help needed, Breast pump - manual/electric

buddy143

somebody please do advise.
i bought a manual breast pump yesterday from mothercare (because of sore nipples). It is taking awful long time to get 50-60mls of milk. Looks like it is not enough for my 7 day old baby, and i end up breast feeding him again.
How about an electric one??
anybody any experience? is it any better than the manual (time wise as well as quantity wise)?

pigpen

I have always had an Avent Isis manual pump.. I also have a medela electric one.. both of which I can use quite fine..

Some people just cannot express huge amounts. It is a very individual thing.. trial and error is the way forward usually.

If you have sore nipples it may be the babys latch that needs checking or if they are shiny, red and excruciating when you first latch him on and the pain goes off slightly after a few sucks it COULD be thrush.. check the baby for white spots in his mouth/blistery sore bum.. you will need meds from the doc for this.

Go topless when you can.. let the skin breathe.
After a feed rub a little milk in and let it dry before putting boobs away..
Lansinoh is amazing stuff.. ask the MW for a sample.. or get it on prescription!

If you have a surestart near you see if they have a breastfeeding support group.. they will be able to check you latch and positioning. MW's are usually fairly useless as they have so little training in breastfeeding anyway. These groups sometimes have double electric pumps you can try too if you need to!!

expressing from one breast while feeding with the other often gives better results, as does expressing first thing in the morning when there is loads of milk. I would express a feeds worth in the morning and give it at bed time which worked wonders for my littlies..

chocdonuty

Using a pump at 7 days is rather early, your milk supply isn't quite up to speed yet. Unfortunatly most women will experience sore nipples before breastfeeding is established and there are many ways to relive the pain, the previous posters advice is very good and I would try some of her advice.
Also you can get nipple shields which may help until you are used to bf, usually from mothercare or boots. I would really reccommend speaking to an bf advisor or or your midwife/health visitor, as it was a while since I bf and hopefully there may be even better methods known to them now to relive the pain! Oh I do remember cabbage leaves for mastitis, thankfully I was lucky in that department and they weren't needed!:D

buddy143

Thanks a lot Pigpen. will try ur suggestions.:A

clearingout

agree with everything pigpen says. You need to check the latch. In my case, I found the medela mini electric was better than the avent manual one (which made my hands ache!) but I still never got that much out! They all grew at an alarming rate, however, so there is no doubt they were getting what they needed - if you are unsure, get baby weighed every week until you're happy that everything is OK. My first was weighed every week for 6 months - no. 3 is now nearly 11 months old and he's been weighed 4 times, including the hospital weigh in when born!

My sore boob problem was very much a powershower/leaky tap situation in that one of my boobs clearly works better than the other! I am afraid that the only way to deal with the soreness is to work through it - it does get better. Unless you have cracked or bleeding nipples (which is usually a sign of a very poor latch more than anything), grit your teeth and in a few days you'll find that you don't notice it anymore. Never knew about the thrush thing - that's interesting! thanks pigpen!

I found the NCT to be very helpful and their counsellor actually travelled 15 miles to sit with me, correct the latch and work it out. I wouldn't have breastfed my first without her and I doubt I'd have gone on to feed the other two afterwards - it hurt so much!

They do suggest expressing an ounce or so after every feed as a way of getting the boobs to work a bit more and for you to build up a small store to feed in a bottle later in the day. Or, as pigpen says, try the mornings as the boobs are fuller then (didn't work for me, really, but I know people who swear by this method).

