Dear June, I work for a WIC agency and we loan mostly Elite and some
Lactinas to moms with premature babies who are on our program. Most of my
job is setting them up with a pump (the initial consult with me) and then
calling every week to encourage them. I have about 15-20 moms with loaner
pumps in the summer time and about 8-10 pumps loaned out in the winter time
each month.
I tell moms to pump 8 times in 24 hours, I have recently started saying
every 2-3 hours in the day, every 3-4 hours in the night. When the moms stop
pumping in the middle of the night, their supply almost always drops.
I would hope mom would be pumping about 3 ounces each time by now (meaning 3
ounces combined from both breasts). I would also want to know what pump she
is on.
What the most recent Medela research showed was that most moms pumped 5-6
times a day and make about 16-17 ounces in 24 hours. I may have the numbers
a little wrong but this was the general gist of it.
Most of the mothers that I work with start losing their supply when they
drop below a certain number of pumpings per day. For women who have a huge
supply, they can cut back to 5-6 times and still make 3-4 ounces total each
pumping. For moms with a normal supply, at 5 times a day they are usually
down to 2 ounces total per pumping.
Some things slow down a milk supply, like maternal illness, getting started
pumping after 48 hours postpartum, and some medications. So I might not
worry at 7 days postpartum, but I would go over how often, how long, and
what kind of pump with this mother.
From my experience working with pumping mothers of premies, when moms make a
low amount on day 10 things don't usually improve much and these mothers are
at risk of quitting early. There are exceptions to this rule and I do work
with a low income, often life stressed population, lots of single mothers.
Sometimes Reglan helps increase the milk supply. Reglan is all they can
afford and get a prescription for - most do not have internet or money, nor
will they purchase herbs.
Kathy Eng, BSW, IBCLC
In Houston where we are being told to expect Hurricane Rita on Friday
night!!
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