Pumping breast milk can be disheartening, particularly if you don’t produce much of it. I’ve sat there attached to my tit juicer (trademark Tina Fey), watching, waiting, wishing and hoping for that liquid gold to come gushing through. Um, any moment now.
But as we’ve learned, a watched pot never boils, or in this case, a watched breast pump bottle never fills up. Basically, it’s a good idea to stop looking at the milk, or lack thereof. Staring at the slow, sad trickle will only make you more stressed out and stress has been shown to negatively affect one’s supply.
A simple way to fight the urge to peek at the progress: Put a baby sock on your pump bottle.
Lactation consultant Johanna Sargeant shared this hack on Facebook.
A baby sock seems perfect because: 1) it fits the bottle snugly, 2) it might smell like your baby (some say it’s helpful to hold something that reminds you of your little one while pumping), and 3) if your house is anything like mine, those tiny things are everywhere.
Slip it onto your bottle, start pumping and relax as best as you can. (Maybe watch this adorable “baby conversation” a few times — it’s great.) As Sargeant writes, some women have reported seeing “two to three times more milk when they remove themselves mentally from the result of their pumping session.”
Do know that there are many reasons why you might have low milk supply — or simply believe that you do — and solutions you can try. Putting a sock on your bottle won’t work for everyone, but if it eases your mind a bit, it can’t hurt.
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