Why do you want to increase your milk supply? Usually if a mother has breastfed for three months her supply is just right for her baby. If your baby isn?t growing well I would suggest getting help from someone who can help with breastfeeding either a lactation consultant or a LLL leader.
The way the breast ways is that the emptier it is the faster it makes milk. So a full breast makes milk slowly and a breast which is nearly empty (it can never be totally empty) makes milk quickly.
The breast works like a factory manufacturing soft toys. There is a factory and the warehouse. Usually the factory makes the toys at a similar rate to the order coming in and the factory is not working too fast or too slow. Likewise the breast usually makes the milk in line with the speed of the feeds ? not too fast so you get engorged or too slow so the baby has to work hard.
If lots of orders come in suddenly and the warehouse starts to empty the manager increases the speed of production to meet the demand from the orders. Likewise if the baby suddenly has a growth spurt and starts to drink a lot the breasts increases production and increases the speed of milk production.
As the warehouse fills up with no new orders the manager slows down the production and eventually stops it altogether until the next order comes. The breast is like that as it fills the production slows down and then stops until the baby feeds again.
So a baby feeding often is not a problem for the breast but skipping feeds and giving supplements or formula top up is. Because the breast being empty means you?ll make more milk but the breast being full means the production stops.
The other thing to take into account when you are trying to pump milk is your breast capacity. Some mothers have a small breast capacity ? say 3 oz. Thus this mother will need to feed her baby 10 times in 24 hours to give him the 30 oz he requires.
Other mothers have a larger breast capacity ? say 6 oz. This mother will need to feed her baby only 5 times in 24 hours to give him the 30 oz he requires. That is assuming the baby can manage 6 oz at once ? most can?t.
Usually a breastfed baby will feed between 8 and 14 times in 24 hours ?no matter what the mother?s breast capacity is. If, however, you are exclusively pumping to provide milk the size of your breast capacity makes a difference to the number of times you have to pump. The first mother with capacity of 3 oz will have to pump 10 times and the second mother, with capacity of 6 oz, will only have to pump 5 times.
Best wishes,
Barb
