Some mothers may pump apart from nursing directly, in the first few weeks,;

1. To offer expressed milk as top up
2. To empty the breast regularly;
3. To measure how much they are making

If your baby is able to latch and transfer milk well, it's best to refrain from pumping regularly till your supply stabilizes, which happens around 6-12 weeks. Occasionally expressing should be ok to do, but pumping regularly till the output stops and the breasts are emptied, too early on, can result in an oversupply, leading to engorgement issues, clogged ducts, etc.;

Breastmilk works purely on demand and supply. When you pump while also nursing directly, you're telling your body that it needs to make more milk than what the baby is drinking while nursing, but that isn't actually necessary. You're creating extra demand here by pumping, when it isn't necessary.

If your baby is less than 2-3 months old, and you've been pumping a few times a day, apart from nursing directly, and you're dealing with clogged ducts or frequent engorgement, it could be because you have an oversupply, created due to an unnatural demand.

In order to deal with this, you'll now have to slowly show your body that the actual demand is lesser. Please do not attempt to stop pumping abruptly. Your body needs time to learn and adjust to the change in demand, and this could take even a few weeks, depending on how often you've been pumping.

You can gradually reduce by pumping for shorter durations or for lesser volumes in each pumping session. For example,;


1. if you're pumping for 20mins per session, reduce it to 10-15mins

2. or if you're pumping till the output is 80ml, stop with 65-70ml

Continue this for 5-7days. Once you're comfortable with that and you're not feeling engorged or dealing with clogs, then reduce it further by 5 mins or 10-15ml, whichever is applicable.

Between pumping sessions, if you start to feel engorged or heavy or uncomfortable, hand express just a little bit till you feel relief, and not to empty. This is important, to not empty your breast each time. Emptying the breast will only signal to your body to produce more.

As you keep doing this, your body will slowly understand the actual demand and produce milk accordingly, and you can start phasing out the pumping sessions altogether.

If you're taking any supplements or food to increase your supply, please consider tapering those off as well.

If it's absolutely necessary to express milk early on, please do consider hand expressing instead of pumping, as that offers a little more control on the amount you're expressing. Hand expression is more effective, while trying to express colostrum. #droppump
#droppingpumping
#BBCreatorsClub
@Khushboo Chouhan