I have seen several cases where moms with slight oversupply create a 
huge oversupply by pumping too much, especially with an electric pump. 
These women are often told to pump after nursing to remain comfortable 
but what happens is they create a monster! Perhaps this should be called 
"pump induced over supply."

I have never seen such huge oversupply in women who are not pumping 
(just breastfeeding). I am careful to tell moms not to get into this 
pumping rut, but I think others are telling moms to pump a lot. I am 
hearing this from mothers who rent an electric pump. They are told the 
solution is to pump and not given any basic management techniques. I 
recommend only a manual pump to remove small amounts of milk for over 
supply as it doesn't seem to stimulate the over production that comes 
with too much electric pumping in these cases.

And I don't know of an easy way to cut back the supply once they start 
down the road of pumping a lot and nursing a lot. Those ladies that 
aren't pumping, seem to be able to manage their supply, lower the 
supply, much easier. And I also think that the over-pumping sets the mom 
up to feel that "empty" is better and "normal" and gets her into the 
mindset of being pump dependent.

If you look at the BREASTFEEDING ANSWER BOOK, overly pumping is not a 
recommended technique to manage oversupply.

Kathy Eng, BSW, IBCLC

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