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Pumping breast milk when in-laws are there!

Discussion in 'Breast Feeding' started by Nila, Oct 30, 2006.

  1. Pritirach

    Pritirach Silver IL'ite

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    Hi freinds
    I have a doubt.Although i passed tht satge of BF(my son is 2 and half now)I want to clear this doubt so i can suggest to somebody.I fed my son for just three months:-(.I had no milk after that.even in those three months i felt that he was starving and he used to cry the whole day and i used to feed him whole day.Then the doctor suggested me to start top feed as milk was insufficient and after starting top feed he was ever playful.Poor kid, he was always satrving.

    Once we started top feed he totally refused to drink my milk.it was a battle between both of us.I wanted him to atleast have few drops of BM but he wont.I took lot of meidcine for lactatinng(ayurvedic as well as home remedies,but nothing worked).I felt guilty that i did not feed him, as BM is the best thing for a kid,but could not help it.
    So now my question is does breast pump work for those who have less milk?I have heard this that it works for them as it also increases the supply..................... IS it true ?But it was too late .I was totally dried up by then.
    Priti
     
    Last edited: Aug 30, 2007
  2. gayathriar

    gayathriar Bronze IL'ite

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    Dear Priti,

    I am not really qualified to advice. But, from what I have read, only hospital grade pumps can improve supply. They are really bulky and cannot be carried to work. I used a high-end Medala pump and from my experience if we rely only on the pump, the supply will definitely diminish.

    My kid was loosing weight after two weeks and my pediatrician suggested that I top feed an oz of formula after every feed. But, since I wanted to exclusively feed for atleast the first few months, I tried to get all the help possible and atlast ended up talking to a LLL guide. She told me to throw away the formula and just feed the baby on demand. She also told me that the top feed will slowly reduce and eventually eliminate the supply. She suggested a mininum of 10 feeds for a 2 week old. I followed that advice, and diligently maintained a feeding log and slowly after two weeks started seeing an improvement and no longer worried about the supply. Basically, it was a mind set change I think. I no longer worried if I had to feed the child more frequently and that made the experience less stressful. Crying of the kid could be due to other reasons like 'want of stimulation/attention', 'tiredness', etc.,

    I hope this helps for somebody or your next :wink:

    -Gayathri.
     
  3. aquarian80

    aquarian80 New IL'ite

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    HI

    I too had a problem with decreased milk supply during the initial weeks of my son's birth. This was caused due to my son not being able to latch on properly. And during his 3rd week pediatrician visit since he was not gaining weight as expected we had to start supplementing him with formula. However i wanted to feed him exclusively. So i rented a hospital grade electric pump and started pumping in addition to feeding my baby on demand. also another thing that helped me was taking "fenugreek seed capsules". In US you get them in stores/pharmacies which have baby products and they are also available online for purchase. Fenugreek or methi really helped me to boost my milk supply and i could totally stop supplementing after a month's time. Now we have returned back to India and till last week i was exclusively feeding my son. This week i joined back at work and i have started using a manual pump( you get one from Medela for 35$) in the restroom and feed the milk to my son the next day. He is now almost 4 months of age. I also purchased an electric pump from Avent for 150$ and it is really good. I plan to continue pumping till he is atleast 1 year. And after he is 4 months i plan to introduce semi solids to supplement the BM. Please let me know if any of you have any further queries on increasing BM supply/pumping etc.
     
  4. Aarushi

    Aarushi Platinum IL'ite

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    Hi Nila,

    I don't know if you are still interested in the thread but I thought of posting my experience just in case others might find it useful.

    To pump or not pump is a personal choice. Very often the situation is not as simple as "Just because you are at home, you should directly breast feed the baby and not pump".

    In my case, my baby was feeding from me but I was in tremendous pain...nothing worked. I went to a lactation consultant several times...but even she could not help. So after a month, I resorted to pumping. 6-7 times a day. I would go to my bedroom, shut the door and pump for 20 min. I had kept a small dish drying sheet on the attached bathroom counter where I would wash and keep my bottles and other pump paraphernalia.

    My MIL who had come to visit me for a month was against my using it and said that my milk supply would be reduced. I told her that it was in order to maintain my milk supply that I was using it. And that I had discussed it with my doctor on what was best for me and my baby.

    She gave me a little lecture on why I should directly breast feed and not pump etc etc. But since she was not the one who was suffering with awful and unbearable pain (which incidentally took about 2-3 months to heal), I would listen to her speech with one ear and take it out of the other.

    Pumping worked for me and I was able to feed my baby for 10 months after which she was formula fed exclusively for 2 more months. When she turned 1 year, we switched to whole milk.

    When I joined work after 3 months, I asked my boss to give me a lactation room to pump. In US, it is a legal requirement that you need to accommodate your women employees in this regard.

    There were times I had to go to conferences etc..I would carry my pumping bag and ask one of the women organizers to provide me with a room a couple of times a day to pump. They were invariably helpful.

    I was never ashamed about pumping. I was happy and proud to be able to do so because it gave me a chance to give my baby my precious BM. :)

    So go ahead and be proud of what you are doing for your baby. There is no need to hide it from your MIL. If she gives any lectures, hand her one of the breast pumping booklets and then change the subject...:)

    love,
    Aarushi
     
  5. ssjohn28

    ssjohn28 New IL'ite

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    Hi,

    I would also like to share my breastfeeding experience for the benefit of mothers with low supply. I had a C-section and my baby boy wouldn't latch, he would absolutely throw a fit and ultimately ended up feeding him formula from day 1 and moreover my milk came in only on the 5th day after delivery. As my boy wouldn't breastfeed I was asked to use the breastpump 8 times a day by the nurses at the hospital. At that time I never knew how useful a breatpump is as I never researched on the topic and basically because I never heard about anybody having latch problems within my friends circle and family. So, as I did not know about the importance of pumping and due to my C-section pains I wasn't pumping very religiously. It was definitely difficult to pump for 30mins every 3 hours with the inlaws around. I used to feel guilty I was not helping around the house and with the baby as I should.

    After coming home from the hospital I tried to get the baby to latch but because of no support from anybody at home and his crying I kind of gave up getting him to breastfeed. I started researching on breastpumps and tested almost every breastpump in the market (rented out hospital grade ones). I would get only 1 ounce of milk together from both the breasts every 4 hours. Instead of bonding with the baby I was stuck with a stupid pump.I also tried all herbal remedies like moong dal, oats, fenugreek capsules etc and none of these worked. However I continued to pump so that my baby would atleast get that much BM. My mom would talk to me on the phone and encouraged me to maintain whatever milk supply I had so that she could try and help me out once we got to India.

    When the baby was three months we travelled to India and to my surprise , with the help and patience of my mom, the baby finally learnt to breatfeed. I also took some ayurveda herbal meds to increase my milk supply. My supply did go up by an ounce but not more since by the third month the prolactin level in the body goes down. Anyways I was happy that I got to bond with my baby.

    It is definitely true that inorder to increase the milk supply, we have to breastfeed the baby and keep trying with patience if you have a baby who refuses to latch.When it comes to herbal remedies and food, it works differently in every person, some may see results and some may not.

    Moreover I had health issues like PCOS before conceiving and did not notice any breast changes during pregnancy. Also at the time of labor I was given quite high levels of pitocin to advance the labor. I am not sure but all this may have contributed to the low milk supply as well.

    My advise to future mothers having low milk supply problems is to breastfeed the baby more often especially during the first three months and then switch to the pump depending on your convenience. I do have friends who were able to develop a good milk supply with the pump alone, as I said before it works for some people and it may not for others.
     

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