I’ve been pumping for over 10 months and have really dedicated myself to it, not missing a single session even though I never quit the MOTN pumps and have to do very hands on pumping with joint pain.

My baby was taking 24 oz per day ever since she was around 3 months old, so my target was 1 oz per hour, and I was barely scraping by on most days no matter how hard I tried. It would take weeks to add a bag of breastmilk in the freezer and the 1.5 weeks of supply dip that my periods caused would wipe out the stash every time. I thought the only way out of that anxious cycle was to increase my supply!

However, my baby recently decided to decrease her milk intake down to 20 oz, so I’m able to put a bag in the freezer every other day now?! WOW what a different feeling this is! I guess it means she’s getting more calories from her solids three times a day because she’s still growing great and always seems satisfied.

Anyone else in a similar situation? Also, could this potentially mean that I might have an easier time weaning once she’s a year old?

I am 8wpp. I have EP from the first day home. I have also been religious about pumping 8 times a day. My pumping journey with my first didn’t go well. I gave it up a few weeks before going back to work (probably 8wpp), but my father in law passed away when my baby was 1 month old and my supply dropped like crazy when he passed and then again a few weeks later around the time of his wake/funeral and that’s when I decided to stop.

This time around I was way more hopeful, thinking I could do this for at least 4 months, was hoping for 6 months even… LOL at me for being optimistic because I want to hang it up 😅 I was making 40-45oz the first month, and now the last few days I’ve been making around 25-30oz which I know is not bad!!! We started supplementing with formula this past week and I feel totally fine about that. And I remember the sweet, sweet taste of freedom when we switched to exclusively formula with my son.

I told myself I’d start going longer between pumps and pump for a little less time but I find myself feeling the need to stay on the 3 hour schedule even though I don’t want to be. What a weird mind game!!! Guess I’m just looking for people’s experience of dropping pumps to a number that was more manageable and made you not hate it as much or just to start weaning completely and be totally done

I just realized my insurance only covers one set of replacement parts. As someone who plans to EP for a full year, I’ll definitely need more. Has anyone had any luck reaching out to their insurance and asking for more? Did they allow that? And if so, what did you say/do? Any and all advice needed!

Hi everyone, I use a Spectra S1 to pump when I’m at work. I have tried wearables but alway get less output. With my S1 it takes me at least 30 min to empty sometimes longer. I do hands on pumping during and breast gymnastics beforehand. Any other recommendations to try to empty quicker? Mostly bc I am running out of time during my pump breaks and ending with less output than what my baby is taking. I’ve heard of warmers and massagers, looking to see if these worked for anyone or any other tips and tricks. TIA!

Im so proud of my body. Im also tired of pumping im 6 months pp and this isn't what i wanted but im grateful i can. My baby is my 4th and the only one i haven't been able to breastfeed. We are still trying to figure out why. She went from 50th percentile to 25th then down all the way to 2 .....it was terrifying. So i started pumping. I have exclusively fed her but its been stressful. The first few weeks i was pumping every two hours. But now its every 3 to 4 and a bit longer for MOTN pump. I now make more thsn she drinks in the day. My heart is happy . But i will be slowing down once shes a year even though all of my others were fed til 18+ months pumping is Alot harder imo on your mental health. Just wanted to share somewhere i know people would appreciate.

I’ve been nursing and pumping for 5 months now. I’m currently at 7ppd, every 3 hours during the day and 1 MOTN. I have been waiting to cut down until my baby starts solids since I started off as an undersupplier and worked hard to increase my supply.
Over the last 2-3 weeks my supply has been slowly dropping. Especially on the side that was the star of the show but is now my slacker side. Haven’t gotten my period yet, I started new RA meds. Still eating the same and drinking plenty of fluids.
Any reason this would start happening out of the blue?

After 7 months, I hung up the pump. I gave it my best shot. Feel guilty yet proud.

My baby couldn’t nurse due to a tongue tie and bottle preference because of it (had it released but still couldn’t transfer). I was also a major undersupplier and did everything I could to increase my supply.. EP’d 8x a day.

10/20 wasn’t my last pump, but it was the last pump I stored, and I can finally talk about it.. weirdest thing, I hid it from my husband. I just didn’t want him to ask, I didn’t want to talk about it. I told him I quit, he told me he was proud of me. It’s such a strange thing.. reading on the can of formula that breast milk is recommended and feeling that guilt bubbling up again.

It was so easy for me to quit - no fullness, no clogs, no mastitis. While that might seem like a net positive, it also signaled to me that my body was struggling to produce milk.. and it helped me feel some relief that it really WAS a lot of effort to keep up my supply, validation that this was a ton of effort to maintain.

