Any ideas on how to get my supply up?

From breastfeeding baby pets to precision pumping

When we became parents, my husband jokingly called us Customer Service. Maybe we were overdoing it a little with the science of getting our baby to be the happiest baby on the block (yes, Harvey Karp), but I would also turn to Google 8 times a day with the same question:

“Any ideas on how to get my supply up?”

Or, well, this was before Google’s AI mode, so it was probably more like a version of the prompt “milk supply AND 2-week-old baby AND supplementing breastfeeding”. I kept going round in circles, and circles, and circles.

And annoyingly, the big clue always seemed to be in the latch.

A mouthful of breast

I remember learning about latching during my first pregnancy. I attended a lesson guided by a woman who looked like Bonnie Hunt in Beethoven, and what stuck with me was her instruction that “baby should have a mouthful of breast”. She pretended to take a big bite from a double-patty cheeseburger while saying it. She also mentioned other things, like “tummy-to-tummy”, “nose-to-nipple”, and that your nipple should not resemble a lipstick after nursing.

None of this made sense to me back then.

Hopefully, this page will help you through some of the collective, often silent, pain points that you may encounter during the early weeks of breastfeeding. Especially if your baby does not seem ready to take a big bite of that cheeseburger, it hurts you when they try to, your flow comes dripping straight past baby’s mouth, you’re upset with your flow (not enough? too much?), or your baby seems to be upset with your breast - before, during, or after latching.

Breastfeeding is a learned skill

(makes me want to put headphones on and sing lalala I can’t hear you! Wby?)

“If breastfeeding is a learned skill, why is my baby not learning how to do it?” I can see the frustration radiating from my screen when I read ‘my mum’s’ message, sent at 4:23 am on day 6 postpartum.

The short answer is: because our societal set-up naturally reduces exposure to loads of breastfeeding dyads to provide you with the needed context, and, the current standard of care (here, in the UK) is not filling that gap by providing thorough lactation consultations with the necessary paced follow-ups, paired with education on how parents can help their babies latch well with the help of oral exercises and guided myofascial baby massage routines.

And it’s probably affecting your milk supply.

Instead, we’re navigating a maternity care system where everything is segmented, and extensive study on human lactation is not required unless you are by trade a lactation consultant. We have:

• A midwife to catch the baby

• A maternity nurse to do regular temperature checks

• A pediatrician to check baby’s palette amongst other newborn checks

• A health visitor to check baby’s weight, to compare to a birth weight that may or may not reflect baby’s actual birth weight depending on any intravenous fluids that were administered during birth

• And a lactation consultant for situations where the mother feels confident and supported enough to share her rocky journey and pro-actively asks to see a lactation consultant

As a result, we’re dealing with fragmented communication, and we rely on good faith that all notes about a brand new baby are taken with care, processed into the system and thoroughly read when followed up with. And when notes are missing, or in some cases, the entire file is missing, the care professional relies on the parents to remember all relevant notes. When these parents are not by chance medical professionals (and even if they are!) they will likely miss some details as the arrival of a new baby is marked by the marathon of birthing and then recovering while being sleep deprived. With taking in adequate breastmilk as one of the primary markers for discharge in an otherwise healthy baby, and, with so many factors at different times of baby’s journey in-utero (the birth) and once born contributing to that, all the above is concerning.

Another concern is that each fragmented follow-up session has its own boxes to tick off. For example, a box to tick off before discharge from the hospital stay might be “baby latched on”. From the stories I gathered from hundreds of mums, this often involves one or two unidentified people (they probably wore a badge stating their name, profession, and band, but the point is that they either did not introduce themselves, or, the introduction did not stick) forcing the tiny baby into a position where they “make” baby latch, and then leave it at that. At this point, we don’t know if the baby continues to transfer any milk while latched, and, most importantly, if this position is convenient or even possible to replicate 9-12+ times a day for periods that may extend 30 minutes at a time. This leaves the mother thinking that her baby can latch, but somehow, she is not able to latch her baby. Or, a more risky but common version, that her baby can latch and is drinking, while milk is not efficiently transferred, leading to a drop in birth weight before the next health visitor visits.

This health visitor also has boxes to tick off before baby can be discharged, usually including “regained birth weight”. When the birth weight was not gained at the expected time, the designated professional will typically introduce a method of supplementing breastfeeding. This usually involves a bottle, carrying its own aftermath complications for latching.

