Many mothers who pump breast milk for their baby often wonder if they are pumping enough milk to keep up with their babies demands while they are away from their baby. Some moms barely pump enough milk to feed their baby while other moms are considered over producers. Your breast milk is produced using supply in demand, if you need to increase your milk you will need to increase the demand. There isn’t an exact amount of milk that mom should produce, it varies from person to person. The most important thing that you can do is focus on is to establishing your milk supply during the first few weeks after your baby is born.
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After your baby is born it may seem as if your newborn is constantly on the breast. This is normal. As your are taking care of your newborn, it is important to make sure that you take care of yourself too. Make sure that you are getting enough sleep and taking the time to eat. Adequate nutrition is important in order to help your body maintain a healthy milk supply. If you plan on returning to work when your baby is 6 – 8 weeks old, it is important that you start pumping milk almost immediately after you get home from the hospital or a few weeks prior to returning to work. Doing this will help establish your milk supply, create more milk, and it will allow your body to get acclimated to using a breast pump before you return to work when you feel pressured to hurry up.
Start Pumping As Soon As Possible
If you start pumping shortly after you coming home from the hospital, don’t except to pump a whole lot of milk at first. Breast milk is produced on a supply and demand so the more you are able to pump it will help trigger your body to produce more milk. In order to increase your milk supply you will have to pump more milk than your baby is currently consuming.
Some mom choose to pump immediately after a feeding and anything that they pump they will store for later use. Many do this so that they can start building a freezer stash before they return to work. If you pump after you feed your baby, you can expect to pump around half an ounce to an ounce of breast milk from both breasts combined. Each day that you pump you can expect to pump a little more each day. If you plan on pumping first thing in the morning before feeding you baby you will generally pump the largest amount of milk. After you have been sleeping for several hours your breast tends to be very full, possibly engorged, which makes easier to pump a large amount of breast milk at one time. I personally did this each morning and then immediately fed my baby after I finished pumping.