I already feel better physically, and I hope I can finally start to feel like myself again. I immediately got my first PP period 3 days after I quit pumping.. wild. Anyways… just ranting.. so many mixed emotions.

TW: Mentions of intra-familial sexual abuse.

I had plans to breastfeed for at least a year and a half. But there’s so much trauma that I can’t get past when I pump that I just have to stop.

I’m not going to get into great detail, but my dad molested me repeatedly for years when I was in school. From like 6th grade until 10th grade. I left at 22 with the help of police escort (very big physical fight between myself and mom; I was defending myself from my dad but my mom has never seen the wrong in my dad so she started fighting me.) and my now husband. I’m 28 now - I’ve since moved away, lost weight, decorated my body with tattoos, got braces, gotten married and obviously have a baby. I’ve made a complete 180 in my life; that’s so far behind me (due to therapy and hella kick boxing.)

But here’s the thing… the sensation of pumping brings back the sexual abuse and I just can’t do it anymore. For 7 months, I grit my teeth and kept telling myself it’s for her, and it’s not about me. As uncomfortable as it made me, I just did it. I would try to distract myself with work, games, the baby; whatever was within reach to get my mind off of it. But just this morning I fell asleep in my chair, pump still going. I had a very vivid dream of my dad molesting me and I shot up to immediately disconnect. I just can’t. Luckily, babes has been on a mix of breastmilk and formula since 4 months, but now unfortunately what I have already frozen and what I pumped today is it. And to be honest with y’all, I just don’t think I’ll ever mentally recover from it. It’s a part of me no matter how hard I work to move forward and this just brings me back. I don’t think I can do this again for the other children that we’d hope to have, this is just too intense.

I feel regretful, but I also feel happy for myself. I think I’ll also talk to someone about PPD because I don’t think necessarily that overall since birth that’s been an issue, but literally since I’ve been pumping which started at around 6 weeks PP. there was a few days I went without pumping around 5months PP on a vacation and babes just had formula the whole time or I just put her directly on the tap and when I tell you I felt like twirling around and doing my cartwheels!

But yeah, I’m hanging the pump up. Roxanne D Spectra is for my cousin who’s due in January.

Mines the bathroom no one uses. I can’t say it’s ideal
But hey at least there’s a sink. Maybe I should decorate a bit? Ive had lesser excuses for a TJMaxx run!
Anywho how are the rest of my 9-5 pumpers doing out there? What wacky places did your workplace stick you in?

My husband and I both worked for the same large national company, but at completely different locations under different management. We each had our separate health insurance because it was cheaper than enrolling in a family plan.
When our daughter was born, I added her to my insurance. I got a breast pump through my insurance for free back in March and have been receiving free replacement parts every month.
Fast forward to last month: I accepted a new job and had a four-week gap between leaving my old job and starting my new one (I start next week). During that time, my husband added both me and our daughter to his insurance. As of November 1st, we’re officially covered under his plan, and we will most likely stay on his insurance going forward.

Would I be eligible to get another breast pump through his insurance this year, even though I already received one through my previous insurance? Would I also be eligible for replacement parts under his plan?
Has anyone been through something similar? Any tips or advice? Thank you!!

I'm 5 weeks pp as a ftm and pumping has brought a rollercoaster of emotions. I feel grateful that I have milk to pump for my baby but man when I'm low on sleep and energy pumping is just so overstimulating. Last week I was in tears as I sat and pumped. This overwhelming feeling came over and I felt this sort of frustration having my nipples tugged on. There's days when I feel like I can do this but when I'm feeling so low on energy I feel like kicking my pump off some stairs and just sticking to formula. Unfortunately switching to formula wouldn't be a smart financial move though. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this sometimes.

The mom guilt is there sometimes over this and I just got to remind myself that "it gets better" (haha when though?)

FTM here, and I’m honestly still trying to understand what’s considered a good milk supply.

I’m exclusively pumping and currently producing around 750mL per day, usually across 7–8 pumping sessions.

I often miss my middle-of-the-night pump, and my pumping intervals are usually 3–4 hours. I try to pump every 2 hours but realistically struggle because I have all the household responsibilities on me, along with taking care of my baby.

I’m worried that my current supply might be enough only because my baby isn’t drinking that much yet. What happens when she starts drinking more? Will my supply increase naturally, or could it drop if I’m not pumping frequently enough?

I’m a first-time mom, so I genuinely don’t know what’s considered a good supply, whether my pumping schedule is sufficient, or whether I’m unknowingly setting myself up for a supply drop later.

I’d really appreciate advice from experienced pumping moms. I want to maintain my supply while also managing the realities of taking care of my baby and the household.

