Pumping or Hand Expression?

Question

- 1 hour of pumping And I get 1 oz or less per boob... Sometimes a few drops. 😳 
- 15 mins of hand expression, I get 2 oz.🙂
I’m thinking of just using my hand to get the milk out instead of pumping. This is my 4th week of pumping and my body is not responding well to the pump. 
Does hand expression also help maintain supply  if I stop pumping? I’m also continuing with breastfeeding as that has gotten better. It’s just pumping that sucks for me.

Answer

My left boob prefers hand expressing, my right boob prefers the pump. It's super weird lol. What I do though is pump for 10-15 mins on one side, while I hand express with a Haakaa attached on the opposite side. After 10-15 mins I switch over. I do only 2 sessions at a time (so 30mins total) and give my nips a break. I have low supply, but can get at least 5oz doing this on a good day.

Answer

I would talk to a lactation consultant. They can evaluate how you’re using the pump and give suggestions for what to change. Maybe the size of the flanges is wrong? Also, my LC told me to only pump for 10-15 mins at a time, definitely not an hour. Pumping that long is counterproductive because it will exhaust your breasts and make them produce less in the end.

Answer

I had tried 3 different pumps (Lansinoh, Ameda, Medela) before I found one that works great. So it may be you
Need a different pump or I agree with the other posts that the flange size may be wrong for you. The other pumps I had was a 25mm and I now use Medela with a 24mm which is perfect for me. Do you have a manual pump as you hand express? 
Medela manual pump comes with a 24mm flange and the Evenflo comes with a 25 I believe.... 
I tried those as well and found the Medela with the 24mm was my size- you may need to look up which size is best for your nipple/breast and go from there...

Answer

As someone suggested, consult a LC. The most you should be pumping is 20 minutes at a time.  Have you tried your pump on the lowest settings?  I’ve found that I get more when it’s set low.

Pumping or Hand Expression?

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