Dianne,

Twelve years ago I had a 28 week baby after three days of trying to stop
labour.  During that time I had 2 doses of betamethasone.  As he was too
ill to be put to the breast I started pumping.  I got nothing for the
first two days, started to get drops and about nine days I reached my
peak of 100mls in 24 hours, pumping about 8 times.  Milk production then
went way down.  At about 11 days I was allowed to put Nathaniel to the
breast for the first time.  Hand expressing afterwards got more milk than
I usually managed to get with the pump--not much, still only 5 to 10mls,
but more.  Nathaniel came home from the unit after ten weeks, on a bottle
of abm or donor breastmilk every four hours, but the breast was stuck in
his mouth every time it was open.  I continued to hand express what I
could when he was asleep so I could give the milk with a dropper to
encourage him to continuing sucking on the breast.  It took us three
weeks from the time he came home from hospital for me to get a full milk
supply and then he had nothing but breastmilk for the next six months.

Did the betamethasone make a difference?  I don't know.  It certainly
took a lot of hard work and determination to build up a supply.  When I
heard that betamethasone could have an effect on the milk supply I
started asking mothers who hired pumps from me.  Of the first nine, four
had had betamethasone and little or no milk and five had not and had
plenty of milk.  Then I asked several who blamed betamethasone for too
much milk.  I've not continued asking and I know this isn't much of a
sample.  Two of the mothers I suggested that the betamethasone might have
made a difference and shared my own experience with, went on to develop
an adequate supply.  I didn't hear again from the other two.

If this mother's poor supply is due to betamethasone then it should be
possible to overcome that, but it took me 13 weeks with a very
cooperative baby.

Good luck.

Jill Dye, LLLleader, England
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