For most of my time breastfeeding, I have expressed. Initially I did so to get my husband to feed my daughter’s 11pm feed so that I could have some ‘solid’ sleep.  At three months, my daughter refused the bottle, but I still needed to express as my boobs were so full, she wasn’t getting everything – and I hoped she’d take the bottle again at some point.
Then I went to South Africa, where breastfeeding rates are abysmal – a great misfortune in a country that desperately needs it – and decided to express for a milk bank there. Since we’ve been back in England, I’ve not been expressing much, but I hope to contribute to our local Human Milk for Human Babies group again once things settle down a bit here.
So, I’ve been thinking about expressing, and realised that I’ve never written anything about it, so here are my hints and tips for successful expressing:
Firstly, understand that what you express is not a measure of how much milk you have. Some women just don’t express much.
Secondly, if you’re not expressing much, try to change pumps. I used one pump that took about 10 minutes to get 1 ounce. I swapped to another and got 10 ounces in the next 10 minutes.
Thirdly, start pumping as soon as possible. I started pumping in between two hourly feeds when my daughter was born and I believe that really benefited my flow.
Fourth, understand how breast milk is produced, and how let down works. This will help you understand the supply and demand, and make the whole process easier.
To express:
- Try massaging your breasts to stimulate milk flow
- Place a warm cloth on your breasts
- Express straight out the shower – the warmth helps with the let down.
- Visualise your baby breastfeeding
- A picture of your child (or a video works well too) helps stimulate those hormones that release milk.
- An item of baby clothing can do the same.
- Let baby nurse on one side while you express the other. This takes practice, at first, but is achievable.
- When I need to express a large amount, swapping baby and pump really helps. i.e when I can’t pump anymore from the left, I let Ameli nurse for a few minutes on the left, then start pumping again. This is because your baby is the best pump there is, and even when a pump gets nothing, your baby will.
- Keep well hydrated – have a glass of water next to you and drink it while expressing.
- Express a little milk into your hand to rub on your nipples after each session. (If you watch a baby breastfeed – or certainly my baby, so I assume it’s the same for others – there’s often milk just on her lips. This means my nipples are getting soaked in milk during her feeds too, which protects them too. A pump doesn’t do this, so you need to do it for yourself. Breast milk works better than any creams.)
- Pump at the same time every day to ‘trick’ your body into supplying milk for your baby at that time.
- Find the best time of day. In the mornings I would normally have a lot of milk, and expressing would be easy. At night it would take a little longer. But also remember that your milk changes, and at night nucleotides are released into your milk to help your baby sleep. If you’re giving expressed morning milk at night, that won’t be present in the milk, and visa versa.
So, those are my tips – is there anything else you can add?
