What can you do to make your milk come in sooner?

[Pandora]

Wth DS, my milk didnt come in til midway through day 5, and even then, it wasnt like a huge full feeling or anything, i just noticed when i was expressing something was actually coming out.

I had a normal physiological birth, placenta came out intact, but did have issues attaching DS, so my midwife told me i should express every 1.5 hours round the clock until my milk came in.

Which i did.

But it stil took 5 days.

Is there anything i could have done differently that could make it come in earlier?

Can you express before the birth - is there any point to this?

[Liz]

You can express before birth, but your body still reverts to making colostrum, and then it's up to you and bub to feed frequently to get the milkier milk in. Colostrum is all they need in those first few days. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise! The amount of times I hear of people using formula within a day or two because the midwives are saying they're starving their baby... pfft. Baby's cry because that's what they do.. and the crying stimulates the milk to come in too.. so hushing them up with formula does nothing for the supply.. let alone the lack of suckling at the breast.

It's very normal for it to take that long to come in tho. I wouldn't worry too much. The experience will probably be completely different with this new bub

[Cyathea]

You can express before birth, but your body still reverts to making colostrum, and then it's up to you and bub to feed frequently to get the milkier milk in. Colostrum is all they need in those first few days. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise! The amount of times I hear of people using formula within a day or two because the midwives are saying they're starving their baby... pfft. Baby's cry because that's what they do.. and the crying stimulates the milk to come in too.. so hushing them up with formula does nothing for the supply.. let alone the lack of suckling at the breast.

It's very normal for it to take that long to come in tho. I wouldn't worry too much. The experience will probably be completely different with this new bub

I totally agree!

[Pandora]

Thanks. I guess only time will tell then.
the midwives were great, the were the ones who told me i could choose not to comp. feed when the paed wrote them up after only 48 hours (Ds was 10lb+ FFS, it wasnt like he was a tiny starving bub)

[ticklish]

My milk has been slow to come in twice but I have had two CSs.

Things were better second time around but still slow - my baby ended up dehydrated in hospital so we had to use formula but didn't need it for long.

I never get engorged, have absolutely no outward signs that my milk has come in. For some of us our boobies remain soft and comfortable and the only sign that the milk is there is that bubs is thriving!

I have been told too that expressing beforehand only produces colostrum, the placenta needs to be gone to produce milk, unless of course you have been tandem feeding all the way through the pregnancy.

I would suggest getting good amounts of rest after the birth - I didn't and was exhausted which didn't help the milk supply. I had to feed at least every 2 hours for 3 days to get any milk. Somewhere around Day 6 I had some.

Also the other thing was I found I had to stay really well hydrated - it wasn't until I starting having 3 litres of fluid a day (felt I like I was going to squelch!) did things really start to improve.

TICKLISH

[Liz]

I'm sure you'll be fine rayray - and at least this time around you have an idea of how long it 'could' take your milk to come in, so it won't feel like 'is it ever going to come in??' iykwim. You know that it will come in Just keep putting baby to boob. Lots of skin to skin. Hog all those cuddles for yourself until you feel things are settling in.

ticklish - I fed through my pregnancy, and I'm sure it changed to colostrum after about week 20. I could tell by how it looked, and by DS's nappies! LOL. Talk about a laxative!

[Sequoia]

I never get engorged, have absolutely no outward signs that my milk has come in. For some of us our boobies remain soft and comfortable and the only sign that the milk is there is that bubs is thriving!

Really?!

I never got engorged at all after the birth, I mentioned this to the MW in hospital, she had the OB give me a script for Motilium and I was on it for 6 months!

I'd really like to forgo the Motilium next time. In hindsight, I really don't think I needed it considering DS put on 75gms in the last 2 days while we were in hospital.

*shakes head*. Isn't it amazing what we learn along the way and will do differently next time?

SG
xo