Can self exspressing Bbreast milk decrease supply?

Question

My baby is 4 1/2 months, we have been nursing exclusivly and since on cerial I have been self expressing milk, (Have not found a breast pump to work that I can afford and live in such a small town can't get a rental). Also for the first time I went to work for half a day and then a full day comming home for lunch and self expressing while I was gone at normal feeding times. Now I can't seem to get full and I will be working two full days this week and I just don't want it to get worse If self expressing can cause some sort of damage. I will normally express 4 oz a day for cerial and when I am gone I can get about 2oz out of each breast buy hand

Answer 1

Not expressing the milk causes your supply to go down. You're probably not expressing completely, or often enough.

Expressing the milk places the demand on your body to produce more milk. However, if milk is left behind after feeding or expressing you body assumes its producing too much and will decrease supply. on the flip side, presenting a demand more often, such as continuing to express milk even after the flow has stopped, or expressing more often, causes your body to think the baby needs more to eat and will produce more.

My thought it that since manually expressing milk has a tendancy to not empty the breast completely, your probably leaving milk behind and causing your body to think theres not a high demand.

Answer 2

Self expressing won't hurt your supply. It may not help it, but I assure you it won't hurt it. But not having your baby or a pump empty the breast often enough can hurt your supply.

However feeling full isn't a good judge of how much milk you have. Your body is probably just adjusting to the fact that your baby isn't drinking as much during the day (which normally happens at some point anyway as life becomes more interesting than food). So your body will produce less during the day and more at night.

The best way to judge supply is to keep track of wet diapers. If you want to be really nutty about it get a kitchen scale and weigh them. Then you can see if your baby is peeing about the same during 24 hours when you work and don't work.

Some (few) babies start to sleep through the night at that age. So they are going 6-8 hours without food at night and making up for it during the day. Your baby can go 6-8 hours (or maybe a bit more) during the day and make up for it at night. Making up for it at night will be made much easier by co-sleeping because your baby may drink ever 2 or less hours.

Also, if you qualify WIC and some other organizations will give you a breastpump for free.

This is an awsome article:
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/index.html

Answer 3

Can't you get one from EBay, you might get a cheap one from there- but at this stage, your body will ONLY produce what it needs , and nothing extra, so it's hard to express.
Make sure your diet is good, that you are getting a decent amount of calories, and I think I read that Fenugrek leaves can help build up milk supply- perhaps you could contact a lactation consultant who can gives you tips on expressing by hand more efficiently?

Answer 4

Self expressing will makew more!!! your body will make as demanded, so if you dont do it, you will lose it... if you feed or express you will make more and more... I tried hand extraction, but found a manual breast pump was much better, and turned out to be cheaper than i thought.

Answer 5

Check online at www.babiesrus.com. They have electric breast pumps and you may be able to order one online. Trying to do it by hand is not going to harm you, but you will get more with a pump.

Answer 6

Email me your name and address and I will send you my unused pump. No kidding. [e-mail]
But to answer your question, I don't know why your supply is going down...seems like expressing would keep your milk at a good level. Hmmm.