pumping

[donkey]

Has anyone have experience of not able to pump milk? I have tried using both manual and hospital grade pump but failed to pump out any excess milk after feeding - Can only pump out very little. However, when I squeeze my breast I still have milk out. Would like to hear from anyone who has experienced this.

Am a new mum of 3 weeks and milk came in in day 5.

Thanks

 

[LLL_Sarah]

I?ve know quite a lot of mothers who haven?t been successful with pumping.

One mother I know had four fully breastfed babies and was never able to get any milk when pumping or hand expressing. I remember that her third child was 28 lbs at eight months and had not yet started solids (yes she was like a baby sumo wrestler). So it was clear that this mother had a huge amount of milk ? just that she couldn?t get it out without the baby?s help.

The amount of milk you can pump or express is only the amount you can get out of your body ? not the amount you have.

There is a hand expressing technique called the Marmet Technique, http://www.lactationinstitute.org/MANUALEX.html
This is useful because it helps the let-down and so you tend to get more milk.

Some mothers have found that the pumps are not good at getting the let-down to happen and so they use hand expression until the let-down and then swap to pumping. You can also use the times at the end of the Marmet Technique, including the massage, stroke and shake but instead of doing the hand expression use the pump.

Best wishes,
SARAH

 

[miaka]

i've found that if i'm feeding on one side and pumping the other at the same time, i'm able to get milk out. but w/o bb's stimulation, i have difficulty as well.

 

[joannek]

i had a lot of problems pumping, by manual or hospital grade electric pumps. especially the first month. the first mth of pumping by manual or electric let me realised that i had a lot of blockage, so the milk wasn't coming out. but when i hand-express, i could target specific areas, and the stimulation was so much more "normal". i also had better let down when using hand-expressing. the only manual pump that managed get more milk was the Avent ISIS. but still, manual expressing was much much more efficient. i could get 9oz from both breasts when manual expressing within 5 mins, but with the hospital grade Medela, it took me at least 15 mins to get that amt.