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looking for personal experiences
I'm a first-time mama--my daughter is 5 months old. We've been unable to breastfeed because I have extreme supply problems. I exclusively pump, and I only make about 6 ounces of milk per day. My daughter gets mostly formula and then whatever milk I can produce for her. (She refuses to nurse out of frustration at the milk shortage.)
I'm not sure why I have this problem; I suspect that I have hypoplastic breasts. I have an appointment next week with my new GYN, and I'm going to ask him about PCOS, which my LC said I might have. I'm not sure what else I can do--I already pump 7-8 times a day (down from 9 times a day when she was smaller); take More Milk Plus, brewer's yeast, and goat's rue; drink gallons of water and eat lots of oatmeal; and use breast compression and massage.
Anyway, the point is, I was wondering if any of the other ladies on this site have experienced this, and if so, whether it gets any better with subsequent pregnancies. I've read that sometimes the hormones from pregnancy cause breast development, so that later babies get more milk. (I'm not expecting to be able to breastfeed exclusively, necessarily, but I know we're planning to have one more, so it would be nice if we could do a little better on the breastfeeding front.) Any personal experiences to share?
I'm also hoping that I can manage the birth a little better to give us the best possible start--I was pressed into an induction that I think was unnecessary, which led to an epidural and lots of IV fluids. I lost a lot of blood and they kept up the Pitocin drip for hours after the birth. I would guess that didn't help any, especially in terms of getting my daughter started nursing properly right away.
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