Can i re-establish breast milk? - serious replies only?

Question

My two babies are still in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) and i've been pumping breastmilk using a hospital grade pump. I pumped an average of 40 Ml's every 3 hours. I missed a lot of sessions over the weekend and now i'm barely getting 15 Ml's out of breasts combined. Is there anything i can do to get it up and flowing again? Also, is there any way of knowing how long it might take? My little girl hopefully will come home in a week.
Thanks so much ahead of time.

Answer 1

Congratulations and good luck...

Drink a lot of water...You need to be drinking MORE than 64 oz. a day...you can do this. Eat a lot of high fiber foods including oatmeal and maple syrup. There are herbs, but drinking the water, and the oatmeal will really help. I know this is difficult, but you need to pump every hour...do one breast...and then an hour do the other...one at a time...to try to get your breasts used to the suction. When your baby is home, try to resist offering bottles. bring her to the breast, and if she doesn't take it...talk to a lactation consultant about a supplemental nursing system....that will bring her to the breast, while a tube is inserted in the side of her mouth. Milk will pour from the tube at a slow rate controlled by her sucking, and she will get used to milk coming from your breast. Good luck, this is the best thing you can do for your babies...especially in their fragile first months. I have been a successful nurser with all my kids, and feel free to email me if you need support.

Also, although hospital pumps are great....I've had better results at time with the Avent hand pump....for some reason..I produced more results with that thing...

Answer 2

Congratulations! While you're visiting the hospital, ask to see the lactation consultant. She'll tell you to pump more frequently to build up the supply. It should take 2-3 days. Just eat right and drink a lot and relax as much as you can. There are herbs you can take, but it sounds like you just need to pump all day for a couple days. That's how a baby increases supply.

Answer 3

As far as I know, you can. Try breast massage, I would do it in a warm shower with the water flowing over the breasts. That always made me produce like mad when my babies were young and I got off schedule. I have also heard that being around and closely interacting with very young babies will sometimes stimulate milk production even in mothers who hadn't nursed for years. The best thing would be to let the baby suckle, if you can with the baby being in NICU. Good luck!

Answer 4

Fenugreek. It is a herbal pill that you can find at any GNC or other places like that. It will help increase your milk production. I was taking about 3 in the morning and 2 at night to start off with. You may not see increase right away. Some people didn't see and increase for about a week, but this really does work!

Answer 5

Just keep on pumping, it'll come back. You don't even need to have just had a baby to get your milk to come in, back in the old days they used to have wet nurses, women who would breast feed the rich women's babies for them... I don't quite know how they did it but they managed so I'm sure that you can too. Just pump more frequently, try every hour and a half and it'll eventually come back in full force. Good luck!

Answer 6

you're doing good. relax and drink water. You just had your babies, your milk production will improve. see a lactation consultant. Also, i read a story that a woman took birth control pills and it gave her milk, since the body thought it was prego.

Answer 7

Yes. Discuss things with your doctor and/or lactation consultant.

There are other things that can be useful including some medication (metoclopramide)