- Firstly, you're doing so well to still be going a week on. It will be grueling but another couple of weeks of pumping every 3-4 hours will likely establish a good supply and then you'll be laughing. Unfortunately you can't start to skip those middle of the night pumpings just yet but soon enough you can skip one and get a reasonable night's sleep. It will be easier once you go home as you can put your feet up, relax and pump in front of the telly. I found it really difficult in the hospital with constant rounds for both me and Felix, menu requests, offers of tea, blood pressure checks, etc etc.
- The midwives may suggest you don't 'overpump' in case you get engorged. I ignored this one completely. Pump as much as you can and if you're lucky enough to get any to spare you can pop it in the freezer. I did have a couple of days of engorgement much further down the line but they were so worth it to have the peace of mind of a little spare milk just in case.
- If your pump has a speed setting, use it. Start off with short, quick sucks and slowly turn the dial up to long, slow sucks, and when you finish reverse the process so you end with the short, quick sucks again. This is designed to mimic a baby and is the most efficient way of getting lots out and boosting your supply. You may have been told this, sorry if so - but a lady on my ward was in your exact situation and the midwife who explained the pumping stuff to her never mentioned it and her supply dried up after about a week. There may well have been other factors but I felt she wasn't given a fair go by not being told that iykwim?
- At first I alternated boobs - I did 3 minutes on each boob, three times. Once things were a bit more established I could just empty each boob in turn but this seemed to help get the last drop out when there wasn't much in there in the early days. Also massage your boobs as you feel/see the flow start to slow down, there'll be more in there. Sometimes I felt like I was practically wringing mine out
But by being totally empty you're telling your body it needs to make more. For the same reason, I'd suggest pumping for a further few minutes after any milk stops coming out as then your body 'thinks' a hungry baby is still chomping away.
- You can't drink enough, just drink, drink, drink. Try your best to get plenty to eat and also anything oaty is meant to help with supply. I had trouble a few weeks in where it started to diminish and after eating two bowls of porridge a day (and maybe lots of hobnobs
) I noticed a definite and almost immediate increase.
- The skin to skin sounds great but when you can't do that, look at a photo of them or take something they've worn home with you you so can cuddle up to it and smell them. It is admittedly a poor substitute but can help to stimulate the same hormones.
- Finally, ignore all this and stop if you need to. Or pump a little bit, as you say anything is better than nothing. You have a lot on your plate and you're doing amazingly to be doing this at all. You're doing those little girls of yours proud
)))