The designated professional may not be comfortable to educate on breastfeeding, and these milestones require a tick-off very early in life. So instead of educating the parent on methods of latching and the time it may take for baby to latch efficiently, the message tends to sound more like this:

“Your baby is not getting enough milk. Here’s how to supplement it: breastfeed first, then pump, then top the baby up with expressed milk.” Turning the first few weeks into a fear-induced (hearing that your baby is not getting enough milk is scary!!) clinical-grade milk-producing operation. This is hard work and hard to maintain when resources are already thinly stretched due to A) sleep deprivation; B) the lack of robust support; C) a compromised day-to-day routine, often contributing to feelings of anxiety; D) fluctuating hormones.

With that, the focus will shift to what is measurable: expressing milk and bottle feeding, followed by the desired birth weight success, which is often interpreted as “well, this is what works”, assuming that breastfeeding was not for them. Where education on good pumping methods is absent, too, the mum’s potential milk supply may never be uncovered, leading parents to think that there is not enough milk, and introducing formula when baby’s uptake increases around the day-21 growth spurt.

But here’s the thing: the nursing reflexes (those movements you see newborns make with their head as they look for a breast, amongst other reflexes that help them remain attached to the breast) remain active for at least 8 to 12 weeks. They have that long to learn if they are not latching at all, and at least that long to improve their latch if they are [latching]. Also, stories on relactation and induced lactation are a testament to our little ones’ continued potential to learn new oral-motor skills. Just like they can learn how to transition to a straw or a cup.

And here’s the other thing: the volume of milk you produce, depends on the volume of milk you extract. Feeling full does not mean supply is abundant - in fact, engorgement usually leads to milk drying up quickly. And you’ve got 3-4 weeks to establish your milk supply, after which it gradually stabilises to become steady by week 6.

Where there’s milk, there’s a way.

The highest potential of initiating breastfeeding and latching is within the first hour after birth. This is followed by the first 12 weeks after birth, as this is when the nursing reflexes are working in mum & babe’s favour. That said, the presence of milk will motivate a happy baby to learn (important side note: much harder when startled, upset, or too far past early hunger cues).

Before we sterilised bottles and recruited pumps to improve or keep-up a milk supply for a baby that wasn’t ready to latch efficiently, mothers reportedly breastfed baby pets, such as puppies, cubs or monkeys.

The introduction of the pump enables us to see into raw data on output. The use of syringes, cups or bottles also helps us measure input, so we can keep track of supply versus demand. I call it precision pumping, and it especially has a place in the first three to four weeks. Please note! If baby is filling up the expected number of nappies, wakes up for feeds, remains awake during the feed, transfers milk efficiently and is thriving, there’s nothing to fix - so I don’t recommend cold plunging into this method unless any of the below apply to you:

• baby is not latching efficiently yet

• baby is drowsy, born early or light for their gestational age

• you’ve had a challenging birth story

• you’ve missed the golden hour

• you or baby are subject to health challenges

Making Milk Method

Rule of thumb: While establishing and maintaining your supply, you want to empty your breasts 8 to 12 times a day. The more milk is extracted, the more milk your body will make. This rule continues to be true throughout the entire feeding journey, with hormonal markers becoming less controlling when your body’s milk production needs to be maintained (autocrine control) versus induced (endocrine control).

Symmetry and predictability

Although it is rare for anyone to be 100% symmetric, the body loves symmetry. So while establishing your supply, you want to go for even numbers. More stimulation in this case is better vs long stimulation. So I’d recommend starting with:

• 5 minutes on the right + 5 minutes on the left + 5 minutes on the right + 5 minutes on the left

If that does not give you the output you hoped for, start with:

• 7 minutes on the right + 7 minutes on the left + 7 minutes on the right + 7 minutes on the left

To get to those 8-12 sessions a day, you need to nurse or pump at least every 3 hours.

When symmetry does not work: in some cases, mothers may have an oversupply, and after trying all things under the Sun to reduce the side-effects of this abundance issue, they may want to try feeding from breast at a time or block feeding.

Circadian Rhythm

As humans, we’re subject to the circadian rhythm. This means that your output per session is likely to fluctuate with the hour. To measure if your supply is ‘adequate’, you’re looking at 1) your daily total; and 2) your baby’s daily intake.

• Most likely in response to melatonin release at night, most lactating people experience a prolactin surge between midnight and 5 AM, with their milk-making hormones reaching their highest potential sometime around those hours, even when the duration of those feeds is shorter.

• Prolactin follows a 24-hour cycle, so you guessed it: before it peaks, it will dip. This is why the late afternoons are famous for “cluster feeding”. Many babies cluster feeds together in pursuit of the satisfaction they know is possible at other times of the day.

