How to Build Up a Breast Milk Supply
Hello mamas! Melissa here, back with our weekly Tuesday how to video on one of my favorite topics: breastfeeding!
I’ve learned a lot about boosting breast milk supply through the highs and lows of nursing five babies. In this little video, I’ll explain how pumping after breastfeeding, even for just five minutes, can increase your breastmilk supply, reduce stress, and allow your baby to get breast milk for a longer period of time. Read on and watch my video for details!
Breast Milk Supply
With my first baby Hedley, I strove to keep exclusively breastfeeding him once I had returned to work and was pumping, but found that I had trouble keeping my breast milk supply up since I was away from the baby for long stretches. With my second baby Lachlan, one friend recommended this precious tip, which helped me SO much that I am now imparting to you amazing moms: after your baby has finished nursing, and is awake and full, pump from both breasts for just 5 minutes or so. This allows you to even out your breast production, ensuring that you are breastfeeding and pumping evenly from each breast, and to produce a bit more breastmilk that you can store. Imagine you do this 6 times a day in the early months, producing just an ounce each time: by the end of the day, you have a nice big 6 ounce bag of breastmilk that you can freeze. Love that.
I found that by following this “pump after nursing” system, I stimulated my body to produce milk, stored up a nice little stash of frozen breast milk, and reduced my stress because I knew I had plenty of breastmilk on hand when I needed it. On days when I was not pumping as much as I would have liked, I became less anxious since I knew my freezer house plenty of bags of frozen breastmilk. Since breastmilk when frozen properly can last for a very long time, you’ll be storing breast milk in the fridge that your baby can enjoy days and even months later.
Hope you enjoyed my little video with these breast pumping tips and that you’ll try it out yourself!
Comments
Kourtney
Hi, my little one is 3 days old and nursing like a champ so far! My milk has come in and we are doing great! I really love your idea of pumping after feeding and can’t wait to get started! Is 3 days too soon to start? Also, he is finishing one breast before I offer him the other and he normally doesn’t take more than a couple sucks from the second side. Should I be pumping just from the side he emptied or both? Thank you so much!
Sarah
Hi Melissa,
I am a first-time mom of a 4-month old. Now that he is eating more per feeding, I find I am going through my stash much faster so I would like to start doing this. Can I keep my pump bottles/breastshields together and in the fridge throughout the day and just pull them out and attach them to my tubing/pump each time? Will the back and forth with temperature do anything weird to the milk or will it be okay since it’s really only 5 minutes out of the fridge at a time? I find myself dreading pumping because cleaning all the little parts each time takes so much time. BUT if it is safe to just keep it together and in the fridge throughout the day and clean everything once at night, I would be a lot more inclined to want to do it. Thanks so much!
Meera
Hi Melissa,
Just wanted to thank you so much for this priceless tip on boosting supply. Breastfeeding was going well for me as I nursed my baby directly for the first three months of maternity leave. I would fit in occasional 15-20 minute pumping sessions during this time so I could get the baby used to a bottle; these sessions always yielded a very good amount with minimal effort. At the three-month mark, I started thinking about pumping to prepare for returning to my job at 4.5 months postpartum. Coincidentally, my supply suddenly regulated and pumping sessions were coming up short (perhaps timed with baby starting to sleep longer stretches at night). This was causing a lot of anxiety around whether I could keep up with baby’s demands.
By pumping a few minutes after each nursing session, I was able to boost my supply back up in a matter of a couple of weeks. I also built up a nice freezer supply by combining short pumping sessions with a couple of longer morning/evening sessions. I feel confident that I’ll be able to leave baby with expressed breastmilk in my absence with the nursing/pumping routine that I’ve developed.
Nobody really teaches you how to transition into pumping, and leaving your baby to return to work is such a stressful process. Your tip really helped me with this transition, and your website has become a go-to resource for me as a first-time mom! I am going to be pointing all my mama friends to your site in the future!