Increasing our milk production as breastfeeding moms is our number one priority. That’s for sure. Do you want to know the most natural way to make more milk? Hand expressing — the key to an abundant supply of breastmilk! This method is recommended by lactation consultants and experts around the globe. Likewise, it is also one of the first practices taught by healthcare providers to new breastfeeding moms. It is that reliable and sure!
In this blog, I will discuss the simple steps to do hand expressing to make your breasts produce that nutritious milk for your baby.
Steps How to Hand Express
1. Make sure your hands are clean.
Wash it with hand soap preferably without perfumes and use non-toxic ingredients. Rub your hands thoroughly like you would when preparing food because your breast milk is your baby’s source of nutrition. So this first step is really important. Dry your hands thoroughly after washing and skip the lotions, oils, and other creams you use.
2. Warm your hands.
After washing and drying your hands, sit comfortably and start by rubbing your palms together. This warms your hands so your breasts will feel comfortable as you massage them. Do this for about two minutes or so. Keep it steady and not too rough because you don’t want to hurt your hands.
3. Massage your breasts.
Then, after warming your hands, start massaging your breasts. Remember to be gentle and too rough.
- One way to do this is to place your hands on either side of your breasts, a couple of inches away from your nipples, and start doing circular motions.
- Another way is placing your hands on the top and the bottom areas of the breasts and massaging them in circular motions as well.
- Do the massaging for about two minutes.
4. Pump out the milk!
After massaging, you can now try to pump out milk. With one hand, place your index finger above your breast, thumb below your breast. Then push forward and backward the breast as you gently press towards the nipple. Do the “back and in” motion continuously for a few minutes.
5. Collect the milk.
In a few minutes, milk will come out of your breasts. Prepare your clean and sanitized milk catcher or bowl for this.
If this does not work for you, that’s totally okay! You can always practice, practice, practice as long as you can. You will get the hang of it pretty quickly. Eventually, you will be really proud of yourself for pushing through and not giving up.
If you’re interested to know more, let me share with you this awesome resource material from Stanford University if you want to know more about breastfeeding: http://med.stanford.edu/newborns/professional-education/breastfeeding.html.
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