Pumping

J

jodymo

Registered User
I'm planning on breast feeding and then pumping when i go back to work. The only thing is, my mum just told me she could only breast feed for about 4 weeks before her milk dried, now i'm worried about forking all that money out on a mega-pump, which I might not use. Is it better to get it before, or wait and see how I go?

Help!
 
Some women do not produce enough milk and have the true inability to produce enough milk, but it is very rare, and usually related to hormone disorders or underdeveloped breast tissue, the mom common scenario is that women have a decrease in supply due to preventable factors, such as not nursing frequently enough, a baby with a poor latch who does not drain the milk well, a variety of other problems,and the less you take out, the less you make. Chances are you will be just fine in terms of milk supply. Nurse baby on demand, get help from a LC if you are having latch problems. The baby is the best pump there is, but if you are going to work and need a pump anyways, try renting a hospital grade pump, the better the pump, the more milk you will get. The best thing you can do to have a good supply is to latch baby deeply, and nurses as often as baby wants to. The more you nurse, the more milk you will have.
 
There are three types of reasons why a mother may not have enough milk:

  • Problems with the mother (an example is a thyroid problem – improve the mother’s health and the milk supply improves – these problems are rarely inherited)
  • Problems with the baby (an example is tongue-tie – this may be inherited)
  • Problems with the breastfeeding management (this is by far the most common problem – this is not inherited. But if your mother had problems with milk supply and you follow her advice then you are likely to have the same management problems. The solution is to get lots of education about breastfeeding from someone who has been successful at breastfeeding their own babies and is trained to help – an LLL Leader is ideal.)

The most common reasons for not having enough milk are:

  • Giving Supplements
  • Improper Positioning
  • Nipple Confusion
  • Pacifier Use
  • Nipple Shields USe
  • Scheduled Feedings
  • Placid, Sleepy Baby
  • Limiting the Length of Feedings
  • Only Using One Breast per Feeding

The first six weeks are very important in breastfeeding. It is advised to breastfeed directly between eight and twelve times a day (24 hours) until the baby knows exactly how to breastfeed and the mother has total confidence that all is working well. If after this time you want to pump and feed bottles to the baby you are much less likely to run into problems. If, however, you start pumping and feeding bottles at six days rather than six weeks you are likely to run into problems.

In order to save money I would suggest that you order the pump about a week before you return to work (even if buying one I’d not get it before because then the guarantee will last longer).

If for some reason you need to use a pump earlier then rent/buy it at that time. Hong Kong is always open. It is possible to get a pump when you need one – you don’t have to buy it a long time in advance.

Also remember that hand expressing is usually just as good. And if you need to express milk while you have colostrum (the first four days) hand expressing is much more likely to get milk than pumping. Colostrum is very thick (more like honey than water) and so the pumps are not any good at getting it out.

LLL do an antenatal class which will give you all of the information you need to successfully breastfeed your baby. See http://www.lllhk.org/Meetings.html for the schedule and http://www.lllhk.org/Class.html for details of the class.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
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I agree with all that has been posted. There are ways to stimulate your supply to ensure that you do not have a problem. Why not rent a pump instead of buy one? I rented a double electric Medela pump and it was totally brilliant. Celki is the name of the company who rents them, I can try to find the number if you need it otherwise call the Matilda and ask the OB staff to tell you the number - they have flyers for Celki on the ward.

All the best!
 
hi

thanks for some great advice - i guess i'll hold off buying one for now! turtle, if you have the number that would be great. What are the costs of renting versus buying?
 
Just to give you some encouragement, I have been expressing since my baby was born as she was premature and never learnt how to latch on propoerly. She is now 7 months old.

Despite what a lot of friends told me about milk supply decreasing if you express only, I managed to keep the supply up and fed my baby on expressed breast milk only for the first 6 months. I used the Medela Symphony pump.

Good luck!
 
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