Power Naps

Due to the tight relationship between melatonin and prolactin, there’s more to factor in than the plain circadian rhythm. Research suggests that locking yourself (and baby) into a room with black-out curtains, long enough to have a 30-minute quality REM cycle, prolactin is released, regardless of how long ago its ‘peak performance’ took place. So tune into your sleep-inducing skills you picked up during your Birth Nidra sessions if you feel like you’re running low on liquid gold.

Strategically, the best time for said nap is between 3 and 5 PM. In Ayurveda, this is the time when Vata induces an afternoon arousal peak. Today, this can be explained by the second adrenaline ‘wind’ that some studies have observed in the late afternoon and early evening. In addition to the prolactin dip (nadir) that occurs around this time, higher stress levels in mum can signal stress to baby, and, all together form the perfect storm for a ‘witching hour’ or ‘evening colic’ in addition to cluster feeding, which can lead to more colic when done by an unsettled baby (due to the gasping in of air). By adding a high-quality nap in the late afternoon, you give your nervous system a chance to reset, without intervening with the digestion of your lunch, or your dinner-readiness by 6 PM.

Power Pump

Where a power nap helps to boost your prolactin, a so-called ‘power pump session’ boosts your milk removal - and, naturally, milk supply.

This is a great strategy for when you’re doing everything you can for an optimal milk supply, but perhaps:

1. Fall 10-20 ml short for a couple of your baby’s feeds

2. Your baby is going through a growth spurt

3. You’re exclusively breastfeeding, and want to express milk for occasional bottle feeds to help you get some self-care in, or get things done outside the house

4. You’re exclusively breastfeeding and have reason to believe your supply is falling low and you’d like to increase it - maybe because you’ve spent more time away from baby, your period has returned, you’ve been unwell, etc…

The method: ideally, you prepare your pump before you hit the pillow, navigate through your night as you normally would, and set your alarm as close to 6 AM as you’re comfortable with. Upon waking, you feed or pump for your baby first, without getting up from bed. Leave the blinds closed, and save screentime for later. Then, after your normal round of feeding or pumping, you pump 5 minutes on the left, followed by 5 minutes on the right. Take a 10-minute break, still with the blinds closed, relaxing in bed, perhaps sipping on a Lactation ‘T. Then, repeat the expression cycle. Check if you’re happy with your output, and decide if you’d like to have another 10-minute break followed up with one last cycle if your needs weren’t met yet.

Alternative method: if you’re exclusively expressing milk, it can be helpful to have two power pump sessions while you’re establishing your supply (week 1 through week 4), or later on, if you feel that your supply is dipping. You would time one power pump session in the early AM upon waking, and another session sometime between 4 PM and 10 PM, to mimic cluster feeding. This would only be valuable if you notice a supply drop at that time. To sneak a second power pump in, you would simply extend one scheduled pumping session, and follow-up with the next pumping session at it’s normal interval. For example, if you’re normally pumping at 4 PM, 7 PM, 10 PM and 1 AM, you could do a power pump from 4 PM until 5 PM, have dinner, and continue with your usual schedule at 7 PM.

Lactation and digestion (of food and thoughts)

Āyurveda encourages families to prioritise digestion (always!), especially during times of lactation. It’s believed that a gassy gut in the mother can lead to a more ‘airy quality’ in the milk, and thus, a colicky baby. Colic does not usually help with that exquisite type of latch we’re looking for, so it’s worth trying some of Āyurveda’s remedies that help optimise your digestion, while reducing gas:

1. Chewing fennel seeds or drinking cumin/coriander/fennel (CCF) tea after a meal can help stabilise your Agni, ensuring the milk produced from that meal is high quality.

2. Sipping on a Dashmool infusion throughout the day. Other options are a ginger root infusion (contra-indicated during heavy bleeding), or chewing on pickled ginger with lime juice and some rock salt 15 minutes before your meal.

3. Staying well hydrated throughout the day, aiming for 4 litres of liquid daily, of which at least 2 litres quality spring water. Enjoy all liquids at room temperature or warmer (get that coffee cup desk warmer!), while refraining from carbonated drinks.

4. The qualities of our thoughts, nutrition, and physique are believed to transferred to baby through the milk (more on rasa here), so here’s when to wait with nursing or pumping:

   • When you feel heavy after a meal
   • When you feel overwhelmed, triggered, angry, or frustrated - try to reset your nervous system through breath first, then begin your session
   • When you are hungry! Have a nourishing snack first to stabilise your endocrine system, and then nurture baby.

5. But also, don’t discontinue nursing or pumping when the quality of your feelings, thoughts and somatic experience are pointing at DMER.

Practice makes perfect

Back to the learned skill

Now that we have the milk to keep baby saturated and help them thrive, they can grow the stamina and muscle strength needed for that amazing “have a hamburger!”-latch I was slightly freaked out by during my first lactation lesson.

