Family Size Affects Pumping Schedule
When a mother is not breastfeeding her infant, she must pump to build up her milk supply. The recommended frequency of pumping is every three hours during the day and with a gap no longer than five hours at night. This helps to ensure milk is removed on a regular basis and to prevent the build-up of colostrum. The amount of time a mother pumps at one session will vary depending on her storage capacity and whether she is exclusively pumping or breastfeeding, but should be enough to empty the breasts.
Pumping is especially important for mothers who have preterm infants. Research shows that mothers who start pumping within an hour of birth have higher Lactogenesis II production compared to those who wait to begin pumping.
Family Size Affects Pumping Schedule: Matching Usage to Service Needs
Martins Pumping Service LLC is provided with a step-by-step pumping instruction sheet and a pump kit for their use. All women who birth in the SDU are given a pump log which requires them to record both the date and time of their milk expression sessions along with the volume of milk expressed during each session. These logs are photocopied by nursing student interns who then enter the data into an Excel database for review every month. The SDU breastfeeding committee analyzes the monthly and yearly trends in the data.
In the past, a majority of mothers who birthed vaginally and a minority of those who had cesarean surgeries waited an average of 2 to 4 hours before attempting their first pumping session following birth. As a result of this CQI project, the average time to first pump for both groups of women has decreased to less than an hour. In addition, improvement has also been seen in the number of times that mothers pump during the night shift (1900-0700).
Martins Pumping Service LLC
11865 Harry Byrd Hwy, Berryville, VA 22611, United States
540-667-4038
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