It is worth trying to work through it. However, at the same time, don't put up with it forever if the pain continues - you need to enjoy being with your baby and it's no fun if it hurts all the time.

msb5262

Hello OP,
I agree that 7 days in is very early to be expecting your milk supply to be fully established...and I'll also warn you, be VERY CAREFUL not to overstimulate your breasts.
At the outset, you can easily do this and it results in painfully engorged breasts, even if you didn't appear to produce much milk at the time.
Take it easy and you will find that in due course you can produce more milk, more easily.
Also bear in mind that your baby is programmed by nature to want not just milk but closeness to the breast - and if the baby doesn't have contact with your nipples, less milk will be produced.
I second Pigpen's advice to seek a breastfeeding counsellor/supporter...it's not a sign of ignorance or weakness. When my second child was 6 months old, I was training to be a breastfeeding counsellor myself and I didn't hesitate to call my local counsellor for advice when I had a problem!
Best of luck with the baby -
MsB

jackomdj

I had issues with both mine latching on, stayed an extra couple of days in hospital with the first as the midwives/assistants were trying their hardest to get her to take it (in the end one told me that I had the wrong shaped nipples & a lazy baby!). I expresses from day 2 so baby got some milk & used advent isis electric pump. Until the milk kicked it was hardly anything then it gradually built up. With DD2 I told the hospital I would not stay in just because she would not feed & went home asap. You may find that until it kicks in you want to syringe feed, have a chat with the MW or HV.

I expressed fully for a month on my first & my second who was a hungry baby got everything I could express & was topped up with formula.

lauren_1

You are trying to express far too early, unfortunatly nipples will get sore with breastfeeding, even if they are latched on correctly they will at one point or another get sore. The nigh on constant sucking will chap and chafe your nipples! Another bit of VERY IMPORTANT INFO that doesn't seem to be very well known.

If midwives were honest and just came out with 'breastfeeding can be toe-curlingly awkward, can chap your nipples and most probably wont be a bed of roses until about 5/6 weeks' there would be a lot of less anxious new mums.

It takes time for you and your baby to get in the swing of it.

got-it-spend-it

lauren_1 wrote: »

You are trying to express far too early, unfortunatly nipples will get sore with breastfeeding, even if they are latched on correctly they will at one point or another get sore. The nigh on constant sucking will chap and chafe your nipples! Another bit of VERY IMPORTANT INFO that doesn't seem to be very well known.

If midwives were honest and just came out with 'breastfeeding can be toe-curlingly awkward, can chap your nipples and most probably wont be a bed of roses until about 5/6 weeks' there would be a lot of less anxious new mums.

It takes time for you and your baby to get in the swing of it.

I totally agree with this. My nipples bled from about day 3 till about day 10 then seemed to toughen up and we're still going strong a 7 months.

I have the Medela Mini Electric and it is great. I've never tried a manual, but can get anything from 25ml-150ml at a time with the Medela although I didn't start expressing for the firs few weeks so don't know how much I would have got that early on.

tiamai_d

I found the medela mini electric to be the best electric one I tried, and I tried a few. The medela harmony manual was lovely and gentle when I developed mastits (stupid hospitals new rules about expressing), it was also easy to use while feeding from the other side.

Pigpens suggestions do work well.

Lanisoh cream is supposed to work wonders, but your nipples will be sore even with a proper latch for the first few weeks, sorry. Lots of fresh air to the nipple, rubbing in some milk after a feed and letting it dry is supposed to be good, I found it made things worse. I used vaseline on my breast pads so my cracked bleeding nipples didn't stick to the pads. I also found I could only use johnsons pads, the others made me really itchy which made the nipple situation far worse!

And some people are lucky to get 1oz from expressing. I got loads with the boys, 7oz +, with DD I was lucky to get 1oz!

Massage your breasts before expressing, it was the single one thing that made a huge difference for me. Works before a feed too.

If you do express, make sure you keep going till the milk stops, and then a little bit afterwards. Stop and give them a rub, then go again. If you are expressing without baby, tweak the other nipple, double the stimulation, double the hormones that 'make' (you make) milk

laurel7172

I had a manual pump and a scary huge electric thingy rented from the NCT (I felt like a cow in a milking parlour.)

It didn't make any noticeable difference to the amount expressed...which was always small for me. Not helpful when you need it in a bottle, unfortunately.