HOW OFTEN TO PUMP & WHEN?:.

Firstly - one should have a good quality, double electric pump. Some mothers lease them, others buy pumps such as Medela's Pump In Style. The quality of the pump can make all the distinction in the world!

A typical newborn baby nurses on average 8 to 12 times in a 24 hour period. A lot of experts suggest it is finest if mommy can come close to matching what the regular nursing child would do at the bust, and advise she pump about every two hours, not going longer than three hours in between sessions. Understanding how milk manufacturing works can help moms in their efforts to develop good milk supply. The more frequently the busts are emptied, the more milk mother should have. Therefore, if she were to pump at least every 3 hours, for about 20 minutes, she should establish and maintain a good milk supply. In the first couple of weeks, she may also want to pump at least twice in the evening, but not all mothers do this.

"It's remarkably hard in the start but you require to pump every 2 to 3 hours around the clock. Prolactin levels (the bodily hormone that tells your body to make milk) are highest in the morning hours so mom would desire to make sure she is pumping then as well. This is like the 1am to 5am stretch of time. If mommy can at least get one pump in during this time, it will really help.

The main concern is to get enough pumps in each day - a minimum of 7 pumps per day. I will say from experience that when I pushed myself to get in 8 pumps per day, my supply REALLY enhanced. The majority of the time, I just couldn't push myself and ended up with 7 times. And to create a little bit of sanity, it is the number of pumps per day that you get in and not necessarily the amount of time you wait in between pumps that counts. So, if I required to run an errand or just desired to leave your house without dragging my pump along, I would pump every 2 hours in the morning and then have a window of about 4 or 5 hours in the afternoon to do everything and would then pump again every 2 hours in the evening to get my total of 7 pumps in for the day.

That being said, I did NOT get up to pump in the middle of the night if my baby wasn't awake. I thought that was cruel and couldn't do it! Ha! The sleep was more crucial to me (particularly after the c-section). A great deal of pumping is trial and error and this is why keeping details in a spreadsheet (or journal) is helpful. If you start sleeping through the night or going longer stretches and see a big decline in your volume, you can always set you alarm to include another pump back in. I never needed to but this can differ from mom to mama. I did the morning pump as long as I was up feeding the infant, but if she slept 5 hours through the night, so did I! ".