If you have ever stared at your kettle waiting for it to boil, you will know exactly why this idea is so simple, yet so brilliant.
When I was breastfeeding both of my babies, it is safe to say that pumping was my very least favourite activity of all.
The tediousness of it all, the swish-swosh of the machine, the waiting forever for the bottles to fill – it was some of the longest hours of my life, I think.
If this sounds familiar to you, you need to know about this very simple trick recently shared to the Milk and Motherhood’s Facebook page.
In the post that quickly went viral, Johanna Sargeant, the lactation consultant behind the page, talked about how much of a difference it can make when a pumping mama stops eyeing her output and simply relaxes and lets the milk flow…and it offers an incredibly simple (yet totally genius!) solution as well.
Sargeant, who as a new mum herself had been told to pump to boost her supply, quickly realized how stressful the experience can be.
“I’d double pump for twenty minutes after [every] feed, and become more and more demoralised at the lack of milk in that bottle. I realised that, for my own mental health, I needed to stop watching! Easier said than done. Enter the baby sock,” she writes.
Yes, you read that right: the baby sock. Sargeant discovered that by simply slipping baby socks over the bottles so she couldn’t see the milk collecting in them, she could actually take her mind off of how much she was producing…and the results were rather amazing.
The logic behind Sargeant’s trick is simple.
“In order for you to have let-down — the point where milk comes out of your breast — you need to have a release of oxytocin,” Sargeant recently told TODAY Parents. According to the lactation consultant, oxytocin and stress are enemies. “They can’t coexist,” the Australia native explained. “If you’re anxious, you’re not going to make much milk.”
Now, Sargeant explains, she advises mums to simply put a sock over their pumping bottle, and it has been getting incredible results.
“Some women are reporting often 2-3 times more milk when they remove themselves mentally from the result of their pumping session!”
