Does Power Pumping Really Work?
The short answer is, “Yes, it does!”
The long answer is coming up below.
I have always been somewhat dubious about the effectiveness of power pumping. How is it possible to double my milk supply if my body is producing only this much??? It sounds too good to be true.
I never had the chance to put power pumping to the test, until my milk supply finally decided to take a huge dip after Baby Dozer turned 1 year old, no thanks to stress and fatigue. You can read about my trying times here and hopefully gain some encouragement from it!
I have a personal goal of breastfeeding Baby Dozer till he’s 2 years old, so clearly, with my milk supply which was so laughable that even a cat would probably sit down on its haunches and laugh at it, the only option for me left was power pumping!
You can read this post of mine about how I managed to almost double my milk supply within 1 week, but for today, I’m going to share with you how I made power pumping work for me!!! This is also a follow-up post from my infographic about power pumping which I shared on Monday!
Perhaps, you’ve tried power pumping before, and it didn’t work. Well, you should read the points below and give it another try! After all, you can’t give up if you haven’t tried your best, right? ;)
…unless your definition of “easy" is going to the gym and doing 50 push-ups. With one hand.
Regardless of whether you’re a stay-at-home mother or a working mother, you’re a MOTHER. That means you are perpetually rushing, hard-pressed for time, exhausted and multi-tasking. Now imagine adding 1 whole hour of power pumping to your already-busy schedule? Next, imagine adding trying to power pump twice a day. If you read my post about how I managed to increase my milk supply from 5 ounces to 9 ounces within 1 week, you’ll know that I started a routine of power pumping twice a day and have been doing it for a month now. This means that I wake up earlier every day, so that I don’t affect my work hours and I sleep later too, because I power pump after Baby Dozer goes to bed and after completing my house chores. Nobody said it was easy.
Maybe you’ve tried power pumping for 3 days, decided that it doesn’t work, and then gave up. I have been there and done that. It was easier for me to give up back then because I still had a decent stash of milk in my freezer. When you’re desperate, you really do what it takes. And I was desperate when I saw that the milk in my freezer had dwindled to less than 3 days’ supply. So, I grit my teeth and hauled myself out of bed during those early mornings, and put toothpicks in between my eyelids during those night power pumping sessions. OK, I’m kidding. I’ll tell you what I really did during those night sessions in a bit.
OK, enough of the scary bits. Let’s move on to the cheerful part about power pumping!
3. Consider it your me-time!
Getting started is always the toughest part. Once you get going, things get better. After successfully hauling myself out of bed early in the morning, I would reach the office around 7-ish and begin power pumping. After a while, those morning power pumping sessions started becoming something to look forward to. The office would be quiet - nobody would be in - and I could read or have a leisurely breakfast while power pumping.
As for my night sessions, I do it after everyone has gone to bed and while initially, staying awake is tough, especially when all you want to do is retire for the night, I tried to take a more positive approach by watching my favourite cooking programmes or reading a book! Most times, I even have a hot drink and some biscuits while I’m power pumping! Yessss, the Big Rat loves prowling in the kitchen at night scouring for food.
4. It’s not just about power pumping
1+1+1 = 3 right? It’s sort of the same for power pumping. Power pumping only makes up one part of the equation. 1+0+0 does NOT equal 3. So, if you want to get 3, you have to plus your other factors too! This means eating milk boosters, getting adequate rest (or at least try to) and taking deep breaths whenever you feel like you’re really stressed. Again, if you have read my post on how I increased my milk output within 1 week, you’d know that I mentioned “eating milk boosters” too! Milk boosters vary for everyone, for example, durian does NOT work at all for me. Not even a bit. My personal milk boosters are unripe papaya soup boiled with fish and rolled oats. I’m a person who loves my food, so I definitely have no issue with happily eating all of these especially if they help to boost my milk supply!
The concept of power pumping is to drain your breast frequently so that your body thinks that it needs to produce more milk. Sometimes, your breastpump might not be able to drain your breast entirely. I find this true, especially for one particular side of the breast. To ensure I empty my breast, I have started this practice of hand expressing using the Marmet technique after I conclude each pump. I definitely feel that draining my breast completely accelerated the increase of my milk supply, so you could probably give it a shot too!
Very Important Tip: Make sure you are applying the correct technique so as not to hurt your breast AND to effectively empty your breast! If you don’t know what Marmet is, check out YouTube.
Now because I’m in a very prolific mood today, I’m going to give you a bonus point.
6. Persevere, persevere and persevere
What? I’ve mentioned it above already? Oh, yes, I did indeed. BUT this is such an important point that it’s worth repeating! Success only comes if you persevere! I mentioned that I’m in a prolific mood today, so let me share with you a little story about perseverance.
Once upon a time, there was a person, who was fairly normal. Just like everyone else, the person had a pair of eyes, hands and legs. Just like any other person, this person wished for the good things in life, such as to be stronger, to love and to be loved. Time went by and one day, God decided to answer the person’s prayers. He told the person, “You have to carry this stone and it will grow heavier every day, but this stone will give you what you wish for.”
It sounds strange, doesn’t it? To the onlooker, it seemed as if God had decided to punish the person, rather than answering prayers! The person, however, accepted the stone willingly. The stone indeed grew heavier daily, pound by pound, kilogramme by kilogramme. Still, the person bore the burden willingly.
Then, something wonderful happened. The stone started to change. It became responsive, it cried, it laughed and it learnt. It gave in return and made the person glad. Yet, through it all, the stone grew heavier each day; and still the person carried the stone faithfully.
Years went by and God decided to visit the person again.
"Well," God said, as He stroked His chin, "I’m proud of you! Look at how strong you are now when before this, you could barely carry your own bag! And look at how much you’ve toughened up. Before this, you were a girl and now you are a woman."
The person realised that she was indeed physically and mentally stronger now!
"And look just how much the stone has changed! In fact, I can no longer call it a stone. It’s a child now, who can’t live without your existence."
The person then realised that she had long ceased to think of the stone as a stone. In fact, it had ceased to be a burden a long time ago as their love for each other grew.
"It was never easy but I’m glad you never gave up," God continued, "else the stone would have remained a stone forever. That, I think, is the most beautiful work that you have ever done.”
This little story happened thousands of years ago, but it repeats itself even until this day. Mothers are a living representation of the word “perseverance” and all of us are a result of the perseverance of a mother or a motherly figure in our lives!
What a long post! Clearly I’m very chatty today. If you made it through till the end of this post, have a good weekend!
As an ex-expatriate and management consultant in an international firm, Grace was a career-minded woman on a fast-track path in the corporate world. The birth of her first child changed her perspectives in entirety, and she made the life-changing decision of becoming a stay-at-home mum. In addition to being one of Malaysia’s top digital influencers on Nuffnang’s Bloggerati list, she is a Dr. Sears Certified Health Coach and also runs children-related businesses (links available below).
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