Hi there, first time mother here with some breast milk issues that I just can't seem to resolve on my own.

I planned on breast feeding my daughter from the get go and after delivering her on March 19th I attempted to and all of my nurses and every lactation consultant I spoke with said I was doing everything right and she was latching on correctly. She apparently has "a very strong suck."

I shortly ran into the problem of bleeding and split nipples to the point i could not bare to breastfeed. It was so painful I cried. And I am aware it takes time for my nipples to toughen up but it was getting to the point that they didn't have time to heal because she needs so much.

I attempted pumping and hand expression at the hospital with the help of nurses and lactation consultants and pumping was just as painful and yielded nothing whereas hand expression had a good response but not enough to sustain her. So we ended up having to use formula to give my nipples time to heal and my milk to come in, which she's done quite well with.

Now that we are home, my nipples have healed a decent amount but not enough to breastfeed yet (its still too painful) and my milk has come in the issue I'm having is although I'm still getting a good response with hand expression, I am getting literally nothing with the what I'm told is the top if the line, best of the best breast pump. I've tried different flanges, vacuum setting and "suck" setting and still nothing.

It's so just disheartening to sit there and attempt to pump for so long and have nothing and such a good response with hand expression but it takes so long and is so tiring to get even the smallest amount I don't know what to do.

I do plan on trying to speak with another lactation consultant but if anyone else has ever encountered this or a similar issue I would love some feedback!!!

Thank you in advance for reading this and offering up any advice one might have!!! :)