It can be frustrating to experience a decrease in milk supply or when you are not producing enough milk for your growing baby. If you are looking for a way to naturally increase your milk supply, you may want to try power pumping to stimulate your breasts into making more milk!
Although results can be highly individualized, with some individuals seeing results within a few days and some may take at least a week, this technique has been used by many to help increase milk supply naturally, without having to try new supplements or medication.
What is Power Pumping?
Power pumping is typically recommended for women who need to increase their milk supply. This technique is a way to mimic when your baby is cluster feeding at the breast, encouraging your body to produce more breast milk.
Cluster feeding is when your baby feeds more quickly and frequently than usual. Instead of one full feeding every 2-3 hours, they may have multiple short feeds within a small timeframe. Cluster feeding often occurs when your baby is going through a growth spurt. When your baby feeds more frequently, your body responds to the demand by increasing your milk supply.
Power pumping is meant to replicate this cluster feeding and helps generate the same response to your body. As you pump more frequently within a set time frame every day, your body naturally increases its milk supply.
How to Power Pump – Power Pumping Schedule to Increase Milk Supply
There is no strict rule when it comes to power pumping schedule or duration. For the best results, you can dedicate 1 hour (maxiumum 2 hours) a day to power pump. If sitting with your pump for 60 minutes is not something that is doable for you right now, that is okay! Even if you can follow a portion of it, maybe 40 minutes, it can still help stimulate your breasts to increase milk supply.
During a power pumping session, you would pump and take breaks in intervals to mimic cluster feeding. A power pumping schedule can look something like this:
–> pump for 20 minutes
-> rest for 10 minutes
–> pump for 10 minutes
-> rest for 10 minutes
–> and pump one last time for 10 minutes
The duration does not have to be exact, especially since babies do not always nurse the same exact number of minutes every time. However, it is recommended that you initiate a letdown before taking your 10 minute rest. If you are in the middle of a letdown, do not stop pumping yet and continue to pump until it is finished before resting.
If you are pumping and no milk is coming out, continue to pump! The idea is to try to get a letdown every time you start pumping again during those intervals. Even though no milk is coming out, it is still providing stimulation to your breasts.
When to Power Pump
If pumping is already part of your usual schedule, replace one of your usual pump sessions with a power pumping session. This session will just be a longer session than your usual ones. For the rest of the day, continue to pump and/or breastfeed as you normally would. Only the power pumping session will be the longer session.
Some may choose to power pump in the early evening after their babies are asleep when there are fewer distractions. This is also a typical time a baby would be cluster feeding.
Some may prefer power pumping in the morning, for those who usually feel fuller and have more milk to pump out at that time.
There is no right or wrong time to power pump. Find what works best for you, and try to power pump around the same time each day.
How long do I keep power pumping for?
Try power pumping 1 time a day (twice a day maximum) for at least 4 days. This will give your body a few days to adjust and increase supply. Power pumping won’t give you results right away, so it’s important to try to stick to it for a few days. Some parents may try doing twice a day, but once a day is already good! Don’t stress too much about trying to power pump twice a day if that is too overwhelming.
What pump should I use for power pumping?
It may be easier to use an electric pump for power pumping. Manually pumping with a hand pump can be tiring given the frequency of pumping. If you are able to double pump both breasts at the same time, then you can have your 10 minute breaks in between.
With that being said, it is still totally possible to power pump with a manual hand pump. Instead of taking those 10 minute breaks in between, one breast will rest while you are manually pumping the other breast, and switch. Take a few minutes break from pumping altogether if needed of course!
Main Takeaway
Power pumping is a technique designed to stimulate a response to help increase milk supply. If you have any concerns about milk supply or breastfeeding, reach out to an international board certified lactation consultant (IBCLC) to see whether power pumping or another pumping schedule is a good option for you.
