Hey Ladies, I have a weird problem, I think I have hyper-lactation on my right breast. What happens is i HAVE to breast feed on my right side first every time i nurse if i dont i soak through nursing padS and my bra and shirt, even if i only nurse for like a minute or two it makes a big difference and I wont leak as bad. On my right side the milk squirts out fast and there is a lot of it. on my left side it seems there is hardly any milk. Its frustrating when I go to pump and I can fill a 2oz nursette in 2 or 3 minutes with my right side and after 15 minutes of pumping on my left side I sometimes only get 1oz. sometimes more sometimes less. Is this normal? How I can I increase my milk supply to match or get close to matching my right side? :::EDIT::: everyone as said its because I favor that side, well its not that at all. I always switched off with which side i started on with my first daughter and it never got better! so this is my second time nursing and second time having this issue!
To even out you milk production, you could offer the left side first each feeding until you get more milk production on that side. The other side may leak, but all of the milk production is based on supply and demand...always offer one side first, it should build up after a few days. You may just have variation in milk production from breast to breast - I had the same thing...don't worry about it too much and just go with the flow...
Hi A.,
If you start on the right side all the time you produce more on that side. Your baby drinks the most in the first couple of minutes, so make sure you switch the side you start on every time and the production on both sides will even out.
G.,
Certified doula
This was my problem too and I still have one breast that is larger than the other. The only way to solve it is to alternate which side you start on. This is also important for your child to get both the foremilk and hindmilk. The foremilk has more fat and the hindmilk has less. You want to make sure that you balance this out. Even though I alternated which side I started on, my milk flow on my left side was so much more than my right. I could pump six ounces in less than 10 minutes on the left side and I could barely pump 2 ounces from the right. This is just the way it was. No one really noticed that my breasts were different sizes except for my husband. I breastfed for three straight years and no one ever said anything:) Best wishes!
Sounds like you are favoring the right side for nursing. I would pump a little on the right side so it stops leaking and nurse your baby more on the left for awhile, so that the milk can come through better on that side.
I hope it gets better soon!
K.
to increase your left & decrease your right, start nursing on your left first for a while, every time & to avoid the right one soaking nursing pads try to just apply a bit of preasure to the right nipple as you feel the let down, this usually stops leakage. let baby nurse as long as s/he eill on left & then offer right side...if too full then pump a couple min on right side.
I had the same problem when my son was a baby. It is frustrating! Try to nurse your baby on the left side first if he's willing since the sucking is strongest at the beginning and will stimulate more milk production. My little guy didn't like that since he knew he got more milk from the right but it's worth a shot. Be sure to empty the left side every time. I would also pump only the left breast an hour after nursing to stimulate production on that side. It only took about a week for them to even out a little better. I never got them to produce the same but it got a lot better. Good luck and congrats on your baby!
I think that if you nurse more on the left, it will start to equal out. When I was nursing/pumping and one side would leak, I used my nursing bra to hold the breast pump cup on the opposite side. The pump bottle would catch the milk as it was leaking, then I could nurse or pump on the other side. I have heard that your milk supply matches your needs, if you start using one side more, it will continue to produce more milk.
Hi, the same thing happened to me. Except in my case it was because my son preferred the left breast since birth. So my milk supply nearly diminished in my right breast and I only feed from the left. And whenever I become engorged my left looks like a Himalayan mountain next to a foothill! I'm really lopsided right now. All I can say for you is try to keep pumping on the left to keep the milk flowing there. Supply and demand. I couldn't get it to work for me however. This is more common than you think. As long as your left side is making all the milk then you can get away with feeding on just that. I'm glad my son is perfectly healthy after a year and a half of feeding on only one side!
Hi A.,
Hopefully this is not more of the same advice...I have had the same problem and STILL have it(my baby is 10 mos old), although mine is not as extreme as yours. My supply has never evened out, even though I've never favored one side more than the other. Hopefully, you'll be able to get it to a more even level, but don't worry if it doesn't completely even out. I think in general I can get about twice as much out of the right side as I can the left (however, the left side is the one that always leaks! weird, huh?). I would just follow the advice of the other responses and hang in there! It should at least get better!
Start on the left side first then after half way through the feeding move to the right breast. Then at next feeding start on right and switch to left half way through feeding. This should help even out your milk flow in each breasts within a couple of weeks. Just be patient until your milk production begins to even out and try to carry a recieving blanket or cloth to absorb milk from right side when you begin a feeding with the left side. Baby suckles faster harder at the beginning of each feeding and slows down as he/she becomes full. If you rotate which breasts you start each feeding with this should help. You may be producing more in the right breasts because this is the one you always start with so baby is suckling harder and faster on the right and producing slower flow and less milk in left breast because baby isn't suckling as much on that side. Also pumping does not produce as much milk as a nursing baby does. So pumping alone will not help increase your milk flow as much as nursing will but try not to pump on the right unless you absolutely have to, because you are trying to slow the flow on that side. If you pump you are telling your body it still needs to produce more milk in that breast.
You might try a warm compress with a washcloth on your left.
Totally normal!
The more you nurse/pump the more you lactate. Keep pumping and freezing so you can regulate later if you want.
For some reason breasts are always lopsided, they won't be close to the same size until you are totally done breatfeeding.
For my third child i only nursed on one side (for a year). I was done fighting when he clearly prefered my left breast.
He is a preeteen now.
i didnt have that problem but i know i went to a organic grocerie store "mothers milk" it produced alot more milk for me. if your in the cruces area i got it at mountain market i believe its called off of idaho and el paseo. try that to see if it helps
A.
I had that problem too....
I used to start on the left side anyway and while the baby was nursing I would hold an empty bottle up to the right breast and just let it squirt into the bottle... then after about 20 mins I would switch.... I would do this back and forth until the baby was done nursing. Then would pump the left side for a little bit longer. Then pump the right side only if it was a little uncomfortable and only until I was comfortable again.
