When do you pump if you’re exclusively breastfeeding? (2024)

Breastfeeding Support and Help

3 comments

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  nadra24

  Posted 07-05-24

  With a newborn? Never, unless you need to because your baby isn’t transferring milk well. Don’t worry about pumping for the first 2-3 weeks while you’re figuring the whole breastfeeding thing out, and once you get through those first couple of growth spurts. You’ll have enough on your plate without adding the extra pressure of fitting in a pump session, so don’t worry about it at first. Once you’ve got things figured out, you can start pumping once a day or so to build up a bit of a stash. You can pump 30 minutes or so after a feeding. Your breasts are always making milk, so you don’t need to worry about not having anything for your baby to eat if they get hungry sooner than expected. You’ll get the most milk in the morning, but any time of day that is convenient for you is fine. Around 8 weeks, my baby started having a 4-5 hour stretch of sleep between about 8 pm and midnight, so I liked to pump around 9 pm before I went to bed. Finally, despite what you see on social media, most folks have no need for a freezer full of breast milk. It’s nice to have a little just in case you’re away from your baby, but 2-3 feedings worth is generally sufficient. Even if you’re going back to work you really only need enough stored for the first day back. I think I had 30 oz in my freezer when I went back to work, and that was more than enough. If I hadn’t been working, I probably would have been happy with 3-4 bags of 2-3 oz each. There are definitely valid reasons for some moms to want or need a bigger stash than that, but if you’re mostly planning on feeding your baby directly there’s not much need for a ton of stored milk.

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• s

  SAK612 Original Poster

  Posted 07-05-24

  nadra24 said:

  With a newborn? Never, unless you need to because your baby isn’t tran…

  Thank you very much!!! Very helpful!

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  Daytonj

  Posted 07-05-24

  I have just used a hakaa on the other breast when nursing Doing that a couple times a day the first 2 months. Helps establish milk supply and builds my stash. Then after that the only time I actually pump is when I'm away

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