Milk Production

[cmkimeu]

Hello ladies. I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl on Decmber 31st and breastfeeding was extremely painful for the first week. I called the breastfeeding hotline constantly and finally saw a lactation consultant. I've got my daughter to latch on better but my left breast never seems "full" and it never drips when my daughter cries like my right breast does. She never seems satisfied by the left but I try and get her to feed for at least 10-15 minutes on the left before she gets frustrated and I am forced to switch her to the right. She seems full once she feeds from the right. My question concerns how to increase production of milk in my left breast. I usually start the feeding session on the left to try and increase it that way but it does not seem to be helping. She usually ends up just "gumming"the breast until she falls asleep or gets frustrated.

[sferguson17]

Welcome & congratulations on your baby! Glad things are improving.

You're doing the right thing by offering the left breast first. Don't worry about it too much though. A lot of women have one breast that produces more than the other, and a lot of babies develop a preference for one breast or another. Also, many women are able to successfully breastfeed on just one side.

If it is really important to you to increase production from the left breast, you might want to try breast compressions on the left breast: http://www.kellymom.com/newman/15breast_compression.html You could also try feeding on the left, then the right, then back to the left if she'll take it. You could try pumping just to get the left side started, then put her on. That way if it's an issue of a slow let down compared to your right side you'll get the letdown going so she won't have to work as hard. If none of that works, you could try pumping the left breast until it's empty. You might want to wait a couple more weeks though as your production is just being established, & you don't want to mess things up. You could use a manual or electric pump to pump the left side after each feed. Your milk supply is all about supply and demand. The more you take out, by baby or pump, the more your body makes.

Way to go so far, and come back with any other questions. There are a lot of very wise ladies here. You might want to post on the General Breastfeeding Board as it gets more traffic.