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.

I haven't had any experience with this and am sorry you are struggling so much with supply issues. You may want to repost this on the main market forum
http://www.amitymama.com/vb/amity-mama-market/
as it gets a lot more traffic and you will get more responses there. I know some mamas here have struggled with low supply.

I'm surprised that your LC has not suggested that you use a sns . That would help increase your supply while encouraging you dd to breastfeed.

your blood lost @ birth may be the culprit. I just found out that I have low supply (but didn't know til now, my dd nurses so incredibly much that her weight is fine) & was told that hemorrhage can cause it. Pituitry issues sometimes are relevant.

I am now on tinctures & such to increase milk, need to pump after every feed & if that does not help will go on reglan.

Anyway, not really sdame experience as you, but I really think a sns & reglan if needed would really benefit.

(btw, this is my fifth baby -never had issues with the others)

good luck!!!

I had a serious supply problem w/ my now 2yo. I ended up on Domperidone which significantly increased my supply. I really highly recommend trying it. It is a great help for lots of mamas. It is more effective and has fewer side effects than Reglan. I would also look into thyroid issues. I had mine tested at the time but the doc told me it was normal. I didn't think twice about it but have since found out most drs use a very old range and that mine really was quite low. That might have done the trick for me. I didn't have supply issues w/ my first but he nursed A LOT. I think I had low thyroid at the time and it was even lower by the time I had ds2 and thus such a terrible supply problem. I sooooo wish I had known about this earlier. I would definitely get your thyroid tested if you haven't. If you do (or you already have) go by the newer (as of 2001) guidelines that anything over 1 is considered low. The old is anything over 5.5 for over 20 years old. That is a huge difference. A higher number means lower thyroid function. If you pursue this you may have to fight your dr on it as most are not on board w/ this change. Good luck and you are a super mama for sticking with it and giving that little one every drop you can.

I did have my thyroid tested, and the doctor said it was normal, but I don't know what the levels were; I guess I could call and ask for the specific numbers. I tried Reglan and the side effects were incapacitating--I couldn't take it and still take care of my baby! I haven't tried domperidone. I'm just not really comfortable taking something that's not approved here, even though the things I've read have indicated that it's safe.

Anyway, thanks for all of your feedback. I'm just really not sure about all of this. I just assumed that I'd be able to nurse my baby and it's very tough to come to terms with the fact that I can't.

I had low supply with my first two children.

My first - my milk didn't come like it was "suppossed to" and I don't think I had the best advice. He wasn't peeing at all and after 3 days the dr told me to give him sugar water. I was going in for daily wt checks and he was rapidly loosing wt. So they had me suppliment. I was seeing a LC but I dont remember them mentioning sns at all. I was having lots of pain issues (ds was a traumatic birth with me having a broken tailbone), had a major reaction to codiene at 5 days pp, ds had vision problems that became more appearant as the weeks passed... Basically I was having low supply, not enough demand, lots of pain and stress. Due to his poor wt gain (he lost well over 15% of birth weight - born at 8lbs 3oz. At 4 weeks old he was up to 6lbs 8oz -- therefore FTT too), I was getting up nursing him every 2 hours for about 30 mins (15 mins each side religiously) and then bottle feeding for about 45 mins... in other words no sleep.

DD was born 17.5mths later. I was nervous and had a touch of ppd... I did seek out different help and went to LLL - really I think they saved me. I still had low supply and dd was boarder line FTT. My milk finally came in around 15 days pp. this time we did no bottles & used the sns. I also did 3 hour nursing sessions of just letting her nurse twice a day and pumped every morning. drank tea and ate lots of oatmeal. It was hard work for me but by 4 weeks old, she wasn't requiring any more supplimentation. Realy it was hard on me that it's such a struggle.

DD2 was born and I was determined not to get torn up if things didnt' work out. I'd try my best like I did with dd1 but not cry over the struggles. Well, it worked out better. I didn't need sns even! She did loose a little wt like all babies do. The big difference is my milk came in at 5 days pp. I have to say I enjoyed early babyhood much more this time around.

ETA- I had that struggle too. with my son I was upset b/c I was suppossed to just nurse him, but literally couldn't supply what he needed. I was failing him. With dd I remember having a huge breakdown one night about how unfair it was that some women just threw away their right to bf thier babies and didn't even want to try and here I was doing everything I could possibly do with no garuntee that I'd ever make enough milk for my baby to survive on. I had no BFing pain issues with these babies- everything I had read about difficulties would site tiredness or pain as reasons moms' gave up - that wasn't my issue... I seriously didnt' have enough milk. It was a very difficult reality for me.