How long does a let down last
The Phases of Breastfeeding - Insured Ameda DIrect
During each breastfeeding session, your body will naturally go through two different phases: let down and expression. Understanding each phase can help ensure that your baby is getting enough milk and that your body is making adequate milk for your little one.
Phase 1: Let Down
Once your baby latches onto your breast, he or she will begin to suck vigorously. This fast sucking will stimulate the nerves in your breasts, which signals the release of a hormone called oxytocin. The release of oxytocin will make the small muscles that surround your milk-producing tissue to contract. This contracting of the tissue will squeeze milk into your ducts. Let down typically takes two minutes to occur.
When your milk lets down, you may feel a small amount of pain or tingling in your upper breasts. Many moms describe it as a “pins and needles” feeling. You may see lumps form in the skin around your areola. This is milk that has filled up in the ducts.
Let down can also happen if your brain is mentally stimulated. This can happen by hearing the sounds of a crying baby, looking at a picture of your little one or by smelling a piece of your baby’s clothing. Relaxing and thinking about your baby can signal the release of oxytocin in your brain, which will cause your milk to let down.
Phase 2: Expression
After your milk has let down, you will enter the expression phase of your breastfeeding session. During expression, your baby’s sucking will slow down and you will hear him or her swallowing the milk. As your baby becomes satisfied, their sucking will continue to slow down. Your baby will naturally begin sucking in a “suck, pause, swallow” rhythm as the milk is expressed and their tummy begins to fill.
As your breast empties, your baby may start to fall asleep or may come off of the breast completely. Use this opportunity to take a short break and burp your baby before switching sides and repeating the process.
Your body makes milk based on “supply and demand.” It’s important that your little one remains at the breast through both let down and expression in order to empty your breast as much as possible. This will, in turn, signal to your body that more milk needs to be made.
Foremilk and Hindmilk
Though your body only makes one type of milk, its nutrition and fat contents vary throughout each nursing session. Foremilk is the milk that is released during the beginning of nursing, immediately following let down. It will immediately quench your baby’s thirst as it has a higher water content.
Hindmilk is the milk that comes at the end of the nursing session, during expression. Hindmilk has a high-fat content, which will help your little one feel full and satisfied (and help them develop those adorable baby rolls). If you don’t completely empty your breast before switching sides, your baby may not get enough hindmilk. Always finish nursing on one side before switching to the other breast.
Tips for Moms Who Pump
In order to provide the best milk for your little one and maintain your milk supply, it’s important to experience both phases during each pumping session. It can sometimes be difficult to experience let down when you are away from your baby. Be sure you have a pump that makes the process easy, so that you can always be relaxed. The following tips may help:
- Try to relax as much as possible.
- Bring a photo of your little one to look at while pumping and a small article of clothing. Look at the picture, close your eyes and try to envision your baby.
- Set your pump to a higher speed with less suction at the beginning of the pumping session. After your milk has let down, increase the suction and slow your speed. This will help mimic your baby’s natural rhythm and help empty your breasts.
- Pump for 10 to 15 minutes per side, waiting until milk expression has slowed down or stopped completely.
Your body naturally goes through two phases during each breastfeeding session.
By making sure that your little one remains at your breast through both phases of breastfeeding, you will ensure that your little one gets all of the nutrition that he or she needs and that your milk supply will be maintained as you continue through your breastfeeding journey.
How to Boost Milk Supply Fast: Get More Letdowns
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Home » Increasing Milk Supply » How to Boost Your Milk Supply: Get More Letdowns
Created On:  | Updated: | By Amanda | 59 Comments
If you pump breast milk, understanding how letdowns work is really important for your milk supply. Here is everything you need to know about how letdowns work, including what a letdown looks like, how to boost milk supply when pumping by getting more letdowns, and what to do if you have a hard time getting a letdown when you’re pumping.
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What is a letdown when breastfeeding, and why do I care?A letdown is when your breasts release milk for your baby (or, in your case, your pump) to eat.
Obviously, you don’t go around spraying milk all the time (leaks notwithstanding). Most of the time, the milk stays in your breasts until the breasts are stimulated, by a baby or a pump.
