Hi
i have a client who delivered 21 days ago by c section. Baby boy is healthy and gaining weight. Mom has a predisposition to depression and has been advised by her doctor to get a longer chunck of sleep and let dad bottle feed the baby once during the night.
For the first few weeks, this worked well for everyone. Mom would pump during the day after baby breast fed and would have plenty of expressed milk available for the night feed.
I spoke to her when things were going well that the night feeds were important in terms of prolactin levels and milk production but she was reluctant to look at changing anything since it seemed to be working fine and supply was meeting demand.
Well now, she is noticing that she is pumping less and wanting to know what to do.
I have suggested frequent feeds ( i.e. not letting there be long gaps between feeds ) and trying to sleep when baby sleeps as another alternative to sleeping in one solid chunk.
Have also tried to talk to her about the possibiliyt of side lying and nursing so that she can rest more...

any other thoughts? Am I correct that Having that long gap at night can lead to decreased milk supply even though she is expressing in the day time.
Words of experience welcome!

Melina

Is there only one feeding at night? How often is she expressing? Any other feedings that she is expressing for? How much does the baby take at the night feeding? Is the baby using a bottle or an alternative feeding method?

is "less milk" even a problem here? could it be just the demand-supply adjusting? is baby gaining weight and pooping and peeing and thriving?

baby is still gaining weight but mom's expressed milk supply no longer meets baby's need when he gets a supplementary feed ( when she is sleeping)

Baby seems to still get enough when she feeds directly from the breast but at issue is what to do about the diminished supply that she is expressing.

She is not convinced that feeding more frequently or that the night feeds are correlated with milk supply.
So any research findings re night feeds or other thoughts welcome!

Yes I think there is usually one feeding at night... she was expressing a few times during the day to meet the nightime needs,
Baby is fed the expressed milk with a bottle... recently the family also started giving formula because they didnt have enough expressed milk.

Breastfeeding is supply and demand. Find some article ( try Kellymom or LLL ) that addresses that. Hopefully mom will understand that when you ask more of your body (either through more breastfeeding or more pumping ) the body responds by making more milk. Since this doesn't sound like a situation where mom has a true issue with supply, it's more breastfeeding management.