Home Forums Induced Lactation aka Adoptive Breastfeeding Medical Interventions to Induce Lactation/Increase Milk Supply Question about long term pumping

So I'm about to go on the protocol and stay on it at least 9 months but at some point if there is no baby I'll have to come off it and pump.
In many bio moms who pumped longterm; they seem to experience an eventual drop in supply. Does that happen to protocol moms or does the dom maintain things?

Patience

Patience,
I had planned to stay on the protocol until we were matched, even if that were longer than 9 months. I think it can be difficult to pump long term.
Jennifer

Hi Patience,

I have been pumping for 4 months post miscarriage and I am experiencing a serious drop in supply (18 oz down to 6oz). How did you know that it happens?

I ordered my dom and hope it comes soon! We hope to adopt by the end of the year, but I'm wondering how much longer I can pump.

Nancy

Nancy,

I've been a La Leche League Leader for many years and seen a lot of pumping situations. I've also been on boards for moms who pump for their children while working or in situations where they are exclusively pumping rather than feeding at breast.
Are you being followed by an LC? The only thing I could suggest is to pump more frequently and hopefully the dom will help. How often are you pumping now?
I have seen many different experiences such as supply drop or no supply drop but often women pumping alone experience supply drop because they aren't responding to the pump the way they would to a baby.
Another thing I would suggest is to manually express after each pump; especially in the before noon time when your supply is greater in order to fully empty your breasts so they will know to make more milk.
The reason I posted this is to people's experiences who were on the protocol but I don't mind responding to your situation.
There is a yahoo group called Pump Moms that might also be helpful; I was on the list for a while myself.

Patience

Hi. So is that why I feel like I produce a lot less milk when I pump more per day??

I can easily pump 2 oz. if I pump once daily, but when I pump more and try to keep it every 3 hours, it seems I get a lot less than that !! I have been pumping for almost 3 months and baby isn't due to be in our arms till mid October. I'm not sure what to do. Pump more often, or pump once daily and freeze more bags of milk.

Your getting more milk with only pumping once because your milk is pooling up in your breasts. But when you pump more than one time a day its lower because thats what your producing at that time. Your messing your body up completely if your only pumping one time a day. Your telling your body that it does not need to make more milk. You need to pump every 3 hours at least. It may take a week for your milk to start coming back up. The more you empty the more you will make. The every 3 hour pumping is very very important. I pumped for 2 years before we had our first surrogate baby. I was on the protocol for about 5 months. Do hand express after each pumping. Make sure your eating enough food. Oatmeal or oatmeal cookies. Do try the domperidone. Its fantastic. But again if you don't do the pumping schedule you will not make more milk. Just remember ...don't get impatient. It will take about a week for your milk to START coming back up if you do the schedule.

Thanks Nona. I am on domp. and have been for 4 months. It's just that I am very lazy about pumping and don't seem to have enough free time to pump regularly :-( Everyone has told me exactly what you've said and I KNOW it's the right thing. SO I think I should be more aggressive about it and start to really pump more.

Thanks for your reply. It really explained up things.

Hi Patience,

No, I'm not being followed by an LC (yet). I find it a little bit awkward to have an LC when I don't have a baby. I shouldn't, but in the past my hubby was not too thrilled with the concept of adoptive breastfeeding. He's better this time around, but I don't want to push matters with an LC. I hope that makes sense.

I'm pumping 4x / day. I do keep track of my pumping times and production; it's very helpful. I know I need to increase the pumping sessions, but I got so exhausted that I couldn't wake up in the middle of the night anymore. I also find it tough to excuse myself from activities because "I have to pump" for a baby I don't have yet. Another reason for the drop in production: I suspect that somewhere around the 8 - 10 week mark my breasts didn't feel as "full" every 3 hours and my "reminder" to pump disappeared. I started setting my cell phone to ring at certain times during the day, but I really need some kind of timer that counts down for 3 hours and then buzzes me to pump.

I was scheduled for fibroid surgery this week, but it was cancelled due to a cold. I had to stop all herbs for 2 weeks before that. That certainly didn't help matters. I'll be adding them in since I probably won't be able to reschedule for a month or 2.

I suspect that another problem pumping moms have is that we don't go through any "growth spurt" type pumping sessions like nursing moms do. You know, times when the baby nurses constantly and ups the quantity produced. We don't have that benefit when we're exclusively pumping.

To answer your original question: I don't think the domp can compensate sufficiently for a lack of pumping or the "less than full breast" feeling. (I have tried inducing lactation with birth control pills and domp before as we are adopting #3.)

Thanks for your help. I'll check out the Pump Moms group.
Nancy

Nance,

I think that you can simulate a baby's growth spurt in pumping. It is called cluster pumping; it's something like you pump for 10 minutes every hour or someting like that. Pump Moms can describe it better.
I know that when I was nursing my bio 2 year old; he was down to two nursings a day when I was at work but over the summer he stepped up his nursings and I felt my breasts get fuller so you can recover a lost supply. My question was can you do that the same way if the milk was brought in by the protocol.

Patience

its also called power pumping