This then signals the milk letdown hormone, oxytocin, to release the milk from your milk ducts, which is called a letdown.
What does a letdown look like while pumping?If you’ve just started pumping, it’s not always clear why sometimes you spray milk and sometimes you’re not getting anything. Here’s how letdown works:
- When you start pumping, most pumps will begin in the “letdown phase” – which is lighter and quieter – for about two minutes.
During this time, before you letdown, you might see milk dribbling out your nipple, and just a few drops going into the bottles. - When you have a letdown, you will see milk start to spray into the flange and flow more quickly into your bottles. What does a letdown feel like? A lot of moms feel a sort of pins-and-needles sensation in their breasts. Some women experience something more painful. If your baby is very young, you may also feel cramping in your uterus.
- After some time (in my experience, 5-10 minutes), milk flow will stop, and you’ll be back to just a dribble, if anything.
So how are letdowns related to how you can boost your milk supply when you pump?
One way that you can pump more milk is to try to get second or third letdowns during your pumping sessions.
How many letdowns you should aim for depends on the length of your sessions – if you’re pumping for 20 minutes, many women are able to get two; if you’re pumping for 30, you might be able to get three.
How much more milk will this get you?
Everyone is different, but my output for subsequent letdowns was generally about one quarter to one half of the previous letdown. So, for example, if I pumped 3 oz in my first letdown, I might get another 1.5 oz in my second letdown, and .75 oz in my third. That’s an extra 2.25 oz than if I had thought I was empty, and just stopped pumping after the first letdown!
Another reason that letdowns are important for milk supply is that if you’re waiting and waiting for a letdown, you can end up either wasting a lot of your pumping time waiting for a letdown (so that you’re not able pump long enough to get a second or third) or you end up pumping for an unsustainable amount of time.
Some women I’ve talked to have had to pump for 40 minutes, and they were doing that eight times per day!
How to get a faster letdownIf you struggle with getting a letdown quickly enough, you’ve probably read a lot of strategies like looking at a picture of your baby, holding something that smells like him or her, etc.
These will often work much better for nursing women than for exclusive pumpers, because letdown is a conditioned response.
Nursing mothers are conditioned to let down when they are looking and smelling at their baby; exclusive pumpers – especially those who switched to pumping early – do not have the same conditioning.
So, what might help you get a faster letdown instead?
1. Hand Expression
Some women have much better luck getting a letdown with hand expression versus a pump.
What you can do is get everything ready to pump and hook yourself up on one side, then try to hand express on the other until you get a letdown.
Then, you can quickly hook yourself up to pump on the other side and let the pump take it from there.
2. Lactation Massager
Some women find that the vibration from a lactation massager will help get milk flowing and get you a quicker letdown, especially when you are dealing with engorgement.
Some women who have painful letdowns have noted that it helps with that, too.
Additionally, if you find that hand expression works for you, the lactation massager might also be effective, but with the added benefit of not tiring out your hands!
(*Note: LaVie makes two lactation massagers – a smaller one with just vibration and a warming massager that has heat AND vibration. They are both super helpful – use the code EPUMP on their website for 10% off!)
3. Relaxing
If you don’t really like pumping (does anyone really like pumping?), it can be stressful.
Try to make pumping as fun as possible for you. Make sure you’re warm enough (versus being topless and freezing), and try to do something that you enjoy, like watching Netflix or reading a book.
If you get anxious about supply, cover up the bottles with a baby sock or blanket or nursing cover and try to focus on something else if you can.
4. HeatSometimes heat can help trigger a letdown, so a warm compress might help.
Either a warm washcloth or Booby Tubes (use the code PUMPING15 for 15% off) are good options.
Some women seem to have more success with a manual pump rather than an electric pump. Obviously, using a manual pump is less than ideal since you can only do one side at a time (and it can be hard on your hand).
You can try it and see if you can get a letdown more easily with it, and then switch to an electric pump after your milk lets down.
Do you find that milk flows slowly once you get a letdown? Here are some tips for how to pump faster.
If you have any other tips for getting a faster letdown, definitely add them in the comments!
