Hand expression should not hurt. If it does, your technique may be too rough. It's important to avoid bruising or damaging the breast tissue, which could lead to a lowered milk output. Always wash your hands before hand expressing and have a clean wide-mouth container on hand to catch the milk.
Yes, if done incorrectly. Hand expressing is a skill and, like any skill, takes time to learn. If you're not careful, you can damage your breast tissue. This can lead to pain, bruising, and even mastitis.
Expressing breast milk by hand is an important skill for lactating women to learn, especially in case of an emergency. Hand expression can be helpful in emergency situations when you may not have access to a breast pump, electricity for a breast pump or if you are away from your baby unexpectedly.
Hand expression shouldn't hurt
Pain or discomfort inhibit the MER and are signs that something needs adjusting. If your breast feels engorged or tender try warm moist heat immediately before expressing. Start expressing from the most comfortable areas.
High Vacuum May Cause Damage to Your Nipples and Breasts
While your friend may use the pump on the highest vacuum level with no problems, the same setting may not be right for you. Too high vacuum may cause pain and eventually may also cause damage to the delicate skin around your breast, areola and nipples.
The first few times you pump may feel uncomfortable but pumping should not be painful, result in sore nipples, or cause bleeding. Pain, sore nipples, and nipple irritation or bleeding may be signs of an injury.
Breast fat necrosis typically feels like a round, firm lump to the touch. Some women experience tenderness, bruising, or dimpling in the area where the breast fat necrosis appears. Sometimes it can pull in the nipple.
2) Don't press too hard! Breasts are tough, but they prefer to be treated gently. Look at the back of your hand- now press on a vein and see how hard you need to push to collapse it- that's all the pressure you ever need to use on your breasts while hand expressing! Go gently- you'll get more milk, I promise.
You may have brief pain (10-15 seconds) at the beginning of each pumping while the collagen fibers in your nipples stretch. You may have slight tenderness of the nipple. Some women may have an uncomfortable sensation when their milk releases or "letting down" which may feel like tingling or "pins and needles."
Your hands can be a source of bacteria that can cause mastitis. Be sure to wash your hands and your breastfeeding equipment before breastfeeding or milk expressions.
Potential disadvantages of hand expression
For some women, hand expression may not produce quite as much milk when compared to pumping. Especially when used beyond the first couple weeks after baby's birth. Hand expression often takes more time, especially if you are looking to express both breasts.
Hand Expression Versus Pumping
"Expressing milk" means removing milk from your breast other than when your baby is feeding. There are two ways to express milk: Use your hands to remove your breast milk. This is called hand expression.
Hand expression is a useful technique, and what's more it's convenient and free! It's a handy way to relieve engorged breasts. You can use it to stimulate milk production if you need to increase your supply, and to provide milk for your baby.
Pressure and stimulation are unlikely to cause lasting injury to the internal structure of the breast, but any type of trauma that causes scarring of the nipple and its surrounding tissue have the potential to cause complications with breastfeeding.
A study of 60 moms who experienced engorgement concluded that hand expression was more effective at relieving engorgement than using a manual breast pump (Source). Another study showed that mothers appreciated being taught hand expression techniques as a tool to manage engorgement (Source).
Breastfeeding or pumping challenges, OR scheduled feedings/pumping that have longer intervals than your breasts can comfortably hold - lead to removing less milk from the breast, and causing the milk to get “stuck”. This can lead to pain, inflammation and possibly plugged ducts/mastitis.
Common causes of engorgement are:
A missed feed or expressing session. This can easily happen during holidays and festivities or when visitors arrive. Encourage your baby to feed more often, or express more frequently if you're apart from your baby.
Nipple pain can have nothing to do with pumping. Engorgement, clogged ducts and mastitis can also be a cause of pain — though pumping can exacerbate the hurt associated with those conditions. Speak to a lactation consultant if pain persists or if you're concerned.
Some women feel the let-down reflex as a tingling sensation in the breasts or a feeling of fullness, although others don't feel anything in the breast. Most women notice a change in their baby's sucking pattern as the milk begins to flow, from small, shallow sucks to stronger, slower sucks.
Start hand expressing from each breast once a day for 5 minutes. Every 4-5 days increase by another episode so that by your baby's due date you are expressing up to 4 times a day for about 5-10 minutes. Wash your hands and do some gentle breast massage using your hands for at least 2 minutes.
Babies feed often, so you should try to express about 8 to 12 times in a 24-hour period. This will mimic your baby's feeding pattern. You do not need to set fixed times to express.
Aim to express 2 to 3 times each day from around 36 weeks of pregnancy. Start gently and slowly, eventually building up to 3 to 5 minutes of expressing on each breast twice each day.
You have a breast injury.
You may feel a sharp, shooting pain at the time of injury. Tenderness can linger for a few days up to several weeks after trauma to the breast. See your doctor if the pain doesn't improve or you notice any of these signs: Severe swelling.