Breastfeeding Resources

Lately this blog seems to have turned into Kris’s Supply Problems Central. Truly that’s all I think about with breastfeeding and working. I can understand how the strain of this would cause people to stop breastfeeding in really reasonable steps. First you supplement with formula, then you’re less diligent about pumping regularly at work, then you stop pumping at work. This is no fun.

After two weeks of continuing undersupply (by about 20%) and nearly using up my freezer stash, I finally called the lactation consultant last weekend. Her diagnosis matched mine (stress, from my sister’s severe illness). Her suggestion for improving supply was to pump five to ten minutes every hour on one workday. This is just what the baby would do to “put in an order” for more milk.

I have my own office and a flexible schedule, so I was able to try this on Monday. I didn’t quite make every hour, but I did pump seven times instead of my usual three. It wasn’t as much of a pain as I thought it would be, because I left the pump all set up and the parts connected between each pumping (with one steam clean at lunch) and covered it with a sweater. And it only took 10 minutes each time.

The idea is not to get more milk the first day, but I did—back up to my regular range. And Tuesday too. Wednesday I have off—no pumping, but back with Aaron. Thursday’s output: not as good. Back to my lower range.

It’s nice to know that there’s something that might have an immediate on supply. And the lactation consultant did say I should not be impatient about fixing this. It took weeks to develop the problem and get to where I am now, so it may take weeks to improve. But the fact that it’s not lasting means she’s getting a phone call today.