If your baby is preterm or ill and cannot breastfeed yet, or if you have chosen to exclusively pump, pump as soon as you can after birth, preferably within one to six hours of delivery.
Remember, a quality, electric breast pump is essential to breast pumping success. Learning to pump can be a daunting process. These steps will set you and your baby up for success. Keep going! It may take some time to achieve this target, do not worry about hitting this on day one!
Babies may take more milk from the bottle than when breastfeeding. The faster, steadier flow of the bottle causes some babies to take more than they need. A slow-flow bottle may help prevent overfeeding. Pumping often to drain the breast completely sends a signal to the body to produce more milk. The more often you drain your breasts the more milk they will make. When your milk increases from drops to ounces on about day 4, make these changes:.
Finally, and obviously, the amount of milk that you are producing will also affect the amount that you might pump. Most babies take somewhere between oz of breast milk per day, which is also typical breastmilk production.
Though some moms make more and some make less, and both are normal. So say you exclusively pump, and you pump 10 times per day. You might expect to get oz each time. Note that this is an rough estimate, and also that the amounts you get over the course of a day will not be consistent.
You might get 5oz in your first session of the day, 4oz in the second, and then oz for the rest of the day. This gets even messier as a way to estimate when you consider nursing. So there is really no simple way to say exactly much you should expect to pump. But hopefully, this gives you a general idea.
You are doing the best you can, and you are doing a great job. Keep in mind that you will express only small amounts of colostrum at first, but this immune-boosting substance is extremely beneficial for your baby. Some mothers find that expressing the colostrum by hand massage into a small cup or spoon is easier than using an electric pump in the first few days. Hand expression into a cup also allows you to save each drop, instead of losing milk that is trapped within the tubing of the pump.
Once your milk supply increases, the amount of milk you can express will probably fluctuate from day to day. As a result, you will need to increase the number of times per day you express milk to maintain an optimal milk supply. These fluctuations are normal—just more easily observed when expressing milk than when breastfeeding. Once your baby begins breastfeeding, your milk production is likely to increase.
To maximize your milk production, try to get as much rest as possible, take your prescribed pain medication, drink adequate fluids, and minimize stress. Your breast milk can be fed to your baby through a tube that passes through her nose or mouth into her stomach or from a tiny cup or bottle.
The feeding route will depend on the degree of prematurity of your infant and on the policies in the NICU at your hospital. Occasionally young infants fed by bottle may start to prefer the bottle, which delivers milk faster and with less effort than feeding at the breast.
Some of these babies later refuse to breastfeed—a situation called nipple confusion or nipple preference. During this period when your baby is using an alternative feeding method, you can introduce her to breastfeeding by holding her skin to skin against your chest whenever possible and allowing her to nuzzle and suckle at your breast.
This, of course, should be done only when the neonatologist or pediatrician has given approval. Soon you may be able to progress to a nursing supplementer or other device that will deliver your expressed breast milk from a bottle or syringe through a tiny tube that is taped next to your nipple. With this method, your baby should begin to feed partly from the tube and partly from your breast as he latches on to your breast and actively nurses. Early breastfeeding sessions will probably be more successful if you time them for when your baby is most awake and alert but calm.
Experiment with different nursing positions to discover which works best for the two of you. A premature baby often tires rather easily, so these early feedings are likely to be brief. You can use your remaining time together to hold, rock, sing to, and cuddle your newborn. Try to breastfeed as often as possible and continue to express milk for feedings in your absence.
Frequent nursing and milk expression, as well as regular skin-to-skin holding, will help maintain your milk supply. Such experience can ease the transition from hospital to home life for you and your baby.
Occasionally the doctors may decide to feed an infant with special formulas for premature babies, sometimes alternating the formula with your breast milk. Even if your baby is not getting feedings at all due to medical complications, continue to express your breast milk and freeze it for later use, thus maintaining your milk production.
After your baby is home from the hospital, you may need to keep using your breast pump until your baby is exclusively breastfeeding actually nursing and growing well without the need for any supplemental bottles or formula. This lets you store breast milk for extra feedings and maintain an adequate milk supply, especially as your baby grows and his needs increase. If your premature baby is exclusively breastfed, your pediatrician should recommend a multivitamin and iron supplement.
Caring for and learning to breastfeed a premature or ill newborn is emotionally taxing for any new mother. Other mothers are often the most valuable sources of information.
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