One breast more than the other?

Hello

I have just had my baby 10 days ago & have been having many, many issues with breast feeding - at the moment I am expressing & topping baby up with formula as per the opinion of lactation consultants & child health nurse but i dont see this as a practical long term solution.

One problem Im having is that my supply is not increasing, in fact my left breast will only produce about 20ml while my right will only produce 50ml - this is every four hours... apparently it should be much more...

Any suggestions on how to get them both going the same? And producing more? Does anyone else have this problem?? I have a referral for the doctor to put me on medication - is this the only way? Will i be expressing forever?

Its driving me crazy trying to express & feed baby & recover & the pressure to exclusively breastfeed is INSANE!!

Any help would be appreciated... :)

Pushy1, hugs :hug:

Firstly congratulations on your bub. These first weeks are really tough, especially if you're having trouble BFing.

I don't really have any ground breaking answers sorry as I'm still learning myself! But I have found expressing does increase my supply, I do it every day after my two morning feeds - when my supply is at it's greatest. Also, expressing does get quicker and easier. Trying looking at your baby whilst you do it to get a quicker let down, amazing but it does work.

I'm sure all of the feeding and expressing is driving you mad, but it won't be forever. You and your baby are the most important at the moment so ignore the dishes and just concentrate on caring for yourselves. :D

I have been having many issues with bfing as well but I have tried a few ways to increase my supply. Expressing after each feed, lactation cookies (use google to find recipie, very effective), a herb called fenugreek and motilium tablets.

I have found each of them to be effective however I still seem to have issues and have to occasionally top up with EBM or FF. I have been going at it for 6 weeks now but I am determined to have my baby exclusively BF soon.

Good luck with it and remember that you just have to do what's best for you and your baby.

Hi there

I had issues with my supply with my first child and saw a LC, so understand how you are feeling. The nurses and LC asked me how often are you feeding? and suggested in the first weeks every 2-3 hours is best to bring up your supply of your breastmilk. Also expressing after every feed, the expressing action will help with supply. You can also do what they call switch feeding which is 15mins on one breast then 15mins on the other then change nappy then 15mins on one breast then 15mins again on the other breast, this also helped my supply up a bit too. However, in the end my supply was not enough for Julia she didnt put on weight for 4 weeks in a row and as I was unable to take Motullium as it is not good with someone with a history of depression or anxiety to take, I ended up topping Julia up with Formula once a day and still breastfed too.

Now with Tara who is 9 weeks old I have one breast this time that produces 70mls and one that produces only 40mls if lucky but this is at 9 weeks after birth and also is every 2-3 hours. On day 5 in hospital I think I was only getting 20mls out of a breast feeding every 3 hours. May I ask have you been thinking of demand feeding? and also the lactation cookies sound good, I havent trried them but have had friends how have and say they work wonders.

Thinking of you and hope your supply increases..

Bel
xxx

I thought 50ml was enough for a newborn? They only have small tummies don't they?

I think there's a sticky about increasing supply somewhere, perhaps in the general bfing section. Frequent feeds is a great thing though, as bub sucking will stimulate your supply.

Perhaps google for the growth charts based solely on breastfed babies, I think the charts in our blue books are based on formula fed babies? Both mine were 'underweight' as babies, but Riv's fine now, and Si looks fine to me too. Charting your bub's growth on the breastfed charts (I think I found mine from the ABA website?) might give you some peace of mind too.

ETA: Oh, and as for one more than the other - common! So don't worry about that!

HI,
It sounds like the last 10 days have been very tough going for you. Perhaps you would share a bit more about what has been happening. How big was your little one at birth? What about now? Fullterm? How did the birth go? Is your baby feeding from the breast at all, or are you expressing and feeding her your eBM?
There is no right or wrong way to feed a baby -the only rule is that they must be fed! You have got the toughest of all loads at the moment - feeding, expressing and using formula for topping up. It's easy to find yourself wondering where it is all going, and whether it is really worth it.
The good news is, most mothers and babies transition to fully breastfeeding, and this time becomes just a memory. It is pretty normal for one breast to make more milk than the other - usually, when your milk supply is better, it doesn't matter. 70mls every 4 hours seems pretty respectable to me! Many mothers find that medications such as motilium do have a positive effect on their milk supply, and few side effects - it is worth exploring.
Tell me a bit more and hopefully we can provide you with some more information and support

Wow - some support - thanks!! :)

My baby was 8 pound 13 at birth, she was four days overdue, the birth wasnt any harder than i thought it would be, she is my first...

