>
>         I have been searching the archives to find out why a mom's
>supply would
>be dropping off after bringing home her son who was born at barely 32
>weeks gestation. Apparently had copious supply while pumping during
>hospital stay ( this stash has been seeing her through the past couple of
>weeks). Once baby came home she noticed a drop from 4-6 oz. per pumping
>to 2-2.5. She sometimes gets only 40cc.


Well, all the other stuff you mention may also have a bearing on the
situation, Cyndi, but the sort of thing you describe above is what
some mothers discover on pumping long term.....not all of them, but a
good many of them.  For these mothers, the pump just doesn't cut it,
when it comes to maintaining a constant, reliable, copious supply.

In my experience, they have to resort to strategies to overcome this
- more frequent pumping sessions, pumping and then waiting a short
while and pumping again, shorter sessions at each breast and then
switching, double pumping....

There's bound to be a physiological explanation, and I would suggest
part of it is the pump does not give the same physiological
'experience' to the breasts. Also, as we know, mothers in early bf
tend to over-produce, then they tend to make what the baby needs, in
direct response to the feeds. When that period of over-production
dies away, the amount of milk available for the pump is less at any
one time.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

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