Updated to add: This reddit post is hilarious and illustrates the conditioned response thing really well:
Stressed about establishing or increasing your milk supply while exclusively pumping? Always worried there is something else you should be trying? Check out my milk supply guide here (use code SUPPLY for 10% off)!
References
- Australian Breastfeeding Association.
“Let-down reflex (milk ejection reflex).” https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bf-info/early-days/let-down-reflex - Perles, Karen. “Coping with Painful Letdown.” https://www.care.com/c/stories/4411/coping-with-painful-letdown/
- Cherry, Kendra. “What Is a Conditioned Response?.” https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-conditioned-response-2794974
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Disappointment or devaluation? //Psychological newspaper
In one of his conversations with David Ballard, Mark Epstein (a psychiatrist and author of books from the USA) noted the following:
“Disappointment in love is often perceived as the door where everything ends, especially in our culture, where it is now customary to leave physically. ... However, Buddhist thought firmly believes - it seems to me that the psychodynamic view also agrees with it - that there is no love without disappointment.
Even if love seems real or perfect, it would be a clear exaggeration to hope that everything will remain so forever. However, a lot depends on the relationship and the ability of both partners to constantly reconnect without necessarily trying to resolve those aspects of their relationship that lead to frustration, disappointment and anger
When talking about this topic, I always remember Winnicott, he speaks so vividly about how important it is for a mother to be able to refuse her child, and how normal it is for children to hate their parents, and parents to hate their children. A "good enough" mother does not need to be taught, she intuitively knows her task in relation to the anger of her child: just endure, not respond in kind and not leave him, but just endure. And it seems to me that this intuitive feeling is very important - the feeling that one must endure, but without alienation. This state allows you to experience both separateness and connection, and in this way the relationship remains alive and continues to develop.
Why am I? Continuing the recent topic of splitting, I want to finally answer the frequently asked (in therapy as well) question about the difference between disappointment and devaluation, and about non-existence in the nature of a relationship without disappointment.
In my opinion, the difference lies in the ability to "preserve in spite of" as opposed to "destroy because of." It sounds short, but for many people in our post-Soviet culture, this turns out to be a matter of a lifetime - growing up, stretched over decades (which I personally refer to a long and sometimes very painful transformation of primary narcissism into a secondary one, in various contexts called wisdom, humor, the transition to mature protection, etc.).
Where does depreciation come from? This process is based on the inexhaustible craving of the infantile part of the personality to search for the ideal object. “I want you to be like this (something like that, sitting like this, looking like this, understanding like this, behaving like this and so on).
Then you are good/suitable. Yeah, don't you sit-look-talk like that!? That’s all, bad, you don’t fit” ... In this context, the seeker perceives not so much the person in front of him as the bearer of a certain function, “the one who must”. It is clear: the larger the childish, infantile part, the stronger the early deficit, together with the thinner, fragile and immature observing part, the more affective the process will be, and anger and indignation can take very explosive forms.
Essentially an endless search for a satisfying parent object. Search with a distorted observing Self, since the whole World is not a mother, it is self-embodied according to the laws of exchange, and not free. Or the basic laws of nature, the Universe, the Universe, physics, who measures what.
There is an explanation for all this. In childhood, these people were treated similarly by caring figures, which turned children into a function of "I am what you will." In the childhood of these people, idealization, which was natural and sufficient for that period, did not occur, followed by - already at a different stage - de-idealization, since the caring figures were most likely immature, unstable (contradictory) and psychologically fragile themselves.
The child unconsciously protects and saves such parents. In anxiety, he begins to control the situation, unconsciously relying on the fantasy of the apocalypse, because if they "fall apart", he definitely will not survive in this difficult world, which - and he clearly sees evidence of this - even adults cannot endure.
The unconscious search for an object that could “compensate” for that early loss, someone who would be ideal for merger-reflection-absorption, can last an infinitely long time (in special cases, a lifetime). Especially if the experience of the absence of an ideal object in adulthood is not processed or appropriated in any way, and a person only does what he changes at first delightfully ideal non-ideal people for others.
