hi Mamas. I'm Shen and welcome back to my channel at Mama Banana where I share
hacks tips and how-to tutorials for moms. so today I'm going to share
with you how to increase your milk supply when pumping. so just to give you
a bit of background I exclusively pumped for my daughter for the first two months
because a) she wouldn't latch and b) pumping would help to increase my milk supply.
After I gave birth to my daughter I got a visit from the hospital lactation
consultant. when she came to examine me she said that because I have more than a
four-finger gap between my breasts I may not have enough breast tissue currently
to produce enough milk for my daughter so I had to pump with a
hospital grade pump to try to change that. so the 4 finger gap test is, you put four
fingers here in the center between your breasts if there is more than a gap of
that size between your breast then there may not be enough breast
tissue. so pumping was one way to resolve that. so what you need to know is
the more you empty your breasts the more milk you will produce so you just need
to keep on pumping or feeding to keep emptying the breast and that will
trigger a message to your body to produce more milk. so that is the simple
logic of it. so first of all I rented a hospital-grade pump this was the Medila
double breast pump. so at the start of every feeding session I would put my
daughter to my breasts to try to breastfeed her. for me my daughter
never really latched initially but it was still important to keep doing this
for the skin-to-skin and for your body to help produce more milk. having a baby
up close will help do that. so after I tried to feed my baby then I
would pump for 20 to 40 minutes afterwards, ideally 40 minutes but in the
early days that can be very exhausting so a minimum of 20 minutes and then you
will have the setting of the pump on slightly higher than you're comfortable
with and you keep on increasing that over time to have it
as high as possible. but only on a slightly higher setting than you're
comfortable with and then it's very important to pump every three hours (if feeding a newborn) yes
this means doing so even in the middle of the night because if you're still in
the early days then you're trying to increase your milk supply. this is the
most important time to be doing this especially if you're like me and don't
have enough breast tissue to start with. so if your baby does feed from you then
you should be pumping about ten to twenty minutes after each feed. if your
baby hasn't fed from you then you should be pumping twenty to forty
minutes after each feed. And then it's very important that you pump and
empty from both breasts. and here's a tip if you don't have a double pump and just
have a single pump like I did. even though I rented a hospital-grade double
pump I ended up buying just a single pump so what I did was I used one of
these Haakaa pumps. so on the breast that I wasn't using the electronic pump
I'd put on the Haakaa pump on, so this is actually great for catching let down.
the letdown is essentially the free milk that you get not requiring any effort it
just comes out so if you put this on it it will gently suction out that milk
that's flowing out anyway and you can capture all that. this is great if your
baby will actually latch on as well then you could just capture the let down
milk and save all that throughout the day and that could be a full feed that
you can freeze then. So if you only have a single pump you put the pump on one
breast and then you get your Haakaa pump and flip this little flap backwards
squeeze all the air out. put this onto your nipple and that will create a gentle
suction onto your breast and all catch all the milk and then as that fills up
you can keep squeezing the air out and once it's full obviously you will then
pour this into a bottle that you're using to save up your milk. *Then you switch breasts for the Haakaa &electric pump. Just a quick
tip if you are using a Haakaa pump, they're not very sturdy,
so what I do is I keep a little teacup on my bedside and I put this into the cup
just to make sure it doesn't spill.
if you are using the Medela pump
just note that there are different size flanges. so this flange is what
you actually use to put up against your nipple. So you have to make sure that
this is the right size for your nipple. the one that I have bought that was kind
of a standard size in the hospital was a bit too small but, following on
from recommendation, I purchased a slightly larger one and this one fit
perfectly and I was actually able to pump more milk using the bigger flange.
so your nipple should go inside the whole flange but it should not be rubbing up
against the outside of the flange which will make it uncomfortable. *Too small will also be uncomfortable. so the next
time you're using the pump just observe it and see if you need to change your
size of flange. If you look on the Medila website you will see the different sizes
that are available and if you look on your flange here, all right you'll see it
etched in the side, so this is 27 mm so that's how you will know.