She lost a lot of weight in hospital because she wasnt feeding, so we had to start topping her up with formula & she put weight back on. I had to rest my nipples after having laser treatment as she basically caused my nipples to bleed from the first time she tried to attach!! So we have a combination of issues at the moment.

* Small nipples - although this shouldnt matter (apparently) but even expressing is painful...
* Slight tongue tie with baby. Seeing doc about getting it snipped... :(
* Lack of supply...
* Stress & pressure to get it right...

She still wont attach without intense nipple pain & that just makes me avoid putting her to the breast - instead we express & bottle feed & add formula...

I know its not supposed to be easy but Im really struggling...

Hi Pushy1,

I had alot of trouble bf my DD so I know how hard things can be. I had lots of different things happen which led to the problems. I know about the pressure to bf, I put alot of pressure on myself, but had the opposite problem with my family not supporting me to bf, especially since it was so painful and horrible in the first weeks, they wanted me to be happy. not in tears at every feed like I was.

To be honest I never enjoyed bf until after 6-8wks. The same thing happened this time with my DS. I am only now really enjoying bf, after 7wks. It was hard this time too and I thought I'd have the same problems, and convinced myself I would, and started to comp feed DS in hospital, until after I saw the LC and she told me to stop and just feed him cause all was well. so I did and it has been all good so far thank goodness!

In the first weeks, DS was feeding 2hrly. I had blistered and very badly cracked nipples. Then I got mastitis. But I was determined and fed through it all, except for when my nipples were too damaged to keep going and DS was vomiting blood. And now we are fully bf'ing!

After all of the waffling what I'm trying to say is that is will be possible for you to bf your bub, it is a struggle for some women, a big struggle. But if you have the determination, support and will to do it, you will. See a lactation consultant to try to help you again. Feed on the breast as often as possible that's the best way to increase supply, maybe try a in bed day where you just rest and feed. Get a good book or a few movies and don't get out of bed for a day, and feed feed feed. I know how hard it is with sore nipples, but trust me it works! Have you tried nipple sheilds? Thye helped me no end with my DD. It still hurts with them, but less than without them. And with expressing, bub will always get alot more out than you could ever express, so your expressed 50ml would be even more if bub sucked it out him/herself.
Godd luck, I hope it all goes how you want!

Hi Pushy1,

I had heaps of trouble breastfeeding my DD also, your description of intense pain on attachment certainly rings bells for me! I dreaded each feed for a while there.

I am sorry I have no advice to offer about supply except keep up what you are doing! I think you have some good advice here, I agree with many of the other posts and I hope they offer you some help.

I just wanted to tell you one thing that helped me psychologically through that period while I struggled with every feed. I really held on to the thought that all women I had seen with older babies appeared to feed with ease, in fact without even really noticing! I figured that if I kept working on it, I would get to that point too.... and I did!

I think my turning point was around 8-10 weeks after I had a few appointments with a lactation consultant (through city of Melb), a diagnosis of nipple thrush, and the natural development of my little girl. Now when she finds the nipple herself and I don't have to be involved at all in her attachment, I still appreciate the ease with which it all occurs after what I went through in the early days.

I hope you are able to find the support you need to get through this really difficult time. It is really tough to struggle with the feeding as it is so time consuming and holds such charged emotions. I wish you luck.

Congratulations on both your baby and your determination!

It might help you not to focus on "exclusively breastfeeding", but instead on "getting as much BM as possible into your bub", which is a slightly less demanding way of saying the same thing :)


All the expressing and topping up isn't intended as a long term solution. Hopefully once your nipples heal you will find that your bub as she gets older and stronger learns to suck better and hence is able to increase your supply herself - meaning she will eventually gets all she needs at the breast.

