Exclusively breastfeed or pump?

Question

I’ve heard and read mixed advice on weather to just breast feed or pump. I’ve heard you shouldn’t pump at all for the first month so you don’t have an over supply and I’ve also heard to pump after each feeding. Which is it?? Lol Everything I read online is all over the place and I’m just needing some guidance!

Answer

I probably depends. I’ve breastfed 4 babies. Just using your breast is way more convenient, so I generally don’t pump unless I need to. At the beginning I’ll pump just a bit when I get really engorged, to take the pressure off, but not enough to signal that I need to make more milk. I’ve also had latching issues with 2 of mine, so I pumped some while we were working through that. Once we’ve really established breastfeeding I dont generally pump. If needed we’ll just supplement with formula, I’m okay with that. However, sometimes baby gets picky and won’t drink formula when they’re older so you may want to pump and have some extra in the freezer as needed. This has just been my experience.

Answer

I exclusively pumped because my son didn’t latch on and it definitely didn’t have an oversupply. I wish I did though loll

Answer

I breastfed and pumped almost immediately so that I could start building a stash of breastmilk for when I went back to work. Even then I'd still have to supplement a little here and there. I wasn't as consistent as I should have been with pumping cause I was too tired sometimes, but this time around I plan to be.

Answer

My son was a nightmare to latch at night for the first couple weeks so we gave him pumped milk until he got better at it (I literally pumped while my husband fed him a bottle in the middle of the night for a few weeks). I did have oversupply but so did my mom and I don't believe not pumping would've made a significant difference. The engorgement was painful so I pumped for some relief as needed or anytime a duct felt clogged duct mostly. And it's nice to have the option for bottles if your nipples hurt or you want to wear something without access to BF publicly for a few hours.

Answer

Your hospital should have a lactation consultant you can talk to help answer any breast feeding questions.

Answer

Depends on your baby and how much they eat plus what your body does. Also your milk can't regenerate if you still have milk in your breasts. To get milk to regenerate you have to get rid of what's in there aka pumping or feeding. 
I've heard for some mom's that they believe pumping caused them to loose milk supply and I've heard from others that it increased because it allowed new milk to form. So I truly believe it's all just depends on your body. 
No matter what my sister did with her kids she dried up in 6 months. My other friend is going on 3 years and still producing a ton! 🤷 So everyone seems different.

Answer

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Exclusively breastfeed or pump?

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