A more psychologically developed personality is still distinguished by the ability to restore relations after discovering that the Other does not meet the expectations invested in him earlier. Such a person is able to find SOMETHING VALUABLE inside these relationships, which can - even despite the imperfection of the Other - fill this union with meaning.
That is, disappointment is more like sadness, sadness, or grief that the Other is not perfect and will never be able to fully justify the expectations invested in him. Acceptance of the fact that the Other is different, and not at all what I would like. Finding and reconciling with this for the sake of something else, which is still there in this relationship. Not one hundred percent, but, for example, eighty-five, and this is in the context of today. And tomorrow it might be twenty-eight in all. And the day after tomorrow it will suddenly increase to ninety-five. And so on, as long as the relationship lasts, they will be filled with dynamics. As long as any relationship is alive, they contain the potential, opportunities and energy to create (discover, understand, see) something valuable.
The devaluer most often has either 100% compliance or 0%, and the meaning of the relationship is also sought - according to the “all or nothing” principle. When there is no connection with either the past or the future, it is impossible to see the dynamics and then take them into account, looking for “non-ideal meaning”, since there is only a flat static picture of what is happening, a label .
..
The process of charm and disappointment, in contrast to idealization followed by depreciation , in my opinion, is distinguished by the ability to continue the search for meaning in order to maintain relationships. It is definitely possible to be fascinated and disappointed without splitting, without crowding out the feelings of the other pole. In other words, it is the ability to experience ambivalent feelings, while in idealization and devaluation there is only one pole - “good” or “bad”, the other seems to be crossed out. This is how the vision of reality, which is always multifaceted, is violated, because everything in the world has a downside…
Natalia Kholina - practicing psychologist, certified specialist in the field of psychological counseling and psychotherapy for adults, member of the Eastern European Association of Existential Therapy, Interregional Association of Practitioner Psychologists, member of the Community of Existential Psychotherapists (Moscow).
3 stages of a relationship that every couple goes through
How many stages does a relationship go through? Expert opinions differ. Some are limited to three, others are limited to six or even ten. You need to understand that every relationship develops according to its own scenario, because we enter into them with our own special experience or its absence.
The development of relationships is influenced by character, habits, upbringing, outlook on life. We disagree with the classic: not all happy couples are equally happy. It's just not possible.
And, of course, the transition from one phase to another cannot be considered final: there are also returns to the previous stage, periods of stagnation, acceleration. However, based on research, there are 3 stages of relationships that every couple goes through.
Merger
Features
“You are the one I have been waiting for all my life”, “We are so similar”, “We are one”.
Almost all relationships start with passion. This is the intense phase of attachment—"symbiosis," according to psychologists Allyn Bader and Peter T. Pearson. Separation at this moment brings suffering to lovers. Every day, partners are looking for a meeting.
Pros
Marriage counselor Françoise Sand considers this period "one of the rare moments when one can exist without pain." This stage helps to become better, to rise above everyday life, to discover new aspects of life. Passionate love inspires.
Pitfalls
At this stage, we often idealize a partner, do not notice his shortcomings and make predictions for a happy future, "without taking off rose-colored glasses." This is where the main danger lies. After, when the passion passes, it may begin to seem to us that the loved one has changed for the worse.
Tips
Enjoy this "honeymoon": it is as pleasant as it is ephemeral. On average, it lasts from a month to three years.
And then what? Return to reality.
Distancing
Signs
“You are not what I thought”, “You don’t understand me”, “I don’t know anything about the real you”. Joint life and domestic duties return relationships from heaven to earth. Partners gradually discover differences that reveal new facets of personality. Not all of them are pleasant.
Disappointment is inevitable, since it is about saying goodbye to an idealized image. And not only with the image of a partner, but also with his own. Relationships help to reveal unexpected facets of their character: irritability, unwillingness to put up with other people's whims, selfishness.
Pros
This stage is fundamental for a long relationship, it allows us to find ourselves, reconnect with our own interests and goals. During the fusion phase, everyone's identity is denied. The stage of distance returns itself to us.
Traps
It is not easy to come to terms with the collapse of ideals.
