The postpartum phase tends to be characterized by many ups-and-downs. In my experience, it was surreal and wonderful, but I was unprepared for the all-encompassing nature of this new reality. As a first-time mother, it felt like those taken-for-granted basics to everyone else were just completely beyond me.
Diaper changes were okay, thanks to my many hours spent babysitting as a teenager. Spit-up, however, was uniquely terrifying. When would it strike next? Would it land on my hair, my face, my first clean clothes in days? Baby’s 5th outfit in as many hours?
And swaddling? The nurses did it so deftly that it seemed to me an artisan craft- I couldn’t even try. But my naïveté was at its most glaring when it came to nursing. Forget latch, holds, baby drifting off – all of which I agonized over plenty. But my most glaring ignorance was simply in how nursing works, and what is necessary in order to maintain supply.
The first time I was separated from baby for a few hours when he was a few days old, everyone told me I should probably pump, and my internal reaction was like, “…Why?” My initial befuddlement then morphed into “How??” because of course, I had literally no clue how to pump. Half-dead from exhaustion and disoriented to the point of hallucinating, I strapped myself to that pump (Medela Symphony, by the way: https://amzn.to/3eSW134, more affordable to rent) every 2.5 hours in a never-ending loop. (One of the other shockers about new motherhood, sorry to say- the sanctity of nighttime hours is stolen, and it begins to seem the world just turns indiscriminately).
I was sure that all my bright-eyed plans for nursing my baby were a thing of the past, and that I would need to come to terms with feeding him formula. It was becoming dreadfully obvious to me that the measly 1/2 oz or so of milk I was pumping was going to dwindle to nothing, and that would be that.
Stunningly, however, my supply did recover. When baby was between 3 and 7 months old, we got about 35 ozs per day, which may be unimpressive to some of you out there, but for us it was more than sufficient.
I know that I’m not the only one who has struggled with supply at the beginning of a nursing journey. If you have a basic awareness of some of the things I’ll go into here, it will put you in a much better place to succeed!
1.You need to remove milk as often as possible.
Oh gosh. This is KING. In the early weeks, you need to nurse or pump a minimum of every 2.5 hours. I completely understand the inconvenience of this; but it sets you up for a stronger supply and less worry later on. When nursing on-demand (which is what you want, for building a strong supply), newborns will nurse 8-10 times per day. If you’re pumping for a newborn you’ll want to maintain that rate as well.
For those of us who are already a few months in, and especially if exclusively pumping, don’t assume you can stay at 5 pumps per day (or whatever your usual is) and just eat oatmeal/fenugreek/fill in the blank to have more milk. Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be any shortcuts; When you need more milk, you need to tell your body so.
And the language your body speaks is this: DEMAND = SUPPLY. Repeat after me, demand equals supply. (Even I, who can’t follow one phrase of economics, can appreciate this!)
Every woman has a different capacity for how much milk they can hold at once, and that affects how often they’ll need to nurse/pump while maintaining supply (after establishing supply in the early weeks). Legendairy Milk has helpful diagrams explaining this, and is a great resource in general: https://www.instagram.com/legendairymilk/
2. Milk is 80% water: Drink! During peak production I was diligently drinking ~100 ozs of water per day.
If you’re just carrying around a regular-size water bottle (my absolute favorite nontoxic water bottles here: https://amzn.to/2BJVHWf) throughout the day, you’re probably drinking about 20 ozs. Which is about the amount a baby between the ages of 3-7 months is going to need to nurse from you throughout the day……you catch my drift. So, if you’re feeling depleted, go grab some water! (or, if you need a quick electrolyte drink without all the garbage in Gatorade, try coconut water: https://amzn.to/2A2CJd1)
If it’s any solace to those of you who feel weird heaving a camel-worthy amount of water to work every day: know that I absolutely mortified myself in grad school every morning, showing up buckling under 3 monstrous tote bags. I think 2 of those bags were probably dedicated to pumping paraphernalia! I’ll do a post soon on how to pack wisely for pumping at work. Anyway, I’d usually drag 2 Lifefactory bottles https://amzn.to/2BJVHWf with my own filtered water. And then probably another 33 ozs coconut water. So that would take care of close to 90 ozs for the day. If I’d be getting a humane lunch break that day, then I’d leave some of this luggage in my car, don’t worry.
3. You need to take care of yourself!
Don’t trade much-needed meals or sleep for another pump, as tempting as it is when you’re trying to improve supply by pumping extra (either on top of nursing baby, or on top of your usual pumping routine). It’s a hard call. I’ve been guilty of it oh so many times! But ultimately being run-down does more harm for your overall health. I’m sure we’ve all heard stories about moms who let her own self-care go, only to come down with an infection like mastitis.
Luckily, I escaped mastitis despite my terrible habit of insisting on pumping when collapsing from sleep-deprivation at obscene hours. But even then, you may get that extra pump in, while the next day you’ll feel miserable and get less done. It’s especially dangerous as a habit, since it’s never a one-time thing.
Also, one last point because this is a health blog and I am constantly thinking along those lines. Junk food does contain calories, which are necessary to produce breastmilk, but other than the calories, it doesn’t really count as food. This is true for you, whose body needs many nutrients to produce breastmilk, and also for baby, who eats what you eat through the milk. Try to part from the grains and sugar, and hang out more with the cool kids: high-quality fats and proteins, plus lots of organic produce. Oh, and your prenatal multivitamin.
4. Massage/Compressions enable complete emptying
I was lucky enough to have a lactation consultant in the hospital who explained this right away, but I think many mamas don’t necessarily know about it. Gentle compression is a great strategy to help empty you more completely. And of course, emptying your milk glands sufficiently is essential for maintaining milk supply, as discussed earlier, but also for avoiding painful symptoms like plugged ducts and mastitis.
You’ll find you can get more milk from a single let-down if you massage on each side (while pumping) for a few minutes. This also helps when nursing a little baby who doesn’t have a very strong suck. Don’t worry, there isn’t an exact science as to how to do it- any pressure helps remove more milk- but Legendairy Milk sometimes runs demonstrations on their Instagram.
5. Middle of the night feedings are your friend.
As frustrating as it can be to be up with your baby at all hours, for many months it can still be developmentally normal for them to need a midnight feed. Especially if you do a dream-feed, or nurse lying down, this CAN (I know for some women it’s terribly frustrating, so I say CAN) be a relatively easy + painless way to keep milk supply stimulated overnight.
I know so many women who struggled with supply after their baby started sleeping through the night. That too is a normal developmental process, so if baby is at a point when they can do without the milk, don’t worry about it! But, if baby really needs to nurse at night, or take a bottle, one extra emptying IS your friend!
Conversely, if you’re exclusively pumping and have tried other things but your supply continues to suffer- you may find that bringing back the middle of the night pump may help.
All right, that’s a wrap. Clearly, I can go on and on talking about pumping and milk supply for a month straight! But this is a brief sketch of things which I hope will help you, if you’re dealing with adjusting to nursing/pumping or just looking for some guidance and information to help you feel less lost! Leave comments if there’s anything I forgot to mention or that would be helpful for a different post!
