milk supply

[reei]

hi,

i wonder how to make sure i have adequate milk supply for breastfeeding after i give birth in august.
any advice? i heard that drinking more soup will ensure milk supply.. anything else?
i intend to breastfeed, wonder if there is anything to look out for.

thanks.:grouphug:

 

[Sage]

Eat healthily, right now (when you are pregnant) and drink lots of water. I think water is the most important thing for me. And don't go on a diet - ANY diet, such as cutting down carbs, etc. Just eat healthily and follow your OBGYN's advice. Oh, and get a good lactation consultant/nurse. I had Mrs. Chee (let me know if you want her number). She came to see me on the second day after I gave birth and got the colostrum out. My milk came in the third day and didn't stop since.
Once you start breast feeding, just feed on demand and pump (if you think the baby is feeding too little or too short a time). I had a lot of problems with the baby latching properly at the beginning so I pumped, just to make sure that my milk supply didn't go down. It worked. Oh, getting a good pump is important. I had a double electric pump - Medela Pump in Style. I also used Avent's Isis Manual Pump.
Good luck!

 

[jenayds]

It's great that you are intending to breastfeed. I agree that drinking lots of water is important. Breastfeeding is a supply and demand situation - your body makes milk according to how much your baby sucks. Once your milk comes in at about day 4 after the birth, you can have very full breasts, but they settle down after a while (weeks) as your body works out how much your baby needs.

If you have questions about breastfeeding you can join La Leche League Hong Kong, they have a website at www.lllhk.org and there are regular meetings and get togethers around Hong Kong. It can really help to ask experienced mothers your questions and work through any problems you might come across.

 

[MaiYe]

Drink fish soup and eat fish help milk supply

Having sufficient rest, eat proper, drink fish soup, eating fish and fluid helps. Remember to avoid strong spice - such curry.

cheers,
Florence

 

[LLL_Sarah]

La Leche League Meetings

You are very welcome to come to our meetings where you can learn more about breastfeeding. The schedule of our meetings is available at http://www.lllhk.org/Meetings.html

All our meetings are free. The format for all the meetings is similar. We spend the first part of the meeting discussing the meeting title topic and the second part of the meeting the topics which the mother’s attending bring up. Thus every meeting is different depending on the needs of the mothers there.

The article Why La Leche League? http://www.wiessinger.baka.com/bfing/others/whylll.html
gives a nice description of why our meetings may be helpful to attend.

We also run ante-natal classes in both English and Cantonese. The next English class is April 30th (contact Sarah 2548-7636) and the next Chinese class is 14th March (contact Maggie 9048-1701). Details of the class are at http://www.lllhk.org/Class.html

We also sell a book called The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding which covers everything you need to know, http://www.lllhk.org/Sales/WAB.html

And we have a bilingual pamphlet called When You Breastfeed - getting started. This pamphlet covers everything a new mother needs to know about breastfeeding to get off to a good start in hospital and the early days at home. It can be downloaded at http://www.lllhk.org/Information.html

If you have more questions feel free to contact one of our leaders:
MAGGIE 2817-7475
MARGARITA 2257-6757
RHONDA 2441-1356
ROCHELLE 2947-7147
SARA 2518-0660
SARAH 2548-7636
MAGGIE YU 9048-1701
[email protected]

Best wishes,
SARAH

 

[reei]

thanks a lot for the advices. i'll drink plenty of water ..
maybe will buy the electric pump in my third trimester.. but what if it's not the problem with technique,, but just no milk?
i have heard some ladies,, well , just don't have it..

 

[reei]

Sage,

Where can you get the double electric pump - Medela Pump? How much does it cost?

Thanks.

 

[LLL_Sarah]

All mothers start to have the first milk called colostrum from around four months pregnant. This milk is waiting for your baby to arrive. So if the baby comes prematurely you still have this first milk for the baby.

How quickly your milk starts to increase after the baby is born depends on how well and how much breastfeeding the baby does. Newborn babies need to feed between 8 and 14 times every 24 hours. And your body needs to be fed from between 8 and 14 times every 24 hours.

If this happens the milk usually increases between day 3 and day 5. If however, you give supplements to the baby during this time it will delay your milk increasing. So the quickest way to get your milk to increase is to directly feed the baby as much as possible.

There are, of course, cases where the baby can?t breastfeed (for example if the baby is ill or too premature). In these cases it is necessary to give your body the same signals as if the baby were feeding. In the early days hand expression seems to work much better than a pump but after the milk has increases a pump will also work.

Nearly all cases where there is a problem breastfeeding is not because of the mother?s supply but rather because the baby has a problem breastfeeding. If the baby doesn?t feed correctly then he doesn?t remove the milk the mother has. This leads to the baby not gaining enough weight which in turn makes the baby sleepy, which means the baby has even more problems removing the milk.

If the baby continues to feed badly and the mother doesn?t take extra measures to protect her milk supply then it will decrease.

If you and your baby have no problems then I would recommend that you directly breastfeed without pumping or expressing for the first four to six weeks of the baby?s life. And if you or your baby do have problems that you get help from a lactation consultant or La Leche League leader as soon as possible. All breastfeeding problems are much easier to sort out earlier rather than later.

Best wishes,
SARAH

 

[Sage]

reei,
I got my Medela Pump In Style at Bumps to Babes in Central. I bought it last year for HKD4,200. You can also rent Medela pumps (electric, double pumps) from Celki. There is a Celki at Melbourne Plaza (10th Floor) in Central. They also have stores in other places in HK Island, Kowloon and New Territories.

IMHO, hydrating yourself and getting plenty of rest is paramount. It's hard, when you have to take care of a newborn. Don't get stressed out if you don't have a lot of milk initially. That will only make things worst! In fact, if you decide to pump, you will find that the more calm and relaxed (this is a big challenge for new mothers!) you are, the easier the letdown.
Nonetheless, my advice is - don't worry. Cross the bridge when you come to it. No point worrying now about having no milk, etc. now. It will only make things worse. I think the most important thing is that you've decided to breastfeed your baby. Just eat well, stay healthy and get plenty of rest.

 

[peainpod]

Hi Reei,

I think determination and preparation are both very important and the fact that you are thinking ahead about this now is a very good sign. Like you, I was very keen to breastfeed and also worried about not having enough milk, cracked nipples etc. before giving birth. (I just gave birth last week, and so far things have been going well)

As a new mother, I would probably attribute breastfeeding success to the following: 1) arming yourself with as much correct information as possible. For me, that included getting a lactation consultant - Yvonne Heavyside in my case - to come up and teach me ahead of time. (Going to a LLL antenatal class would achieve the same.) It's important to talk to informed ppl about breastfeeding so you can prepare yourself mentally for the challenge of breastfeeding ahead. I also find that when you are more informed, you tend to stress less and this in itself will help your milk supply.

The first days postpartum are quite important in terms of getting you and your baby adjusting to the techniques of breastfeeding so if you are able to get help early on with the latch and positioning, it really helps. IMHO Matilda really is the best hospital for this, as they are equipped with great midwives and nursing staff who are on hand to help with the latch-on as well as in giving excellent breastfeeding advice.

Last (and probably least important - in the sense that this is not essential to breastfeeding success), certain types of foods like papaya really does seem to work. Chinese soups with papaya in them seems to work well. A lot of ppl say Chinese fish and papaya soup - myself, I ordered a papaya and date soup from the Matilda hospital menu and it could be coincidental, but my milk came in that night and I was really really engorged!

Good luck!