When to start pumping?

I guess I have a few questions first.... 1. How are you going to do this?? Ex: Are you following a protocol, if so, which one? Are you taking Domperidone? Just going to pump? 2. how much milk do you want to have frozen before the baby arrives? If you want as much as possible then i would start as soon as possible I did the accelerated protocol. Took Yaz for 30 days, then started pumping and taking the fenugreek and blessed thistle. I got the first drop of milk about 4 or5 days after i started pumping. And im taking 160mg of Domperidone a day. Thats a little high, they suggest starting at 80mg i believe. I am now going on 9 weeks after starting to pump and i think i have about 4 ounces/day. its hard to gauge because i use a lactaid and nurse so i dont know how much exactly but that's pretty close i think. Good luck, any more questions just ask. Oh yeah and i nursed a bio son 9 years ago and had an ok supply with him. Rach

I have read some protocols that are out there, and pretty much think I am going to go with the pumping and herbs. I am not one who likes to take medicine if I don't have too. I tend to have a lot of reactions with prescriptions. So, I am trying to get advice on when to start pumping, but from what have read on these boards, it looks like the sooner the better. Jennifer

If you are planning on just pumping and using the herbs I would recommend pumping now. It may be a few weeks of pumping before you get any drops. And from there it kinda takes a while to even get 1/4 of an ounce each time you pump. Everyone is different I know but if you get a good response then you can have quite a bit of milk saved up by June. Good luck, Rach

Thanks. I'm going to try to find a place here to rent a hospital grade breast pump. I hope they let me rent one, even though it is for adoption. I'm not sure how they are about those things? Jennifer

I agree that you should start pumping now. Most would say having breastfed a bio child/pregnancy will make it easier for you to induce and have a better supply. My supply with my bio son was dismal for alot of reasons, and unfortunately my induced supply is reflecting the same way. Still, it's an amazing experience even if you don't get to exclusively breastfeed the adopted baby. I rent a hospital grade pump (Medela Symphony) - they honestly don't care what you're using it for as long as you pay them LOL. That being said though, my lactation consultant is very supportive!

Hi Jennifer! I have nursed six adopted children, in a variety of situations. The only medication I tried was metoclopramide, which I do not recommend, because most moms get depression and anxiety from it. I took it for three weeks and, although I felt like it gave me a little more milk, the side effects were definitely not worth it. I would probably have tried domperidone, if I'd had access to it at the time, but we were successful without it. I've never given birth to a baby but I produced up to about 16 ounces a day, from nursing on demand with the Lact-Aid. I also took fenugreek and fennel tea, with my youngest kids. Where you have breastfed four bio babies, you definitely have an advantage. How long ago did you last breastfeed? Did you do much pumping? I ask because most moms have trouble getting much response to a pump, without the help of domperidone. With your history, you may have an easier time. If you pumped much when you were lactating before, that could help you get more of a response. As far as when to start, it is up to you. Most moms who do little or no pumping before the baby arrives, and then just start nursing on demand with the Lact-Aid will have drops of milk in under two weeks, and often just a few days. So pumping is optional. If you want to start now, go ahead, but I would say to just play it by ear, as far as how often to do it. If your four children are still at home, you might have a hard time pumping frequently, but do what you feel you can without overwhelming yourself. You might want to just decide on a schedule; for example, three times a day for two weeks, and then plan to reevaluate at the end of that time. I found it very helpful to so something like that while I was nursing my children. Otherwise, I was always worrying about how my milk supply was doing and if I should be trying to do something more. If I decided on a date in the future for reevaluation, I could relax and enjoy my baby until then, just using the Lact-Aid and all the usual signs in the baby to make sure that he/she was getting enough to eat. Pumping isn't exactly the same, of course, but I think it is still good to keep from having to worry about it all the time. Not everyone is a worrier to the extent that I am, but some moms worry even more about it than I did.You may see ounces of milk from pumping without domperidone, or you may not. It is impossible to predict. A very important thing to know is that many women do not respond anywhere near as well to a pump as they do to a baby at the breast. I have seen moms get so discouraged from looking at an empty pump container, day after day, that they have given up on the whole idea of trying to breastfeed before they even had a baby placed with them. Sad, since they could have had a wonderful experience, and probably produced a significant amount of milk, had they waited until the baby came, or known that response from a pump wasn't an accurate way to determine how much milk they might produce. That was part of the problem with my first baby. I had lots of problems with cracked nipples (I didn't know how to position him) and, since I didn't think I was producing any milk at all, I couldn't make myself nurse him more than about four times a day. I had been sold a breast pump made of two long cylinders and told to use it in addition to nursing with the Lact-Aid. I thought that, because I didn't get anything out with that lousy pump, there was no milk. A few years later I realized, considering the breast changes I had seen with my first baby, I was almost certainly producing at least a little bit of milk. Have you found a place to rent a pump? If not, I would suggest contacting La Leche League. On their website is a feature that will tell you who the leaders are in your area and provide contact information for them. They will certainly know the best place to rent a pump. I don't know how much pump rentals go for, these days, or the kits to go with them but, where you are planning to use one for quite a few months, you might want to compare the cost of the rental with the cost of purchasing something like the Medela Pump In Style. Well, I guess I have talked long enough! I hope some of it was helpful! Darillyn

Have you checked into the price of renting a pump? If you start pumping soon it will be cheaper to buy a good pump than rent. Personally, I don't think the hospital grade pumps are worth the extra expense, but that's just my opinion. I had a friend who pumped exclusively with her bio kids, never put them to the breast, and she pumped 16 oz per session. To me, it has more to do with the individual body than the pump, assuming you're using a good quality consumer pump. If you do buy a pump, I suggest the top one Medela sells as I had great success with it both when pumping after going back to work with my bio DD and when starting to induce lactation last year. If you're not going to do the domperidone, I strongly suggest using fenugreek. That seemed to increase my supply.

I just looked around at some pump rental prices and it looks like it would cost as much to rent a pump for three months and get a double pumping kit, as it would to get a Medela Pump In Style. The PIS has the exact same attachments as the hospital grade pumps, and good suction. The main difference in that and a hospital grade is that the latter is made to be able to hold up to heavy usage for years and years. You could rent a Medela Lactina for a little less than buying a PIS, and it isn't actually pump, but a mechanical arm that pulls a plunger for you. After you return a rental, all you have left is parts that you can use as a hand pump. I don't know if you can follow my description without seeing the actual pumps, but there are lots of pictures online. Also, several moms here, like Sarah, have a lot of experience with pumps.

I started pumping a month before hand. I pumped every 3 hours around the clock and drank Breastea which has fenugreek, blessed thistle, and a few others. I started getting drops of breastmilk about 7 days later.