#1 Pumping mom dilemma every single night: Should I sleep? Or should I pump? Show
Every mum's situation is unique and it is hard to say which is the right thing to do. We worry so much about milk supply, anxious about mastitis, and torn between wanting to sleep more and feeding our baby. Baby is sleeping longer stretches in the nightYou've worked so hard in the first few months to establish your milk supply. Now that you're producing enough to feed your baby, it's hard to just let go. "Recently my baby has been sleeping 5 to 6 hours a night. I don’t want to wake her up, but what about my milk supply? Do I have to pump? Is this how it will be forever?! I’m so tired and truly want to take advantage of her sleeping." Team Sleep If your daytime supply suffices, then you should be able to get away with cutting your night-time pumping session. Although night-time pumping is great because of our high prolactin levels (milk-making hormones), catching up on sleep is even more important for our mental health. However, if you experience a dip in your milk supply: "My baby is 11 weeks old. She has been sleeping through the night for three weeks now. At first, I was still getting up to pump or waking her to keep my breast from being super engorged and uncomfortable. I'm now pumping once in the night (4-6 hour stretch) but my milk supply has now decreased during the day and my baby is not happy. My boobs feel way less full. She's not getting enough milk and I am having to use my frozen stash to help fill her up." If you're afraid that missing a night-time pumping session may cause your milk supply to drop, you can make it up by nursing or pumping more in the day. A good pumping tip is to use Haakaa manual pump on your other boob when you're nursing your baby. When your baby has drained the first boob, use Haakaa on the drained boob to signal the body to produce more milk. Also, if you're still worried about your milk supply, you can add 15-minute pumping sessions in between your nursing sessions. Team Pump "I’d really like to stop pumping at 11 pm and wait till 5 am to pump. It seems difficult to drop it because my breasts are so used to being pumped every 4 hours. Every time I’ve gone past 4 hours, they feel full and uncomfortable." "Should I pump before I go to bed? Will this tell my body to produce extra milk? I'm already battling with oversupply." Engorgement hurts. Your breasts are swollen, very hard, hot, and painful. The skin feels tight and swelling may go all the way to your armpit. If you are engorged, you should not ignore it. Get up and hand express just enough to relieve the pressure. Or a more convenient way is to keep a manual pump on your nightstand. Relieve a little pressure but not too much- this way your body would know not to produce as much throughout the night. Give yourself some time and your breasts will adjust to your baby's new schedule. "But pumping is a bad idea. What if it increases my milk supply?" As long as you're only pumping enough to relieve some pressure (instead of pumping until your breasts are drained), your body will know not to produce as much. Do this for 2-3 nights. Slowly, it will take longer for your breasts to be engorged and you can drag out the pumping session to a later time. I want to build a freezer stashIf you want to build a freezer stash so that your baby can still have breastmilk after you've stopped breastfeeding, I would keep pumping in the middle of the night. That way you'll keep your supply up and have extra milk in the freezer. Otherwise, your supply will regulate to your baby's natural feeding pattern. Pumping is hard work. Store all that milk you’ve worked so hard for in our eco-friendly milk storage bags. We hope this article is helpful to all of you pumping mamas. You're doing such an incredible job xx Should you pump at night, or is it okay to sleep? When you’re exclusively pumping, the answer depends on your baby’s age, your milk supply, and how you are feeling. Here’s what you need to know.  Do you need to pump at night?The answer to this depends on a few things: 1. Your baby’s ageThe younger your baby is, the more beneficial pumping at night may be. In first months after birth, frequent pumping or nursing may increase the number of prolactin receptor sites:
