Breastfeeding & Pumping FAQ

This page was originally a regular old blog post, which I didn’t edit into a more permanent tone for months. The answers that have specific “how much X” or “how often Y?” were written when Noah was between 6-7 months old, unless otherwise noted. Those answers do change with the age of the baby.

It was also originally inspired by a question from Jen — who loves the Frequently Asked Questions format — gotta give credit where credit is due.

I also want to emphasize that these are my opinions and my experience. Your milage may vary.

If you do not want to think about this topic any more, at least not associated with me, don’t scroll down. I promise not to be offended. Especially if you work with me.

If you want to know “what the big deal is,” why nursing moms got so wigged out about the TSA rules about liquids on the plane, or just “what it’s like,” continue reading.

(And if I’ve missed any, ask in the comments and I’ll add them in!)

Frequently Asked Questions
About Breastfeeding & Pumping

1. Why is breastfeeding such a big deal? I was fed formula and I turned out fine.

Me too. But there’s lots of evidence that babies who are breastfed are healthier than babies who are exclusively formula fed. And there’s general agreement that:

• If you can only do it for a few days or weeks, that’s better than not doing it at all, baby-health-wise;
• Breastfeeding for at least a year is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics; and
• The AAP has also published studies demonstrating significant health benefits to the baby for nursing all the way through the second year.

I’m not going to try to get into all the science. Quite honestly, I fell asleep during that part of the breastfeeding class. Jill had to keep poking me to wake me up.

If you’re looking for that, or for advice on how to deal with trouble that you are personally having breastfeeding, I recommend La Leche League, the American Academy of Pediatrics, your local hospital’s lactation consultants, and KellyMom.com. Especially, my internet friends, KellyMom.com’s forums.

2. Haven’t women been nursing babies for millions of years? How come people need classes and lacation consultants and all that stuff?

It isn’t as easy as it looks, and new moms are notoriously paranoid.

Plus, for the first few million years, little girls grew up seeing their moms and other relatives feeding babies, and probably learned a lot about how to do it that way. If they had trouble, those people were also generally around to help.

And if those women couldn’t get help, or they weren’t able to breastfeed, their baby probably died.

As an aside, surgery also messes with the ability to breastfeed. Some women who have had implants or breast reduction surgery can, some can’t. Those who can, probably needed help.

3. What’s so hard about it?

Basically, when the baby is first born, you have to stuff as much of your breast into its mouth as fits. Then you cram the baby’s head onto your breast. It really looks like you’re suffocating them.

If you’re lucky, you don’t have inverted nipples, your baby has figured out how to suck, it doesn’t have any weird biological thing that make sucking hard, and the baby “latches on.” Which basically means grabs ahold of your nipple and sucks like an industrial strength vacuum.

4. OWWWW!

Yeah. That’s why it’s important to get your whole breast in there. It hurts much more if there’s less tissue.

Now imagine that someone does that to you every 2 hours for a month.

5. OWWWWWWWW! That sounds like torture! Why would anyone do that?

Yeah. Hence the need for classes and science and all that. If I hadn’t been really convinced it was a very very very good idea for the baby, for the long run, I’m not sure I would have made it past a week or so.

6. Is there anything you can do to help it hurt less?

Yes. Medical grade lanolin helps a ton, although not if you’re vegan or allergic to wool.

Note that you don’t need much — a dot about 1/4 the size of a dime was plenty for me.

The thing that helped me the most was something called a “comfort gel pad.” It was cool and soothing during the part when I thought Noah was going to suck off all of my skin.

7. Does it still hurt?

Mostly no. The first month or 6 weeks were pretty awful, but then your body adapts. Now it only hurts when I’m being used as a human teething chew toy, or for some reason, he’s extra-super-clingy and nurses for a really long time. It isn’t like being “back to normal” but it doesn’t hurt. It’s kind of hypersensitive, but ok.

UPDATED POST FIRST TEETH: Surprisingly, now that Noah is almost 10 months old, and has a few teeth, it really doesn’t hurt any more. The teeth are only involved if he isn’t really eating, and I’m pretty sure that the ~3 times he’s bitten me were deliberate communications that he did NOT want to be nursing any more.

8. So, how does it actually work? Do you swell up like balloons?

For the first few days, it seems like nothing is happening. Lots of people get scared and quit during this time, but actually, your body is producing something called colostrum, which doesn’t look like milk at all. It’s all your baby can digest, it’s full of antibodies, and there isn’t that much of it.

During this time, people also forget that the baby has a stomach the size of a large marble, so he really doesn’t need very much to eat.

A few days or a week after the baby is born, your body goes completely chaotic and insane with hormones. Probably it does this sooner, but in this case, they bring in the milk.

For me, as a first time mom, my body had no idea what it was doing, and it made tons of milk, regardless of whether Noah was eating or sleeping or what. And my breasts had no idea how to manage all this sudden activity. Think rock-hard balloons.

Those little pod-like bits make milk, and when the ducts get full, the pod-like bits slow down and make less of it. But it takes them a few weeks to get the hang of it.

During the first few weeks, this had some embarassing moments. I leaked. Sometimes in public. But since around 8-10 weeks, that hasn’t happened. My body seems to have figured out how to not leak.

It also hurts when it gets too full.

Imagine that there is a water balloon slowly filling up inside your body. At first, you don’t really notice, but as it gets more and more full, it starts to be uncomfortable. And eventually, it feels all stretched out and pulled and full.

When the baby nurses (well) or you pump, you basically drain off all the milk so the balloons are empty, and the whole thing starts over.

8a. What happens if you don’t empty the balloons regularly? Besides being uncomfortable?