Make sure you have spare membranes for your pump okay so this is the little
membrane on my Melida pump so this little flappy silicone thing. so if you're
exclusively pumping these might need to be replaced roughly once a month so just
to show you this is the part here that attaches to your pump like this. and it's
this valve right here, it won't be visible to you that it needs to be replaced. It'll just be
if your supply is dipping, But something else to point out as well, your supply might
dip if you're very stressed or you're getting your periods so it may not
always be down to your equipment.
And just a quick tip if you are going to be
pumping for a long period, is to get a hands-free pumping bra. so I made one
myself, it was recommended in the hospital. but you just get one of your
bras ideally a sports bra type and you put it on and you mark where your
nipples are with a marker and then you just cut a small hole into the bra and
then you'll push the flange from your pump through the small hole and force
it out. that way you get a really snug fit around the flange. it's particularly
important for those of us that aren't very big along the chest that
everything is nice and snug. If you have big breasts or if you just really fill out
your bra then it doesn't have to be this snub because your breasts will kind of help
keep everything in place. But if you're small breasted like myself then you kind
of need everything snug to help keep all the equipment in place.
if you can fit in an extra pumping session then I would highly recommend
to do so, to help increase your milk supply when pumping. so I would recommend this
more so after your baby has passed the newborn period, just because you have
enough to be doing in the early days and weeks that you may not have time for
this but once you're kind of settled into a routine or maybe your baby has
dropped a feed or two then you can try to maintain their current feeds or
pumping sessions and don't drop them that way you've get to keep producing the
extra milk.
and then they really quick and easy tip on how to increase your
milk while pumping is to actually look at your baby or look at videos or
photographs of your own baby while pumping. I noticed this when I was in the
hospital and my baby was in the special care unit and we were separated.
when I
was looking at videos of her I did produce more milk.
and then when you do
think that your breasts are empty and you're done with deep pumping I
recommend just hand express yourself even for a minute or so just to get that
little bit extra milk out and it's also good for helping you practice at
hand expressing. so I'm actually not the best at hand expressing myself. I
find it really awkward especially since I have carpal tunnel after giving birth
to my daughters. But I will link a video down below in the description box on how
to hand express.
I'd highly recommend taking Lecithin tablets.
that's something I recommend in general when breastfeeding I just found that with
myself when I was pumping I just ended up with a lot of blocked milk ducts
because I wasn't the best at emptying my breasts but taking Lecithin
tablets while breastfeeding will help keep the milk flowing and to reduce the
chances of blocked milk ducts. I will link an article from Kelly mom in the
video description box below so that you'll see how much you should be taking.
and then finally you can take oats to help with increasing milk production. so
you can take this in the form of porridge, or granola type bars or
even oat milk. Personally I drank a lot of oat milk because I just found
that that was the easiest way for me to consume it. I don't particularly enjoy
porridge or any the other things but with milk it's so easy to drink and
then my last and final advice is exactly what everyone else says the cure for
everything is, to drink lots of water.
water has been proven to help with your
milk supply. And try not to stress about the milk that you're producing I know
it's easier said than done.
Just a quick little disclaimer before you start
Pumping in the early days, make sure you have been advised to do so or you're
certain that you are not producing enough milk so you might need to check
with your GP Midwife or whoever because if you start pumping in the early days
when you're producing enough milk, you could create an oversupply so that
you may not be emptying your breasts in full which could lead to mastitis. so
only pump in the early days if you're sure that you need to increase your milk
supply a lot of women do tend to doubt themselves so you're best off getting an
expert opinion that you are required to increase your milk supply before you start
pumping .
so I hope you found this video useful, if you did please do give it a
like and make sure to support by subscribing to my channel. next week I
will be uploading a video on my top pumping tips okay so make sure to watch
that. once that's available I will link that in the cards up above thank you so
much for watching. until the next video bye.