Modern life has extra demands that didn’t exist in the past. While most women didn’t need to pump their breastmilk 20 or 30 years ago, today’s mothers assume expressing will be part of their breastfeeding experience. There are many reasons you might need or want to express your breastmilk:

The science of breastfeeding can make some people uncomfortable. An already emotive topic, seeing evidence of why breastfeeding matters can be a trigger for those who were not able to meet their breastfeeding goals (yet oddly doesn't seen to have the same effect on those who chose not to breastfed at all)

Facts are not judgement.

Media articles sharing the latest discoveries researchers have made are often skewed to create debate - not the intention of the studies themselves. It is the media seeking to create so-called "mummy wars" with alarmist headlines often not related to the research itself.

But facts they are.

There are times when expressing breastmilk really matters - if you have a premature or sick baby, your baby is still learning how to latch, you need to boost milk production or you are exclusively expressing milk for your baby - then you need to make the most of what you’ve got. And double pumping is the best way to go.

A hospital-grade electric breast pump with two milk collection kits allows you to maximise your output by collecting milk from both breasts at the same time. When your let-down kicks in, both breasts respond and milk start to flow and with double pumping, you can collect that milk more quickly. And, as research has shown, collect more milk over-all, compared to pumping one breast at a time.

If you want to boost milk production, you need to increase removal of milk from the breast. The frequent demand stimulates higher production. One technique which can be used to rapidly increase demand is known as “power pumping”.

A mistaken belief about milk supply is that delaying removal of milk from the breast (by direct feeding or expressing) increases supply. However this actually leads to reduced production. The glands which produce breastmilk rely on feedback from the volume of milk held in the breast, “too full” is the signal to slow down, while “too empty” is an alert to step up production.

Power pumping aims to keep the volume of stored milk low over a period of time by frequently removing small amounts.

It was February 2003 and I was charged with the honour of escorting Sheila Kitzinger around Melbourne while visiting for a breastfeeding seminar. Unexpectedly, I had a front-row seat for the biggest news story of the week. Ex Olympic skier, and new mother Kirstie Marshall was ordered to remove her baby from the Victorian State Parliament: the baby was classified as a “stranger in the house” and proceedings couldn't continue with her present!

When the Code was amended to protect parents of babies throughout the first year, businesses quickly reapplied their marketing strategy and created another new product they could market:

They invented toddler formula.

And advertising once again saturated the media.

We have looked at how the physiological transition from colostrum to mature breastmilk occurs in the first week after birth. When everything is going according to nature's plan, mothers can expect to see indicators their milk is changing around Day 3-5.

But sometimes the process is delayed and mother and baby need additional support during this time. This is referred to as Delayed Onset of Lactation (DOL).

So, what are the reasons the second stage of breastmilk production might be delayed. You might be surprised by some of these!

Breast is best … wait, no, it’s just the way mammals feed their infants.

Fed is best? Well obviously. The alternative is pretty dire. So where did this terminology spring from and why is it unhelpful in discussing infant feeding?

Its hard to imagine sales people donning the garments of nursing staff and patrolling hospital maternity wards to promote formula products to new mothers - but that’s one of the marketing tactics used to undermine women’s confidence in breastfeeding just a few decades ago.

If you think that kind of thing can’t possibly happen any more, think again. Day care centres and kindergartens are given free samples of so-called “toddler” milk sachets to send home with children, taking brand awareness directly to expectant and new mothers through the hands of their own children. And you can bet formula brands were among the first to use online social media influencers to market their products through paid testimonials.

I don't know why lactation is still a mystery to so many people. We are taught how other systems in our bodies work, and all about the reproductive system, at school. There might be a paragraph or two describing the “benefits” of breastfeeding and maybe even a diagram of the breast anatomy. High school students studying Health and Human Development might get a bit more detail but most people leave school without knowing much, if anything, about how humans make milk.

A young baby stirs in the night. Their mouth begins making sucking movements and their head moves searchingly from side to side until connecting with the nearby breast and latching on.

The ability to seek the breast continues throughout the breastfeeding years, even as that baby grows and develops mobility. Babies and young children touch base with the mother dozens of times each day. For breastfed children, this is usually through the act of breastfeeding but is not always about food and drink.

Last century, behaviour-focused “experts” frowned upon what they considered comfort feeding. They saw dependence on the mother as problematic and a barrier to independence. Freud has a lot to answer for. As do the Victorians.

Expectant parents know what they are in for. Disrupted sleep. Feeding the baby every few hours. Changing nappies. You know … baby stuff.

For many years I was a presenter at hospital antenatal classes, speaking to groups of pregnant women and their supporters. We would discuss breastfeeding and what to expect, common challenges and where to seek help.