The ducts? They can get plugged up with the superfatty milk. Then you have a painful lump in your breast. It hurts, it hurts more when you touch it, and the only effective way to clear out the lump is for the baby — or the pump — to keep trying to vacuum the milk-plug out.

Good times.

It can get worse. The plugged up part can get infected, which is called mastitis. The mom feels like she has the flu, and if it gets really bad, can even require hospitalization.

9. How long does it take before you get all uncomfortable? Do you really have to pump at work?

It depends.

Here’s the answer from when the baby was 6-7 months old:

For me, now, I start to notice that “fuller feeling” around 2.5 hours, occasionally sooner. And then I start to want the baby to eat, or to pump, around 3-3.5 hours.

I can stand to go about 5 hours if I have to, but by the end of that, I’m working hard not to bite anybody’s head off. And god forbid that you bump into me from the front at that point, because I will probably scream.

I can sleep through that feeling, but when I wake up, I pretty much want Noah to eat right away.

THAT is why leaving my pumping gear at home was such a problem. And why I pumped in the airplane restroom and also the restroom at National Airport. Eww. But better that than me clawing your eyes out.

In general, I pump either 2 or 3 times/day at work. Ideally, I like to pump shortly before 9 am, around noon, and around 3 -3:30 pm. But if Noah eats late in the morning, or I have meetings, then twice/day. But then I worry that I’m not going to be able to pump enough for him to eat the next day.

Now that Noah is a ripe old man of 10 months, I find that I only pump twice/day, and I can comfortably go 4 or 5 hours, but not a lot more than that.

10. How much milk do you pump?

It varies. I’m data obsessed, so I actually track it. My daily average is between 11-14 oz. Noah takes 3 bottles to day care, ~4 oz each, so I approximately pump what he needs for the next day.

I’ve been pumping extra-aggressively for a week or two, because next week I’m going out of town for 3.5 days, and I’m trying to leave enough milk to get Noah and Jill through my being gone.

10a. Why do you think the amount varies from day to day?

The two variables I’ve noticed are 1) sleep deprivation, and 2) hydration. In that order. (Which seems odd.)

I drink an absolutely insane amount of liquid every day. I would guess between 150-200 oz. Mostly very watery apple juice, some coffee, usually also some milk. Sometimes also tea thats supposed to promote lactation.

But if it’s been a rough night with Noah, or a rough couple of nights it doesn’t matter how much I drink. Those are the 8 or 9 or 10 oz days.

8b. What’s this tea business? Can you really herbal supplement yourself into more milk? Isn’t that some weird hippy myth?

I don’t really know. Some people swear by it. Other people say that you have to take so much fenugreek that your sweat starts to smell like maple syrup before it works. I think that’s … odd.

But if it might help and I don’t think it’ll hurt, why not?

If you want more info on this one, go to a LLL meeting in your neighborhood, or to the KellyMom forums.

11. How much does Noah eat when he’s nursing?

Yeah, that’s a good question.

We don’t actually know. The best guess is that he needs between 25-30 oz of milk or formula per day.

12. Could you ship your milk back from wherever you’re going?

Theoretically, yes. But shipping a 2lb package fedex same day from the conference to my house turns out to cost $370.

I’d also have to convince either my company or the hotel to let me use their fedex account, because you can’t ship a package with liquid in it that weighs more than 1 lb, until you have been a fedex client for N period of time AND shipped at least 24 items in the past.

So, no.

13. What are you going to do with all that milk you pump while you’re gone?

I think I’m going to buy a cooler and some ice packs and put it in my checked luggage. The hotel already said they could freeze it for me.

If I have to, I’ll dump it, but that would just suck. The hard thing is that I won’t know until I’m at the airport.

UPDATE: SHIPPED JUST FINE IN COOLER IN CHECKED LUGGAGE.

14. How long does pumping take?

Usually, it takes me about 20 minutes, total. Setup, actual pumping, storage, cleanup, all included. The actual pumping part is more like 8-10 minutes.

15. Are there different kinds of pumps?

Yes! And a pump review will eventually be forthcoming is right here! I have tried not quite every single electrical pump known to womankind, but close.

In the meantime, I think EVERY new mom who is planning to breastfeed should get both a manual and an electric pump. You can’t go back to work with only a manual, but you really need it for when the electric one is impractical, or it breaks.

I cannot recommend the Ameda Avent Isis manual strongly enough. (Thank you, S! You convinced me to give it a try.) I think that’s going to become my default baby shower gift from now on.

16. I’m still not clear on why the TSA rules are so upsetting.

Pumping takes energy and work, AND it really isn’t voluntary if you’re nursing and away from the baby.

And if you’re able to produce enough milk to feed your baby, that’s way more than 3 oz. But are you really supposed to put it in your checked luggage? What if it spills? How warm will it get? What if you have to change plans? What if you pump at the airport? What if you pump at the airport and then get on a new plane?

Unfortunately, the updated TSA rules say that you have to be travelling with the infant or toddler to be allowed to bring a larger quantity.

17. How long are you going to keep breastfeeding Noah?

For now, I’m shooting for about a year. I could imagine the first thing in the morning and last thing at night feedings going on a little longer than that, but I don’t want to keep pumping at work past then.

18. So far, it sounds grim. Are you just doing it because of the science?

No! I know these descriptions sound pretty grim, but actually, it’s really nice. If it had been that bad, I would have weaned him around the time I went back to work.

I love the time with Noah. When he gets scared or upset by something, nursing calms him down and stops the tears in like 3 seconds — a great way to tell if there’s actual pain or just upset, btw. It’s a unique connection and relationship, and I feel lucky that I’ve gotten to have that experience.

And it’s really cool that my body can feed another human being, and have him thrive. I didn’t even have to do anything special, except perservere.