Maria of Little Peach
Pumping breast milk is a reality of many preemie moms, so finding new ways to make more milk is a common question.
While researching preemie mom breastfeeding and pumping tips, I loved the realistic tips from London-based, German mom of two little girls, Maria. She’s a birth educator, doula, and certified breastfeeding specialist who had two very different breastfeeding experiences with her daughters which inspired Little Peach a website and online community where moms can get together to motivate, educate, and support each other throughout their breastfeeding and pumping journeys.
Maria is so passionate about helping moms breastfeed, she offers FREE online and virtual coaching sessions! Be sure and check out her social media and website if you could use some encouragement or troubleshooting on your pumping or breastfeeding journey.
Recently, she offered 10 pumping tips that boost milk supply and I’m THRILLED she’s back with tips for a common preemie mom pumping issue–dwindling supply. Learn more about power pumping and how it can help with Maria’s tips.
Power Pumping Tips for Preemie Moms
by Maria of Little Peach
Having a premature baby is a very difficult experience and brings challenges on so many different levels. Breastfeeding is just one of the many ways your experience will differ than those who have a full-term baby.
If you are a mama to a premature baby then you have probably now been introduced to a pumping routine. What if baby is slowly catching up with your supply?
I have put together what I found to be the biggest tips in helping to increase milk supply. The most important one is to do power pumping sessions and you can then combine this with various small little tricks that get your milk flowing:
What is Power Pumping?
Power pumping is a great technique to increase milk supply. Any pumping or breastfeeding mama can benefit from it. The basic principle is to mimicking the frequent feeding behaviors of a baby during a cluster feed or a growth spurt to ultimately produce more milk. Because the amount we pump is what you can pump not the amount we can make, we can always trick our body to make some more.
A power pumping session tells your body more milk is needed. The following sequence is what works best but you can find your one timings and figure out what works best for you.
Here are the basics:
The general rule of thumb is that you pump roughly 40-50 minutes in a one hour period this will signal your body that there is more demand and your body will answer by producing more milk.
It is very important to know that your body won’t be producing this milk straight away. Most mamas see result in the pumping output within 24 to 48 hours after they did a power pump session. While you are power pumping, you may see very little milk flow as this session is to stimulate your breast to produce more prolactin and to ultimately signal your brain that more milk is needed in the future–not for your current power pump session. So don’t be disappointed if your output remains the same in the short term.
I would highly recommend doing a power pump during the morning hours or evening for two to three days in a row so your body gets the message that milk production needs to be increased. You should see result a few days after you completed your power pump days. Add a power pump session to your normal pumping routine.
You can also set yourself a pumping session as such: every time you pass the room with your pump, go pump a little to really stimulate your milk makers. It will be time consuming but worth it in the long run for breastfeeding mamas that are looking to offer extra milk to their baby.