But you may be pumping. Even then, a good latch is important. A pump’s flange can be too narrow, or too wide (try Momcozy or Medela’s Flex Range). And the suction can be far too much! Excessive suction will pull excess breast tissue into the flange tunnel, which can squeeze and collapse the delicate milk ducts. This leads to obstruction and incomplete drainage, which can cause (some of the) milk to dry up alongside lasting injury. The positioning of the pump is important, too. If you’re holding it up yourself, which may lead to tightness in your arms, shoulders and upper back. Tension can get in the way of your let-down reflex, seriously impacting your output. And chronic tightness in the chest and shoulders can lead to the mammary constriction syndrome, which also affects your supply. Even when pumping, it’s important to feel well-supported by bolsters and pillows, while in-bra options can take the pressure off your arms, neck and shoulders. Just make sure you don’t bend over, or go all-out on every day tasks, as this can lead to spillage of your precious drops.

If you’re nursing. You want to be tummy-to-tummy (doesn’t matter which position you adopt to do this), nose-to-nipple, and baby’s nose should be aligned with their sternum so they can transfer milk easily. Your baby is expecting to tilt their head backwards - sidenote: a baby’s innate expectation to do so is one of the reasons I am unsure why hospitals seem to love the cradle hold so much as this often prevents the baby from being able to do so - and when their head is tilting back, they have wiggle room to release their jaw so their chin can sink into the space just under the nipple, and then, they can take that… mouthful of breast. That naturally means that your nipples won’t become like lolly pops (or lipsticks), because most of the areola will be suctioned in, too. And as much as the body likes symmetry, a latch is actually asymmetrical by nature: because you started off with nose-to-nipple, your baby will take more of the lower part of the areola into their mouth than the top. How much exactly? I don’t think it matters - it depends on your anatomy, and the size of your areola. So long as your baby doesn’t suck on just your nipple, and you feel entirely comfortable during latching on, and the nipple does not come out looking like a lipstick (misshapen), you’re probably doing amazing.

Here’s what all the above can look like.

Marma Points and Oral Exercises

It helps a baby to have their palms activated and their feet supported, because their body (yours too) is subconsciously still in the Paleolithic, and with the ends of their extremities secured they feel safe to receive milk. From a marma pointview, activating the point at the centre of your baby’s palms helps to relax the jaw, allowing for a deeper latch. The Talahridaya point at the centre of their soles, is connected to circulation and the respiratory system, improving the suck-swallow-breathe reflex, which is the key to efficient milk transfer.

We can also work with Chibuka Marma (chin point), Hanu Marma (jaw point), and Phana Marma (sides of the nostrils) to do “Fishy Faces” with baby. This helps them strengthen their hard-working cheek muscles, encourages a lip flare, and releases jaw tension that can cause a shallow latch. Here’s how that works:

• Squishy Fishies: Use your index and middle fingers to make small, firm but gentle circles starting from the cheekbones and moving toward the corners of the mouth. This builds oral awareness and relaxes the “sucking pads” in a newborn’s cheeks.

• The Lip Flare Stretch: Gently draw the baby’s cheeks forward while encouraging the lips to flare out. This “fishy face” position helps create a better seal around the areola.

What to look out for? If the baby arches their back, pulls away, or becomes irritable, stop immediately to avoid creating an oral aversion. The best time for learning is when baby is happy, alert, and not hungry.

• Light Pressure: Use only the lightest touch; a baby’s facial structures and marma points are highly sensitive.

• Warmth: Always ensure your hands are warm, as cold touch can cause the baby to tense their jaw and aggravate Vata.

When to reach out to a lactation consultant

There is a lot more to a deep latch, and to cover it all would go far beyond the scope of this post. These are the signs and symptoms that it’s time to reach out to a lactation consultant:

1. Even when baby has gained weight, stamina, and a good suck-swallow-breathe mechanism at the bottle, they still do not seem to be able to latch on the breast

2. Repeated blocked ducts or mastitis

3. Sharp shooting or stabbing from the nipple, shooting to the centre of the breast

4. Cracked, blistered, or scabbed nipples that do not improve within a week

5. Your baby seems unable to latch and shows signs and symptoms of a tongue tie

6. Changes in nipple shape or colour immediately after a feed (flat, lipstick shape, white)

7. Baby consistently falls asleep almost immediately after latching or is too sleepy to wake for feeds.

8. Clicking, popping, or smacking sounds during feeding.

9. Baby is consistently unsatisfied or inconsolable even after marathon feeding sessions.

10. Fewer than 6 wet diapers and 2–3 bowel movements per 24 hours after the first week.

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Signing off with love xx