5 Tips Sukses Relaktasi Agar ASI Keluar Kembali

Breastfeeding is something that almost all mothers desire. However, in reality, not all mothers can breastfeed their children. Some can only breastfeed for a short time, while others begin relactation after having stopped breastfeeding.

Relactation is usually done by mothers who had stopped breastfeeding but decided to start again. A mother might stop breastfeeding due to illness or because she found it difficult to breastfeed from the beginning.

To make it easier for you to perform relactation, below we will discuss tips and steps for successfully breastfeeding your little one again.

Factors That Increase Relactation Success

The success rate of relactation varies for each person. Relactation failure can happen. However, some mothers succeed in producing breast milk again within a few days or weeks, although others may take longer than that.

Some factors that can increase a mother's success in performing relactation are:

• The baby is still under 3–4 months old
• Having a strong desire to return to breastfeeding the baby
• Using the right relactation method
• Great support, whether from a partner, family, or friends

Stages of Performing Relactation

When you begin your relactation journey again, it is important to understand that everyone is different and responds to relactation efforts with varying degrees of success.

There are several things to consider when performing relactation:

1. Prepare Mentally

You should first discuss the reasons for deciding to relactate, inform your husband, and ask your family to help you prepare mentally:

Seek mental support from those closest to you, in addition to your husband and family. For example, doctors, lactation consultants, or friends who have successfully performed relactation.

2. Make Initial Preparations

If you are determined to perform relactation, here are the initial preparations you can make:

• Ensure you eat and drink enough: Start increasing protein and fluid intake in your daily diet to help speed up your body's production of breast milk.
• Ask a doctor for medication: Request medication that can help the body produce breast milk, or start consuming herbal medicine or other types of food believed to increase breast milk production.
• Get plenty of rest: Start delegating household chores that you can delegate, because you will spend almost all your time with the baby during the first few weeks of the relactation program. Reduce your schedule of activities outside the home; in the first few weeks of relactation, spend as much time as possible 24 hours a day with the baby.
• Increase skin-to-skin contact with your baby: Sleep with your baby both at night and during the day, hug and hold your little one as often as possible. Tell your little one that you love them very much and want to give them the best, which is breast milk.

3. Set Time for Relactation

How long does it take for relactation to be successful? Every body reacts differently to relactation efforts. However, you can see some initial results within about 2 weeks of trying. According to experts, based on existing research, full relactation takes about 1 month for most people on average.

Tips for Successful Relactation

Source: Freepik

1. Avoid Stress and Realize That the Time Required Varies Greatly

Initially, the process may be quite time-consuming, as you may need to pump, breastfeed, and supplement your baby. It may also take several weeks to build up your breast milk supply fully, and sometimes it can take even longer if you have issues like a breast abscess. The most important thing is to be patient, consistent, and avoid stress.

2. Provide Sufficient Stimulation

The more often milk is removed, the more often breast milk is produced. Generally, you need to pump or breastfeed the baby at the breast at least eight times in 24 hours. And if you can do it more often, that is even better.

If you use a pump, try not to set a strict schedule, but simply pump whenever you have free time. Initially, you may get very little breast milk. That is okay. Because that process will send a "milk production" signal to the breasts, and it takes a few days before the breasts respond.

3. Consider Trying Supplements

There are a number of herbs that are said to boost milk production. You can use them to help the process of breastfeeding again after stopping go smoothly.

4. Help Your Baby Re-learn How to Breastfeed Directly

Your child may be accustomed to drinking from a bottle and may need time to learn how to breastfeed again. Stay enthusiastic and don't give up. The good news is that babies are born "programmed" to breastfeed, and often mothers are surprised by how quickly babies return to the breast.

Consider giving your baby breast milk with skin-to-skin contact while you are topless and the baby is only wearing a diaper. Do this in a comfortable lying-down position, place the baby's stomach on your chest, and do it in a relaxed manner.

5. Learn to Tell When the Baby is Drinking

After the baby breastfeeds, it is important to know when they are actually getting breast milk. You can look for slow, deep sucks with a pause at the peak when the baby's mouth is wide open.

Often you may hear a whispering sound, but that pause is the most important indicator. When you see it, you know that the baby has consumed a large amount of breast milk. If you don't see it, you may need to pump more breast milk to increase your supply.

Successful Relactation with Hegen

Relactation is one of the efforts you can make to breastfeed your little one again after a break. Although this method is quite effective in increasing breast milk, do not be immediately discouraged when you find that the results are not yet optimal. Stay consistent, diligent, patient, and avoid stress so as not to disrupt the smooth production of breast milk.

Now, highlighting one of the success tips in practicing the relactation technique above, it is mentioned that you should use a high-quality breast pump with a fitting flange. In this case, Hegen comes with its superior product, Hegen Breast Pump, which will maximize your efforts as a mother in producing abundant breast milk.

Source: Hegen documents

The Hegen breast pump has strong suction, optimizing the pumping process more efficiently. The Hegen Breast Pump also has 36 pumping modes that you can adjust to the baby's rhythm and suction strength. Not to forget, the reflexology massage feature of the Hegen Breast Pump will make you feel more relaxed.

What are you waiting for? Get the Hegen Breast Pump right now, as well as other maternal and infant equipment products such as feeding bottles, drinking bottles, straw cups, teats, breast milk storage (breast milk & complementary food containers), bottle and teat cleaning brushes, and complementary accessories by visiting the official Hegen website Indonesia right now.

References:

• Getting to Know Relactation, Breastfeeding Again after Stopping. https://www.orami.co.id/magazine/mengenal-relaktasi

• Relactation: Definition and Tips to Start Again. https://www.mooimom.id/mamapedia/relaktasi-definisi-dan-tips-untuk-memulainya-lagi

• Relactation, How to Breastfeed Again After Stopping. https://www.alodokter.com/relaktasi-cara-menyusui-kembali-setelah-sempat-berhenti