Things You'll Need:
- One manual breastpump
- OR one electric breastpump
- OR one sterilised bowl for manual milk expression
- Glass of water
- Fenugreek seeds
- one clean towel
-
Step 1
First, when it is time for your baby's feeding, breastfeed your baby till he or she is completely satisfied or till milk supply produced from either breast begins to drop. Be sure to empty BOTH breasts.
-
Step 2
Then, halfway before the next feeding, express some more milk either using a manual breast pump or an electric one, or by manual expression. If doing manual expression of breast milk, be sure to use a sterilised bowl and a clean hand towel.
Note : DO NOT waste this expressed breast milk. You must reserve it and either store it OR if your baby is unsatisfied in the next feeding, then feed the milk to the baby using a syringe + feeding tube.
DO NOT reduce the frequency of feeding your baby. The idea is to stimulate milk glands, the more you feed, the MORE your mammary glands are stimulated to produce more breast milk. -
Step 3
Once this is done, then wait till the next breastfeeding time for your baby and repeat steps 1 to 3. In some cases, this is enough to stimulate your mammary glands to begin producing more amounts of milk.
-
Step 4
If you find that this is not enough to stimulate your breast milk supply, then you can try a herbal supplement recommended by many books, nursing guides and lactation consultants.
After 3 weeks of breastfeeding, I found that my milk supply was not enough to satisfy the tremendous increase in my baby's appetite. I tried the manual breast milk stimulation method described above, but it was not enough.
My nursing guide recommended Fenugreek seeds at a particular dosage. Within 10 days, I was not only producing more than enough for my baby, but also so much extra that I could easily freeze it and keep it for later ! -
Step 5
The dosage for fenugreek seeds is a two step process as described here :
1) TO STIMULATE and INCREASE breast milk production, you need to kick-start your milk producing glands. In my case, I weighed 140lbs and the dosage was ONE TABLESPOON of fenugreek seeds taken with water THREE TIMES A DAY. Anything less than this is not enough to kick-start the glands. I took this dosage for 7 days. The documented way to know if your glands have been stimulated is that your sweat and urine will smell like maple syrup. Mine sure did ! At the same time, my breast milk supply shot up tenfold ! I was very pleased and there were no unpleasant side effects. -
Step 6
2) TO MAINTAIN A STEADY SUPPLY of breast milk, you need to take a "maintenance" dosage till your breast milk supply has been full stimulated and regulated. After 7 days of the dosage described above, the amount is reduced to ONE TABLESPOON Daily or TWICE a day, whatever seems to suit you and maintains your breast milk supply.
-
Step 7
When your breast milk has been increased and stimulated, and you feel that the milk has been well established, you may slowly reduce the dosage as you see fit.
Your baby will receive loads of nutritious and precious "liquid gold" breast milk !
HAPPY NURSING !!
