One breast producing more milk than the other

S

southside852

Registered User
For the first 8 days, I nursed my son, then found it was just too much for me and my nipples (he has such a strong suck!) and decided to just pump. My left breast produces half of what my right one does. Is this normal? I massage my left as I pump, but am not sure why one produces 40 ML (the most 60 ML) and the other produces 100/120 ML each session. Is there anything I can do to increase milk production on the left side? Should I just let my son nurse from the left to increase stimulation.....any one else have this problem?
 
Me also. My left always had more. I read that this is normal, though it definitely made him nurse on my left more. I read that different sides can have different capacities.
 
yes, I read that it's normal too, but the difference is huge! i thought maybe 20-30 ML difference, but i feel like just pumping 20 MLs out of my left breast takes forever. I just had him nurse directly from my left side so maybe this will help...
 
Yes, even from the beginning (only BFing), the right side was a problem and way more painful. He must have been sucking harder on that side bc there was less milk.
It sounds like a good idea to let him suck directly. It must stimulate things more for sure.
 
yup same thing with me! tried to have my baby suck more on the breast that produced less milk to stimulate more milk and it worked for me - but then baby got so pissed off with sucking something for so long and not getting milk, I couldn't do it for an extended time.
 
I think it's completely normal. For both of my kids my right breast had double the capacity as my left. I had tried to correct it by having my first suck on my left more often but I don't think it made a difference. I didn't even bother with my second. I figured that if I was producing enough milk then it wasn't a big deal. Good luck!
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My right one produces more milk, but I don't really bother since the left one still produces enough to fulfill my baby.
 
My left breast always produced more than my right, didn't pump so not sure about actual volume but there was defiinitely a big difference. As your babies sucking is what increases the supply it will help if you let him suck on the lower volume side, especially as you're in early days so your supply is still getting established.
 
my right breast always produced more. i could get 150ml in about 5-10 minutes of pumping from that breast and only about 50 from the left...
 
My right side is also consistently producing more than my left. i don't really worry about it, although I did some stuff to increase my left side, but it doesn't seem to bother my little girl - she gets enough from each, although she does tend to choke a bit on the right if it is really full! :) No need for her to suck sometimes - it can be like a fountain! (But NEVER like that on the left!)
There is quite a bit that you can do to 'even' up your supply, but it has to be done over time, maybe a week or so. I read some useful info on kellymom.com It involves more consistent and longer pumping sessions on the 'lesser' side. One thing I did was pump my left breast every time after she fed on that side (for a few days) - it did increase that side, but after a while I didn't bother because she was obviously getting enough anyway.
I think it isn't really a huge deal, except perhaps in the case where the size of your breasts may be vastly different which you may be uncomfortable with (esp when going out!). You can google uneven milk production and there is a fair bit of info out there that you may find worth a read.
 
Just to second (or third/fourth/fifth - whatever) what everyone else said, it's completely normal. I didn't notice it specifically the first time around, but I did notice that my daughter was happier on my right side. Now that I'm exclusively pumping, I notice that I get about 50% more from my right than my left. If I pump 100mL from my left, I get 150 from my right generally.

I do notice that my right side is generally bigger than my left and I guess it's because it's got more milk! But I ONLY leak from my left side generally speaking, weird hey?
 
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