how to manually express?

[SilverStarfish]

Does anyone have any advice/good sites etc with infomation on how to express breast milk manually?

[elissas]

Hi Faeml,

My advice is to just keep practicing, try every now and then. It took a few weeks for me, I could only get drips at the start. Then one day I just got the hang of where the ducts are and got it squirting :) Now I can express 30ml in a few minutes.

It was kind of trial and error for me, getting to know my breasts and how they were working :detective:

[SilverStarfish]

Thanks :) Drips are where I'm up to now. I was wondering if I was doing something wrong as all the books etc were talking about "squirts"

Breastfeeding is so much harder than it looks! I'm hanging in there, each day my daugher and I seem to work it out a little bit more.

[Goosie22]

Hi,
Elissa is right it takes practice to get it working.

Here is a link with some pictures to help with the positioning of your fingers, hope it helps:)

http://www.ennonline.net/ife/report/annexVIII.html

Keep up the good work:smiliedance:

[veve]

I tried manually expressing in hospital - took me 1/2 an hour and I got 5 mls whooo hooo (not!!) ... I know it takes practice,...

but I just decided to get a good manual pump .. I can now express about 250ml in about 20 minutes... (it takes a while for your breasts to get used to them too though)

good luck to you though :D good on you for being keen to do everything you can for bubs!!!

xxx
Jen

[jonesso]

ditto on the pump approach, doing it purely by hand is soooo hard and frustrating, not to mention it gives you a sore hand!! After I had been breastfeeding for a few months I was able to express more by hand than before, but that was after a lot of feeding and pumping!!

Avent do a great pack with manual pump, bottles and a carry case. Very swish! I think you can even get one in combination with a steriliser too, which saves you a fair bit versus buying it all in dribs and drabs.

Good luck, and keep persisting with the breastfeeding. I had problems b'feeding my DS and ended up giving him formula every now and then to give me peace and to take the stress out of it. He was 90% breast/10% formula fed and I am very happy with the way that it went. But breastfeeding is a great thing to do if you can - every drop of breastmilk counts, so even a few mils is great for bub! Good luck with it all. You'll find a lot of support here on Bubhub for you.

[SilverStarfish]

It is getting easier - both expressing and feeding. Everyday we work out a little more of it. I do like the idea of getting a pump and those Advent packages look like a good way to do it.

The midwife came for the last home visit today and to do the heel prick test on my daughter. She said that I was doing just fine (yes!!:yelclap: ) and that if anyone ever knew just how challenging the first 6 weeks of breastfeeding can be, then probably no one would want to even try.

DD was weighed too. I must be doing something right. She's put on about 300g since she was born last week! :smiliedance: