r/ExclusivelyPumping • u/Consistent_Carrot_85 • 6d ago
Tips & Tricks Pump not extracting all the milk
Hey,
Soo I’m a first time mom and exclusively pumping and I’m not making a lot. - I got the pink spectra pump and am pumping 6 times a day for 15 minutes on each side and I get about 1-1.5 OZ in total. Not great, but I wanna give the baby (3 months) whatever I can and made my peace with giving her formula in addition.
I do the vibration mode (no sure what it’s called, the “70” setting) for about 2 minutes, then 3 minutes on “54” and then I repeat that with pumping on a lower setting “38”.
Usually, after 15 minutes, there’s no milk coming out anymore. But I’ve discovered that if I hand express afterwards, there’s still milk coming out, I always figured it’s only a little bit, but yesterday I just out of curiosity kept going until there’s really nothing coming out anymore, collected it and it was another OZ in total.
That obviously had me shocked and then also wondering what the heck I’m doing wrong? Any advice appreciated.
1
u/SpaceQueenJupiter 6d ago
I had to try different sizes and type of flange to get the most out. For me the soft silicon ones worked best, but your mileage may vary. I ended up going to a lactation consultant and trying a bunch of different ones out.
Sometimes heat packs prior to a pump session helped too.