Power pumping can be very useful for increasing and building a milk supply. The idea is to mimic a baby who is nursing frequently (like during a growth spurt) and/or cluster feeding. Both of these signal mom’s body to produce more milk for her baby. Here is how it works with pumping:
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Setup like you’re going to do a normal pumping session. But instead of doing 20 minutes straight of pumping and stopping, you’re going to take some breaks and put your pump back on like this.
-Pump for 20 minutes
-Rest 10 minutes
-Pump 10 minutes
-Rest 10 minutes
-Pump 10 minutes
-You’re done!
The whole routine takes about an hour. Do this once a day for a week and you should see an increase in your supply. You may not see an increase right away, so don’t get discouraged. ⠀
Because this does take some time, I did this at night when the kids were sleeping and I could relax, zone out, and just watch some terrible reality TV 😂 (my guilty pleasure). Some women keep their flanges on the whole time and just disconnect the tubing. I personally just took my flanges off and would slide them back in my pumping bra.
Some women also prefer to do something called a “Power Pumping Boot Camp,” so instead of power pumping once daily and doing regular pumping throughout the day, they will take a few days and power pump for every single pump then go back to routine pumping after this boot camp, so that’s an option as well.