The Novice's Guide to Expressing Milk

Expressing milk if you’re breastfeeding is by no means a given – some women are recommended to do so to increase supply, but generally it’s a convenience thing. Many women don’t bother and I can’t blame them – it’s not top of my list of fun things to do of a morning – but for me it made sense.

My main thing was that I missed running and going to the gym. It’s easier to run if you’re not, ahem, brimming with milk; sustained high intensity exercise can reduce the fat content of milk (I try to avoid working too hard but prefer to have a back-up just in case I run out before Young Sir is sated); and going to the gym is a lot less stressful when there’s milk in the fridge in case a feed is required before the class ends.

My other half was also keen to have the opportunity to do a little of the feeding - some of the other blokes he'd talked to had mentioned how nice it was being able to give bottles to their babies, and while that wasn't reason enough on it's own it is pretty cool for him to be able to be part of that side of things. 

So I decided I needed a pump. There are a few different brands and having only used one I can’t provide any useful comparison, but the Phillips Avent Comfort pump seemed pretty popular among my antenatal cohort and I like the way the system works – you can get storage cups which connect directly to the pump, and the teats use the same connector as the pump so everything is interchangeable. It can also operate on battery power if you need it to. 

I balked at the cost – the cheapest I could find it in New Zealand was $230… So I googled! Amazon had the Avent Comfort pump (though obviously lacking an NZ adaptor) for $120USD (I’ve linked to Amazon but the price may fluctuate so do your own calculations). I bought a pack of 10 storage cups as well and paid shipping and the total was $193NZD. So now you know I’m a cheapskate… But hey, it works the same! We already had an adaptor but you can pick them up pretty easily on TradeMe.

The first time I tried pumping I panicked a bit as I couldn’t get my milk to let down. It turned out I didn’t have one of the pieces in the pump firmly enough – everything needs to be firmly in place to create the required vacuum. It can be slow getting to let down even if everything is right, though, so trying again if it doesn't work the first couple of times is recommended. 

It can help to look at photos of your baby to get the milk flowing – and actually expressing while feeding seems to work best for me, but it is pretty awkward juggling a baby and a pump so you might need either assistance to push the buttons or a good strategy to get that working. I have also read that using warm compresses can help encourage the flow.

Yield seems to vary quite a bit by day, which I understand from research (i.e. Googling) is pretty normal. I also hear that babies are much better at getting the milk out than any pump, so you probably can’t accurately guess how much your baby drinks just by pumping.

I have (classy!) created a pumping bra so I can go hands free - hacked holes in the cups of a bra I wore almost to death during pregnancy (here's a similar concept - looks ridiculous but works!). This will come into its own when I head back to work in the New Year - I'll be able to pump both sides at once, which hopefully will mean only one pumping break and I might even be able to continue working (by taking my laptop to the room reserved for the purpose, not by pumping at my desk!) at the same time. 

We assumed Young Sir would be happy taking the bottle but apparently this might not be a given - especially given his outright rejection of dummies! So might pay to have a test run before you abandon your baby with a bottle like I did... We have worked out that he often likes to continue comfort sucking the bottle when he's done eating, which does seem to be what he does when breastfeeding so I suppose makes sense.

I'm pretty pleased that I splashed out on a pump - it's given us some flexibility we wouldn't have otherwise had, and the back-up milk that we have in the freezer also came in handy when I was laid up with a stomach bug and not producing as much as normal.

Did or do you express milk for your wee one? Do you have any tips for making it easier? 

Getting through illness while breastfeeding

Being unwell while caring for a small child has never sounded fun (or even bearable, really) but even with reasonable expectations reality can be cruel. I came down with some kind of horrible lergy on Monday which has thrown our week out completely. Luckily for us Young Sir seems to have avoided my bugs so far (as has my other half) which made things easier - but even if all you have to do is feed, it's still pretty gruelling having other demands on you when all you want to do is wrap yourself in a cocoon and sleep for a week.

I also can't recall ever feeling quite as wiped out and woozy when ill - I suspect the breastfeeding, which is a significant energy-guzzler, is to blame for that.

Unsuprisingly it's pretty common for milk supply to decrease during illness - in my case I struggled to drink, let alone eat (though only for a day or so) so my body did seem to slow down a bit on providing food for the small one. Which of course made him antsy about feeding, which I wasn't much in the mood for!

As with most what-do-we-do-here moments in parenting, there are varying and opposing opinions on this, but we had some spare expressed milk in the freezer so we supplemented a little, which helped keep everyone a bit more calm. And we refined the lying-down feed which definitely helped me get through. And Young Sir had lots of gummy grins for me when I was at my worst - like he knew and wanted to make me feel better.

Its common knowledge that antibodies in your milk can boost your baby's immunity, but I hadn't realised that had a more or less instant effect meaning often breastfed babies skip viruses which bowl the rest of the family over. I would definitely choose having to feed the well baby through my illness than him being sick and fussy - even if I didn't have to do the feeding part.

I'm very glad we live in a country with reasonable family sick leave provisions, as we've used two days this week and they were very necessary. I honestly don't know what I would have done if my husband had been away or unable to take leave - so I have much respect to anyone who has had to cope with that awful situation. An example, perhaps, of how modern communities don't serve us when we're vulnerable so well. We have several sets of awesome neighbours, and I could definitely call in some favours but helping me care for a baby while laid up in bed with a virus seems a bit much to ask.

Anyway, I hear that once Young Sir starts daycare (likely to be in the New Year) we can expect plenty more of this, except he won't be dodging the bullets anymore - so I guess that was our practice run.

What has your worst illness-related parenting period been so far? Has the whole family been laid up at once?