we were home I could have a lie down or early night while he took care of baby. They only have tiny bellies at first so a couple of 5ml syringes would fill her up at first.

My only other advice I'd from pumping as well as breastfeeding. Milk comes from your blood, so if you have blood you have Milk, but it takes a while for your body to know how much to send for baby. So lots of regular session will build up your supply. Those first few days should just be about feeding (pumping) and snuggling. Get people to bring you food and water and don't plan anything else. There's no prizes for trying to 'get back to normal'. With my first I tried to do too much and feeding was a bit harder than for my second when I let others do a lot for me. If people offer help, give them something to do that makes your day easier.

Lastly that milk supply is stimulated by love hormones, so bring stressed, tired or run down can hinder your supply. Make sure when you feed, you're as relaxed and cosy as possibly. I used to have chocolate hobnobs next to me, a hot chocolate and a romcom or love story on the TV to put me in a lovely mood.

Good luck with it xx

[JoyfulStar]

I think Seb 9 has covered it all. The only other advice I would add is that your baby’s demands will determine how often you express your milk. If you have extra you can always freeze it. I found my frozen breastmilk useful when I went back to work when my daughter was 9 months old.

Also once you have a full supply of milk, if you have a schedule e.g say 5 times a day, don’t skip any sessions to avoid clogged milk ducts. I know plenty of mums who had this issue- myself included and it is not nice. All the best with the rest of your pregnancy x

[Jogsandwalks]

With my son, I thought my breast milk would magically kick in once the baby was born, it didn't and I really had to get it going in the early days. So I started breastfeeding late, I think he was already two weeks old, so not from birth. I think what I'm trying to say is it doesn't matter when you start expressing. I used the Medela automatic (electric) double pump as my main tool. I had two medela hand pumps for when out and about. I also had silicone suction pump to catch surplus when breastfeeding. I ate a lot of Oatibix, I read somewhere that oat increases supply. Drank loads of water, was constantly thirsty. Lanolin breast cream was really useful for repairing sore bitten nipples in the early days of expressing.

I think my schedule was like

0500 first pump

1000/1100 pump

1300/1400 pump

1600/1700 pump

2100 last pump

Wake up with excruciating painful, rock hard, very full boobs in the morning and frantically pump again at 5 in the morning

In all, it was such a chore, a highly recommended chore. It meant I wasn't the only one doing feeds and I could off load my child to anyone who want to feed him. And I bought a mini chest freezer and filled it up with the surplus so as soon as 6 months hit, I stopped. Wound it all down and he still had the frozen extra to get him through a few more months as he transitioned to formula. So I will definitely be expressing again if it I did it again.

[Hiyaaaaaa]

There is a fab FB group Exclusively pumping mamas. As far as I know you can start expressing colostrum from 37+ months as then you are considered full term and expressing might cause contraction so it's relatively safe to express after 37 weeks. But in the EP world I remember they say one should start exclusive pumping after 6 weeks till then BF otherwise may endup having oversupply which comes alot of its own problems. Schedule is more individual and there is so much info available on such groups xx

[MrsOrangejuice]

I had to pump for the first 8 weeks as my baby couldn't latch. It was hard and I felt like I was constantly attached to the pumps as I had a very hungry baby, and at first I was doing it around the clock, even with formula top ups as she was losing weight so rapidly and then taking ages to build back up. I produced masses of milk so assuming it would have been the same with BF, the difference was that I felt pumping took me away from the baby and I would spend 20-40 minutes pumping, then give the bottle to my husband to give her or I would do it, which took about 20mins, then start again. It did settle into more of a schedule and the benefits were that I was able to have some independence and other people could feed her. And as soon as she was able she took to BF absolutely fine and we did mixed from then on. Advice would be to start looking at pumps early on and find one that's right for you - there are lots of different sorts (and sizes of attachments) and the hospital often loans the automatic ones for short periods in the period after birth, before you commit so worth checking this before. I did collustrum harvesting from about 36 weeks and it took a while to get the hang of it and was really dispiriting at first as so little came out at the beginning - it did get much better over a couple of weeks. I took 5 syringes with me to hospital but my LG got through them within hours so wish I'd had more frozen at home as it can take time for your milk to come in properly and pumping at that stage is a bit tricky. Engorgement and blocked ducts are horrible but things like heated pads are great to help relieve them. And I got mastitis twice which you want to avoid if possible so regular pumping (especially over night), and avoiding blocked ducts are key. Support groups are a great help.and have a lot of resources but please don't be too hard on yourself if it doesn't go as expected, and especially if you end up topping up with formula or using only formula - a fed baby is a happy baby and your mental health and wellbeing are just as important.