Strategies to Produce More Milk: Oil Blend Recipe, Hand Expressing and More!

Are you struggling with low milk production and are desperate for some tips that actually work to naturally help you produce more milk?

Living with low milk supply can cause a lot of anxiety and worry wondering WHEN and HOW you will produce enough breast milk to satiate your hungry little one.

These feelings can lead to a willingness to try just about anything that promises to work.

But before you do, read this article first for some useful ideas on how to produce more milk naturally and effectively!

Try a Milk Boosting Oil Blend

Have you ever thought about using essentials oils to increase your milk supply?

Essential oils are loved by many people for many reasons and most of us have them already lying around the house.

How to Use Oils while Breastfeeding

Always take precautions when using oils around your baby, they are natural, but still very powerful! Be sure to not let your nipples come in contact with the oil.

It is also best to apply the oils at a time when your baby’s head will not be near your breasts directly after. Apply the oil blend to the sides of your breasts, away from your nipples.

This post may contain affiliate links. Full disclosures here.

Roll-On Milk Boosting Oil Blend Recipe

✺ 10ml Glass Rollerball (get it here)

✺ 1 Drop Clary Sage Essential Oil

✺ 1 Drop Basil Essential Oil

✺ 1 Drop Teas Tree Essential Oil

✺ 1 Drop Fennel Essential Oil

Fill the rest of the roller ball with the carrier oil, like this Jojoba Oil at Amazon.

Pumping Strategies

Switching up your pumping strategy can have a huge impact on your milk production. Implementing a pumping schedule that will get you producing more breast milk isn’t too complicated, but it can be a little labor intensive.

However, it’s usually as simple as adding an additional pumping session back into your daily pumping routine.

Don’t worry if you are new to pumping and have no knowledge or experience yet, that’s why you’re here! In fact, I can recommend an awesome online course to you that is designed with you mind.

It was curated to help moms master their pumping skills and their milk supply so they don’t have to stress when things feel hopeless! It’s called The Ultimate Exclusive Pumping Class by Milkology.

My recommendation, is that you enroll in that class for the pumping skills and techniques you will need and then use the up-sell discount to also take the Master Your Milk Supply mini course.

Pump More Frequently

Adding an additional pumping session into your routine will signal your body’s supply and demand switch. Even if you hardly get any milk during this session, don’t give up yet.

This pumping strategy is telling your body that the demand is currently higher than the supply and it will eventually compensate for that.

Think of the frequency of pumping in relation to when a baby cluster pumps – kind of the same concept.

Pump at Night or Early in the Morning

Pumping at night is probably not going to be your go to pumping strategy. However, the reason for suggesting pumping at this time is because prolactin levels rise the most during the middle of the night.

It is estimated that between 8pm and 7am is when you can expect increased prolactin activity.

Power Pump

If you aren’t familiar with power pumping, it was designed to mimic a baby’s cluster feeding habits during a growth spurt.

The key to power pumping is to designate at least a full hour long session at once, broken up into small segments.

On for twenty minutes, off for ten minutes
On for ten minutes, off for ten minutes x2

Those are my top three pumping strategy tips to for how to produce more milk naturally.

Feel free to save the power pumping infographic below to save to Pinterest.

Best Breast Pump for Improving Milk Supply

If you are still not producing more milk even after you have implemented the pumping strategies, your breast pump may be to blame for the problem.

It has taken me a lot of trial and error to find the right breast pump for me.

After testing five different breast pumps over the last ten months of exclusively pumping, I can confidently give you my top recommendation for the best breast pump to help maximize your milk output when pumping.

The breast pump I’m referring to is the portable BabyBuddha.

I am most impressed with this little pump’s power and it’s capability to pull out the most milk of any other hospital grade electric pump I have tried.

The BabyBuddha is a little peanut compared to the other pumps and It’s miniature size is what makes it even that much more impressive!

This is especially true if you like to pump on the go and not be tied down to one spot all day.

Hand Express Your Breast Milk

I understand this method is not always the easiest for every woman.

It took me a long time to master it as well!

However, practicing to hand express your breast milk is a great tool to have once you have it down.

The reason I added this to the list of ways to naturally produce more milk, is because it is an effective and underutilized technique.

Hand expressing is a great way of fully emptying your breasts and is helpful for triggering multiple let-downs.

Increasing your milk supply means there has to be a healthy supply and demand market. When your body senses vacant breasts, it then works hard to refill them and then some.

As you can see from the infographic above, massage is an important component to hand expressing. I recommend these lactation tools from LaVie that use heat and massage to help more easily aid in that.

How to do Hand Expressing

Once milk has stopped flowing for a couple of minutes, use your hands to squeeze and pull more out of your milk ducts.

Expressing even an extra half ounce or less will be enough to signal to your body to make more milk!

Hand expressing breast milk is such a great skill to have in general and is worth learning.

You will learn skills like hand expressing and many more by seasoned lactation consultants, Cindy and Jana in their online breastfeeding class, Simply Breastfeeding.

If you are looking to gain more confidence in the hopes of making breastfeeding and your milk supply a successful venture, I highly recommend this informative online course!

P.S. Enroll in any course from a link on this website and get my regularly updated pumping and milk supply course as BONUS! Here are the details.

Consume Natural Lactation Aids

Many foods are naturally loaded with lactation aids and a lot of them really do make a difference!

There are many yummy lactation recipes to try, like these:

Did you know, foods that are known to naturally help with breast milk production are called galactagogues. Take a look at the list below of some common galactagogues you probably already have hanging out in your house right now.

Oatmeal
Brewer’s Yeast
Yams
Dark Leafy Greens
Garlic

You can also take a lactation supplement packed with powerful milk boosting ingredients.

Or, make some quick and easy lactation smoothies with healthy and natural ingredients. I like to make my lactation smoothies with coconut water because it’s beneficial to nursing mothers to help them stay hydrated.

You could also add a potent, but pure protein lactation powder to your smoothies.

Milk Dust Protein Lactation Powder is my favorite for flavor and for effect!

Milk Supply Action Pack

✔︎ Lactation Recipes ✔︎ Pumping Schedules ✔︎ List of Lactation Aids

Download Action Pack

Summary

We went over quite a bit of information in this read about how to produce more milk naturally and I hope you found it helpful!

You learned some pumping strategies to help you naturally maximize your milk output. Pumping tips like, when the best time to pump is and the best breast pump to use.

There was also a milk boosting oil blend recipe for you to try with safety precautions for use.

Let’s not forget the lactation aids and an introduction to galactagogues.

That will wrap up this post with all of my best tips and ideas to help you naturally produce more milk!