At the end of the sessions I would invite anyone with personal questions to approach me during the break. One question is especially memorable all these years later:

“I know there’s going to be extra housework and stuff but what will I do all day at home with my baby?”

I often wondered if she reflected back on her question through the haze of the early years and smiled at her naivety?

The reality of caring for an infant is all consuming. That feeding, settling, sleeping and … stuff will take up most of your waking hours. And that's when it's all going well!

We need to be more honest about this and get real about what normal looks like. It isn't for ever but it feels never-ending.

Babies feed a lot. At least 8- 12 times in 24 hours in the early months. Now that averages out to 2-3 hours between the start of one feed and the start of the next: not, as some people innocently expect, a 2-3 hour break in between feeds. It is more likely to look like this:

While occasional or regular bottle feeds of expressed breastmilk, donor breastmilk or infant formula are part of some breastfeeding experiences, not every baby needs to be able to drink milk from a bottle. Indeed, many babies refuse to have anything to do with the idea - leaving their parents wondering if they can never be separated from their breastfed baby.

Too often, breastfeeding mothers are unable to get the physical and mental breaks they need because it is presumed that only they can help their baby fall asleep. While it is true that the easiest way to calm or settle a breastfed child is at the breast, this needn’t mean it is the only way to do so. Over the years, I have not only cared for three breastfed grandchildren but also settled other people’s babies on an occasional or regular basis as a paid caregiver or as a friend.

There are two ways infants stop breastfeeding: mother-led (planned) weaning and child-led (natural) weaning. Very rarely emergency (abrupt) weaning is necessary due to maternal death or significant illness which necessitates the use of the very few drugs which are contraindicated in breastfeeding. Weaning occurs once breastfeeding has been established and maintained for a period of time. Suppression is the process used when a mother chooses not to establish breastfeeding in the post-natal period. In the UK and other parts of the world, and in some scientific publications, weaning is also (confusingly!) used to describe the stage of introducing solids. In this article we are looking at the natural end of breastfeeding.

Winter is coming. If you have established breastfeeding during the warmer months, you might just be starting to feel a chill in the air when your baby stirs at night. So how can you and your infant stay warm during the long night hours?

The number one solution is obviously breastsleeping. Laying beside your baby in bed, feeding without either of you needing to move from your snug cocoon, your body warmth regulates your baby’s temperature. Following safe sleep recommendations, you can breastfeed your baby without too much disturbance of your bedding or clothing.

As babies evolve out of the fourth trimester, the first three months of life outside the womb, they quite literally broaden their horizons. The world beyond the bubble of breast and mother begins to intrude. With new brain development comes new awareness and the age of distraction begins.

WHO and UNICEF recommend that children initiate breastfeeding within the first hour of birth and be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life – meaning no other foods or liquids are provided, including water.

Infants should be breastfed on demand – that is as often as the child wants, day and night. No bottles, teats or pacifiers should be used.

From the age of 6 months, children should begin eating safe and adequate complementary foods while continuing to breastfeed for up to two years of age and beyond.

So your baby has smashed their first birthday cake - what happens next?

Breastfed babies do things differently from formula fed babies in the second year of life. While both formula and bottles should be phased out around 12 months, breastfeeding continues in much the same way as before. There is often little difference in frequency of feeds and there are times you will notice an actual increase in how much your toddler goes to the breast!

Then there is food. After all your lovingly prepared meals and snacks in the 6-12 month period of baby-led weaning, it can be disappointing to find your older baby has lost interest in eating or has begun to decline some foods while fixating on others.

Have you done something wrong?

Most parents expect disrupted sleep when their newborn arrives. They are tiny, living on milk alone and have no understanding of night and day. However, longer-term tolerance of night waking varies greatly depending on your attitude to raising infants.

Some people believe babies need to be trained to sleep for long periods during the night. Some establish firm schedules right from the early weeks, based on the clock and their expectations. Some parents attend "sleep school" with babies as young as six weeks, follow baby trainers online or employ sleep consultants to come to the home and "teach" the baby how to self-settle. These approaches are rarely compatible with successful breastfeeding as they discourage cosleeping, feeding to sleep and responsive breastfeeding.

The internet is a wonderful resource but also a dangerous place to source information!

Right now, a self-proclaimed “sleep expert” is sharing inaccurate and misleading content about scheduling breastfeeds to achieve the optimal breastmilk. Their claims are not backed by evidence and, in fact, are debunked by multiple data. But when good-looking content slides into your newsfeed, you can be forgiven for believing it.

Breastmilk is a complex substance which changes throughout the day, throughout each feed, in response to feedback from the baby to the breast. The idea that you can use a social construct of time to control the composition at a feed is ridiculous. Using the appearance of expressed breastmilk as a tool to determine quality went out with the dinosaurs but here we are, discussing it again.