How to Do Breast Compressions During Breastfeeding

Hi everyone, Rose Le Blanc here, just coming on to talk about breast compressions.
I’m one of the lactation consultants at Oona Wellness in Toronto location.
Breast compressions are something that are helpful to do when the milk flow has slowed down.
If babies’ drinking has slowed down, it can help babies start drinking again, stay more active at the breast, helps them when they’re very sleepy, especially in those first few days when they’re just getting that early milk, the colostrum, and they have to work really hard to get that colostrum out.
It can also help when our breasts are very full, when the milk comes in, it can help soften the breast tissue, so we’re not feeling too uncomfortable between feeds, and it can help speed up a feed, make baby more efficient at the breast, so we’re not having these really long feeds.
So I have my breast here.
And what you want to do when you’re doing a breast compression is think about all the milk ducts are are webbing that run around the breast that connect to the end to the nipple here.
And so we want to try to access as many milk ducts as possible by taking our hand up towards the top of the breast and squeezing.
So we’re trying to grab as much breast tissue as possible.
So your baby’s on the other end, sucking away.
And as they suck, you want to squeeze, and so the milk drops down towards their mouth as they suck.
And at some point they’re going to stop and pause, and that’s when you release your compression.
And maybe you move to another area of the breast, and as they suck, start sucking again, you squeeze.
So you don’t have to pump it on and off like this, it’s just a squeeze and hold while your baby sucks, and when they stop sucking, you want to release.
It’s important to release the compression, so we don’t end up just squeezing the whole time and maybe blocking the exit of milk, you also want to make sure that you’re not squeezing too close to the baby’s latch, so it’s interfering with their latch, maybe they’re slipping.
Off the breast as a result, maybe it’s becoming a more shallow latch, we’re moving breast tissue close to their mouth.
Also, we’re only then accessing the decks close to the nipple.
We’re not accessing much of the ducts further back towards the top of the breast.
And so, really important to get your hand as far back as possible.
If you have fullness in the breast, you have some tender areas, maybe some ducts that are a little blocked up, those are the areas that you want to focus on if you can.
And so you’re not pushing directly on those block ducts, you’re just gently compressing from around those areas.
So we don’t want to damage those ducts, we don’t want to cause inflammation, but we also want to help that milk that’s a little bit stuck in there, get out.
So working on the ducts surrounding those blockages can really help get that milk that’s stuck moving forward towards baby’s mouth.
And that’s how we would do a breast compression.