Therefore, if you’re exclusively pumping, it’s a good idea to pump at night if possible for the first few months to ensure that you’re able activate enough receptor sites to establish a good milk supply. 2. Your milk supplyWhenever you drop a pumping session, there is a risk that your milk supply can be affected. Anything can happen – your supply can stay the same, it can go down, or it can even go up. This risk is something you have to keep in mind when deciding whether or not to continue pumping at night. Unfortunately, there is no way to know for sure what will happen when you drop your middle of the night pumping session until you try it. Therefore, you have to consider your milk supply along with your risk tolerance and feelings about your milk supply. If you have oversupply, making the decision to drop a the night time session will be easier. If you’re a “just enougher” who is anxious about pumping enough every day, it may be harder to make the call. The other risk to your milk supply is that longer breaks in lactation can result in getting your period back sooner than you otherwise would, which for some women can impact milk supply. 3. Your sanityPumping at night can be important to establishing your milk supply. However, you can’t sleep in one hour chunks for an extended period of time and keep it together. If your mental health is affected by the amount of sleep that you’re getting, that’s an important factor in deciding whether or not to pump at night. Remember: Breastmilk is important, but your mental health is more important. What does it mean to “pump at night”?First, let’s talk about what night includes, as sometimes I am asked what specific times of the day you’d need to pump for it to be considered “pump at night.” A 1990 study analyzed prolactin levels in 20 lactating women, and they found that levels were the highest between 11 pm and 7 am, and lower the rest of the time. The authors theorized that since babies typically go longer stretches without nursing at night, the high prolactin levels may help maintain milk supply during this time.
So we know that prolactin levels vary along a circadian rhythm. Unless you have a drastically different sleeping schedule (say, you work nights), I would consider “pumping at night” to be pumping during time that you would normally be sleeping. How many times should you pump at night?There are a few different ways you can set up your pumping schedule. My preferred way was to pump every time that my baby woke up. This way, I knew I was pumping at the same timeframe as when he would have been nursing. It also eliminated issues where I’d wake up to pump on schedule and then get woken up an hour later when my baby needed to be fed. However, if your baby is sleeping through the night, or your partner handles the feedings, or if you prefer to be on a set schedule, I would recommend pumping between 1-3 times per night when your baby is younger than 2-3 months. You might want to do 2-3 sessions when your baby is first born, and 1-2 later on in the newborn phase. (I’m giving a range rather than exact numbers because so much depends on the factors we talked about above. If your baby is three months old and you’re trying to increase milk supply, it might make sense to pump twice at night. On the other hand, if your baby is two weeks old and you’re struggling with PPD, it’s okay to only pump once per night. Just do the best you can.) How often should you pump at night? How long can you go at night without pumping?If possible, I would suggest trying to get at least one longer stretch of sleep (say, 4-5 hours). This will get you through one complete sleep cycle and can be really helpful for maintaining your sanity. (Of course, this may not be possible depending on your baby’s sleep.) Before you start to wean, the longest that I would suggest going at night when you are exclusively pumping is about 9 hours, if possible. For example, that might mean that your last pumping session of the night is at 9pm and your first is at 6am. You can see some sample pumping schedules (including how much I pumped at night here.) Do you pump at night? Tell us your experience in the comments! References
Will my milk supply decrease if I don't pump at night?Waiting too long to nurse or pump can slowly reduce your milk supply. The more you delay nursing or pumping, the less milk your body will make. That's because overfilled (engorged) breasts send a signal to your brain that you need to make less milk.
Is it OK if I don't pump at night?If you're feeding throughout the night, you may not need to pump at all. However, if you're exclusively expressing or if your baby isn't breastfeeding at night but you want to maintain your milk supply, it's important that you plan on breast pumping at night.
Why don't you produce enough milk at night?Low milk supply at night
But your body produces more prolactin (the lactation hormone) during night feedings. Therefore, your overall prolactin levels could drop if you skip on night feedings, leading to a low milk supply.
Does night feeding increase milk supply?Your body produces more prolactin (the hormone that promotes milk production) when you breastfeed at night, so night feedings help to keep up milk production. As well, mothers vary in the amount of milk they can store in their breasts, so for many women night feedings are essential to meeting their babies' needs.
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Will my milk supply decrease if I dont pump at night?
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