All the present rigmarole is to try and ensure that both your supply and your baby's strength are maintained whilst this is happening. There is a vicious cycle, which you and your LC's are trying to avoid, of bad sucking => sore nipples and not enough milk going into baby => lethargic baby who won't suck => low supply and so on.

It seems for a lot of Mums on this board things get much, much better at around 6 weeks - so hang in there!
hugs
Kate

I just wanted to say Pushy that although bf is the natural thing to do, this does not mean it is necessarily easy. It's a learned skill, for you and your baby, and this can mean it takes time to get it right. Unfoturnately for some mothers it's much harder than for others. As Barb noted, you're doing lots of extra work right now, so well done on keeping it up!
I ended up using nipple shields for a time as, despite seeing LCs and working on it very hard, we just couldn't get the attachment quite right. It all came good after around 10 weeks - now it really is easy.
Don't worry if you have more milk on one side or the other - it really doesn't matter.

I hope things start to improve soon - good luck

Hi,

I suggest that you get a private lactation consultant to come and help you ASAP. they cost, but they are experts in their field, and they come to your house to assess what is happening and help you sort it out. An investment worth making. If you let me know where you live, I could perhaps recommend some-one.
Has a nipple shield been suggested to you? It might help get your baby onto the breast. It is not the answer in all cases, but you might find it works for you. It's great that you are getting the tongue tie assessed. The procedure to snip it is simple and painless and can help enormously.
You are doing a great job with this. Please take the pressure off yourself to "get it right" - there is not "right" about breastfeeding in particular. This is just one of those problems that arise, and you are doing a great job working through it in difficult circumstances.

Thanks to everyone for the advice & support...

Here's where we are at now...

I was expressing as often as possible - not quite every 3-4 hours. And was getting about 50-60ml. I started taking the motillium, for four days I suffered with intense headaches, upset stomach & restlessness - and NO increase in my supply... so I stopped taking it... and kept expressing...

I had an appointment with the LC - but she cancelled & we went another week with the FF and EBM. Probably one feed a day was entirely EBM. And then the supply dropped even more 20-30mls.

Then I saw the LC on monday & she was very helpful but I still cant get my baby to attached without severe nipple damage - one attempt at feeding needs about 24hrs recovery. The nipple shield kind of slips off when we try to use it and baby still cant get enough nipple/brest into her mouth...

I didnt express at all yesterday (i curse myself for this!!) and now today when I tried to start again - I have even less of a supply - 10mls?!?

We have an appointment to get my babys tongue tie snipped (which upsets me) in the hope that it will fix her attachment problems. Trouble is that now I have to try get some kind of supply back because otherwise she wont have any breast milk at all!!

Is it possible to come back after my milk nearly drying up?!? I feel terrible!!

Hi,

It is possible to get your supply back - but your story indicates the importance of keeping up your expressing schedule if you want to maintain your supply. When your breasts become very full and are not drained, it tells your body to "turn off" your milk supply. Frequent feeding/expressing will restart it. What a roller coaster couple of weeks you have had - very difficult. You are doing a great job to hang in there. Get back on that pump, and pump every 3 hours. It can be discouraging when you get such small amounts - but bit by bit it will come back.
Getting the tongue tie snipped will be easier than you think - it's the most minor of procedures.

Thanks Barb,

I knew I should have kept expressing but my breasts werent full at all and I wasnt getting much milk when I was expressing... I got into a bit of a downward spiral... :wall:

I have decided to try & continue with the motillium & an intense & regular expressing schedule. We will see the LC again on monday & hopefully the doc will snip babys tongue on monday also. If that solves the attachment issue it will be a big relief.

From what I understand the baby will be able to draw more milk from my breasts than expressing would & she will also increase my supply as she feeds?
I hope we can get it sorted... I so badly want to be able to feed her myself...

Thanks for your help! No one tells you about issues like this!!