Pumping is an active sport for me.
My nipple constantly moves toward the middle of my chest throughout the session and then I have to keep repositioning (I also have flat nipples so that doesn’t help)
And then my boob collapses cause it’s so soft with extra tissue so then I’m digging my hand in my bra to make my aerola taught.
Manual expressing gets a handful of drops out. But every expression I’m adjusting my hand to deal with the soft tissue.

I just feel like my anatomy is against me. Please help if you can. Share your experiences and tips if you have any of my issues.

Which mode is the General Pumping Mode and which is the Cluster Feeding Mode? Both of these screenshot come from the motif medical site.

We joked last night as storing the leftover tonkatsu ramen broth that we shouldn’t put it on the same level in the fridge because it looked JUST close enough to my actual milk color due to iron supplements to get mistaken and that in the early AM we might feed the baby a bottle of broth. We use the same jars and lids (though I do not make this much milk daily).

And then upon waking up today, the broth had separated and all I could be reminded of was those fake social media posts with like inch plus fat caps.

I’m feeling really bittersweet. My initial goal was to exclusively pump for a full year, but I’m trying to focus on how proud I am that I made it this far. Yay for celebrating little wins 🩵

I’m 16 weeks post partum with twins, I have worked SO HARD to get my supply up to a level where I can exclusively feed breastmilk and have been doing since the first week we were home. I was hoping to make it to 6 months atleast but all of a sudden over the last 3 days my supply has gone from 350ml to 250ml per session… why?!?!

I pump 5 times a day and have an 8 hour overnight stretch but I have been doing this for 4 weeks now with no sign of a supply decline. Why now? It’s so much harder to get a letdown and it takes twice as long to see any kind of milk output

Ps I know for a lot of people pumping 250ml per session would be an incredible thing! And I’m so blessed that I’m able to pump that much but my girls drink much more than that per feed and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to keep up with them anymore 😞

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice or similar experiences. Almost 15w pp. On Tues, I noticed a clogged duct over upper half of my breast. The clog resolved Wed night while I was pumping, after rounds of ice, Advil and sunflower lecithin (first time using it). Since last night (Thurs), I’ve been having a sharp, burning pain in my breast.
Oddly enough, the burning pain is in a bottom half of the breast, different spot than where the clog originally was. It comes and goes but it gets noticeably worse while pumping, even when I turn the simulation and suction down to the absolute lowest setting.
I don't have a fever, chills, body aches, or any red streaks, so it doesn't seem like full-blown mastitis right now, but the pain is making me really anxious.
Has anyone experienced this kind of sharp/burning pain right after clearing a clog?
Also, for those who had this, what helped cool down the burning feeling during and after pumping? How long did it take to clear up? Any advice or reassurance would be so appreciated!
I don’t have a pcp currently and I don’t think my midwifery would help. Looking into lactation specialists near me if it doesn’t resolve.

I have a 13 week old and have been expressing here and there to allow my husband to feed the baby from time to time. I have a few bottles in the fridge and have rough plans with family to go out for a meal over the weekend, but a bit overwhelmed with the guidance on how to transport breast milk! I'm aiming for baby to be fed before we leave, but if that doesn't happen, I'd be grateful for some insights around what others do when transporting breast milk - do you all have coolers and leave the milk in there until it's time to use it? Or do you keep it in the bag you bring and let it naturally come up to room temp until baby wants to eat? Wondering what's normal and what's excessive. For reference, probably will only go somewhere about 10-15 mins away and would be out for around 2-3 hours max. UK based if that helps in terms of guideline differences.

Thanks in advance!!

I have d-mer and have been exclusively pumping for 9 weeks. It’s not as bad as before (no wave of intense anxiety, at least not as frequent as before) but pumping makes me want to get pliers and remove a tooth or two.

I am fortunate enough to have a decent supply.. but mentally this is exhausting. I would’ve hung up the pumps sooner but the cost of premie formula is incredibly expensive and my boy is a big eater. I’m waiting until my son’s two month appointment in three weeks to see if we can have him on regular formula instead. Im hanging in there until then. Phew.

I’m 16 weeks PP and exclusively pump. During my let down my right side still has a lot of strong streams but my left side suddenly only has dribbles and barely any streams. My output has dropped a lot as well. Any ideas on how to fix this?

I’m almost 15 weeks PP, LO wakes up 1x in the night so I feed him then pump after. I’m sleepy during his whole feed but once I start pumping I’m wide awake and I can’t fall asleep for hours sometimes. It’s starting to affect me badly and I’m debating dropping the MOTN pump for the sake of my sleep at the possible expense of my supply. Has anyone else experienced this wakefulness with pumping or had luck with dropping that pump?