Express too little milk

[chungcat]

My daughter is 8 weeks old now and she is nursed at breast exclusively. She is gaining weight so I guess I don't have any issue with milk supply. Since I need to go to work soon, I want to express the milk and bottle feed her. However, no matter I use an electronic pump or manual pump, there is little milk coming up. At her age, she probably needs at least 2.5 oz milk pre feeding. I could only express at most 1.5 oz milk total from two breasts after 20 minutes of pumping and skipping a feeding.

Does that mean my baby cannot have my breast milk after I go to work? Is there any way to increase the amount of express milk?

[crystal555rose]

The more you pump and the more comfortable you are, the more milk you get. You get the highest volume after the morning feed. I would feed baby, then pump. I would also feed and pump at lunch (I had the luxury of seeing him at lunch!). I would then pump after he went to bed at night.

You have to be comfortable, relaxed and thinking of baby in order to let down if you are having a hard time. The quality of the pump can also make a difference. Hand compressions while pumping also help.

Pumps are not babies and your body knows this. Never gauge your supply by the volume you are able to pump. A healthy peeing baby indicates a good supply.

As far as being able to have enough while you are away... I guess if you do not have enough expressed milk you will be forced to provide supplementation in the form of donated milk or formula. It is imperative that you pump for every feeding you miss even if you cannot get out the same volume as baby. You have to let your body know that the milk is needed so it will continue to produce.

I sincerely hope that you get better at pumping, which is likely to happen with practice and patience. Good luck!

[whitnessforhim]

If you are pumping on top of exclusively nursing it would make sense as to why you aren't seeing a huge output in milk. This will change when you start work because you will be pumping in place of a nursing session. Some women do have a difficult time getting use to pumping but give it some time and I am sure you will do well. 1.5oz of milk is a pretty good output when you are exclusively nursing. You might try to pump once a day at the same time every day to build up a supply for when you go back to work. You will only need a one day supply for the first day away from baby and maybe some extra just in case. Pumping first thing in the morning is usually the prime time to pump.

Here's a good link to determine how much expressed milk you will need for baby while you are away. http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html