Bad Breastfeeding Advice

[Noelle610]

Hey girls - hope everyone is doing well!

A lot of the moms in my moms group go to a local breastfeeding support group run by a popular lactation consultant. She's telling most of the women that for the first couple weeks postpartum, they need to pump after every feed to increase supply. This is really bothering me. My understanding is that it's very rare to have true low supply. I would thinking pumping so early on would actually lead to issues, such as oversupply. I don't understand why she wouldn't just suggest letting nature run it's course by encouraging cluster feeding and comfort sucking to increase supply.

I was give this advice by a pediatrician when my LO was small and I feel like it was detrimental to my success with breastfeeding. She had difficulty latching (her new pediatrician thinks her tongue doesn't protrude past her bottom lip, which contributed to our issues, but no one noticed this at the time) and I pumped after every feed. We gave her a bottle early on and she certainly preferred it. I ended up exclusive pumping and it damn near killed me. I guess I'm still a little sad about all of this and I want the moms in my group to have support.

Any thoughts on how I can guide them in the right direction? Am I mistaken in believing they're getting bad advice?

 

[missk1989]

Pumping after every feed isnt necessary. I didn't pump until 4 weeks and have had as great supply. So good I was able to donate some to the milk pump. I'd just point out that they are likely to be exhausted enough in the first few weeks so unless they actually have a low supply, feeding OK n demand should be enough.

 

[vintagecat]

Early pumping as encouraged by the nurses at my clinic lead to major oversupply problems that took nearly 3 months to correct. It resulted in my daughter being very cranky and she kept having an imbalance in her diet due to too much foremilk. It was such a nightmare. I don't pump at all now and it's so much better. Just pumping for one week caused us so much trouble. Perhaps it works out for other women, but I will not be doing this with my future children! It's so much more relaxing to let nature do it's job.

 

[mia_leacey]

Definitely don't pump! I really can't respond to a pump and it caused me so much anxiety in the first few weeks, it made me think I must not have any milk at all. It's a stressful enough time.

 

[Casey3]

Horrible advice.. I have never ever pumped and I still had a major oversupply in the first few months, I think pumping would have made that a kazillion times worse and poor LO already hated getting sprayed in the face and would pull off screaming.. I can't imagine making even MORE milk. Thankfully your body knows what its suppose to do, I'm a believer in trusting your baby and your body and letting nature take its course and regulate its own milk supply (aside from some block feeding so LO didn't drown in milk!) unless of course there are true low supply issues or other problems

Funny that advice seems common there, its def now here.. All the LCs I saw all said don't pump unless you HAVE to...

 

[socitycourty]

My doctor told me to pump because we couldn't figure out what was wrong with my LO.....it caused me an oversupply which then really aggravated her reflux, she was projectile puking during feeds, after feeds, every time I tried to set her down. It was awful. The pediatrician told me I shouldn't have been pumping unless i needed to give her a bottle.

Well it wasn't the oversupply that was the problem but she has the rare breastmilk allergy, took the pediatrician a month to figure that out but by then I was just a mess and tried hypoallergenic formula which finally helped.

I was so tired of conflicting advice and no one knowing what they were talking about.

My sister had a true low supply and even with taking so many supplements and pumping after every feed and in the middle of the night it never really increased. so it doens't work for everyone.

 

[Dk1234]

Just from personal experience it was great advice for me. I did and my son gained a lot of weight and he never cluster fed trying to up my supply (until 6 weeks and I had stopped pumping a few weeks before that) plus I built a great stash which I needed. I think if you're in America and returning to work at 6 weeks this is actually amazing advice.

Obviously if you have oversupply you should stop. And they have me this advice because my son was so big. 10 lbs.

 

[beautifulpack]

Why are people so against pumping? If you dont respond to it thats fine, but pumping has been great for me. Very time consuming yes, but I gain alot of satisfaction from still being to give my baby breastmilk.

 

[summer rain]

I don't think people are against pumping per se however for some women pumping in the early days can cause more problems than it solves and a lot of women give up BF very early on because they try pumping, don't respond to the pump as the manufacturers advertise as the norm and so they think their baby isn't getting enough. In some regards pump manufacturers can be as bad as formula manufacturers for undermining successful BF xx

 

[Jokerette]

I wouldn't advise women to pump until week 3 at least , that way they have an idea of their milk supply and it is regulated by the baby not the pump. At 3 weeks they will probably know if they have a low supply or an oversupply and they can pump accordingly! Pumping is a slippery slope for women with an oversupply

 

[Noelle610]

Why are people so against pumping? If you dont respond to it thats fine, but pumping has been great for me. Very time consuming yes, but I gain alot of satisfaction from still being to give my baby breastmilk.

Oh I'm not against pumping. But my understanding is that if you're trying to feed directly from the breast, a babies natural inclination to suck should work well in building your supply.

I exclusively pumped for 6 months. Some of the issues I had breastfeeding were related to my daughter, but I think I could have overcome them if I had been better educated and had better support. I really wanted to feed directly from the breast. If I can help the fellow moms in my group, I'm happy to.

 

[bananaz]

Like others here, I had a horrible oversupply in the first few months (also due in large part to a bad bit of advice from my LO's pediatrician) and I can't imagine how much worse it would've been if I was pumping regularly. I don't know if there's a whole lot you can do except to maybe find something from a reputable source saying that that isn't necessary and showing it to the LC.

 

[NoodleSnack]

I don't think she should have given blanket advice like that. It's best to explain what pumping does and in what situation it's best to do it. I had oversupply (before pumping) and my baby was gassy from too much foremilk and had a hard time at my left breast because of the fast let down, so I pumped instead of feeding him from that breast for a while, so I found pumping quite helpful.

Like everything else, from childbirth to looking after a baby, there's always conflicting advice because people's experiences are different, they dealt with different cases which led them to form certain opinion. It's best to do our own research and understand the mechanics so we can decide what's most suitable in our particular situation.