This is not a blog for those of you who had no choice but to pump because of health issues or because your baby was in the NICU. Neither is this a blog for those of you who pumped and breastfed without any supply problems. This is a blog in response to those of you who have sent me private messages asking me to clarify why I advise so strongly against new moms pumping right away.
The questions and comments are all very similar: “I don’t have enough milk. I can’t even pump a whole ounce.” “I’ve been pumping in between every nursing session and it still isn’t increasing my supply.”
Doubting Your Body’s Ability
Let’s be very clear: your body is designed to breastfeed. It is extremely rare that women actually cannot produce enough milk and is always related to an underlying medical condition. What usually happens is that the new mommy doesn’t have enough support or enough of the right information and without realizing it, she sabotages her supply.
Many new moms, thinking that they have to build a stash of stored milk “for emergencies” or thinking that they are increasing a low supply by pumping attempt to pump soon after delivery. After 10 or 15 minutes they quickly realize that it’s not going so well. They can barely get an ounce and then they assume that that’s how much baby is getting and this must be why he is fussy. The truth of the matter is that newborns fuss.
Pumping early on in the newborn stage (before 6 weeks post partum) often has the result of making you doubt your ability to make milk. Rather than looking at the millimeters on the bottle, look instead at weight gained, and wet diapers. This is a much better indicator of whether or not you’re making enough milk to feed your baby.
What Makes More Milk?
There are two things that lets your body know it needs to up production and a pump can only accomplish one of those things.
The first is when baby suckles at the breast. There is a hormonal response to baby that helps you let down but a pump can mimic that stimulation fairly effectively. It won’t feel the same but will likely accomplish the same–especially if you pump near your baby or while looking at a picture of him.
What the pump can’t do that a baby does very well is effectively ‘empty’ the breast. Your breast is never really empty. . .you’ll produce milk every time baby sucks. But because a baby’s sucking is more effective than a pump, when baby eats a full meal it lets your breasts know that the amount was a good amount. Conversely, when your breast is not ‘emptied’ effectively (as with a pump) your breasts think they made too much milk. In order for your supply to increase you have to have both the stimulation and the milk being removed effectively.
It is best to wait to pump until at least 6-8 weeks post partum or even longer if breastfeeding is not well established by then. The best thing you can do is just nurse your baby and relax. I hope this brief explanation has helped to clear things up for those of you who had questions. Please feel free to PM me any more questions that you might have.
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