When pumping helps breastfeeding… and when it makes things worse

When I teach breastfeeding classes, pumping always comes up.

Some mums tell me it saved their feeding journey because they could get more rest and had a sense of flexibility.

Others tell me things started to feel harder once they introduced pumping into their routine. Feeds became unsettled. Their baby became more colicky. Supply tipped too high. And for the really unlucky mum, mastitis appeared out of nowhere.

So the question I hear most often isn’t really “Should I pump?”

It’s this:
“How do I know if pumping is actually helping — or secretly making things harder?”

And the honest answer is that there isn’t a single rule for that, because all mums and situations are different.

When you start pumping, it has a knock-on effect on your entire feeding picture. From how much time it takes out of your day between feeds, to how quickly you refill before the next feed, to how much milk you make — and more.

This is a crucial diagnostic piece that most advice skips over.

How pumping can quietly tip a feeding pattern off balance

I recently worked with a mum whose baby had become increasingly unsettled during feeds.

She thought she was describing one clear problem.
What she didn’t realise was that she was actually walking me through the unravelling of a feeding pattern that had been working pretty well to start with.

As we talked it through, one change stood out.

Even though feeding was going well, she was exhausted and invested in a night nanny, who immediately told her that her milk was too low and that she needed to increase both her pumping time and frequency.

Nothing extreme happened straight away.

In fact, it felt reassuring.
She made more milk. Had more backup. And felt more secure.

When pumping had served its purpose, she didn’t realise that her pattern needed to adjust again. The advice she’d been given was that you can never have too much milk.

Supply increased.
Feeding dynamics shifted.
Her baby’s behaviour changed in response.

This is where generic advice so often misses the mark. Because the impact of pumping is highly dependent on context, especially when you look through the MumBo™ lens — the unique combination of mum, baby, breast capacity, feeding rhythm, and milk transfer.

The same feeding and pumping pattern can land very differently in different bodies and different feeding relationships. Unfortunately, this mum got the rough end of the deal.

Pumping isn’t good or bad — but how it’s used matters

One of the most important distinctions I teach is this:

Pumping isn’t good or bad — but how you use it can work for you or against you.

Every time milk is removed, your body receives a signal to replace what has been taken.

If that signal suggests more milk is needed, supply increases. Pressure increases. Flow changes. And that directly affects your feeding experience — and what happens afterwards.

For some families, those changes improve everything.
For other families, when pumping isn’t actually needed, it can create pain, chaos, and colic-like behaviour.

That’s why two families can look like they’re “doing the same thing” and end up with very different outcomes.

And it’s also why advice that treats pumping as a standalone action — rather than something that shifts the whole feeding system — can cause more problems than it solves.

When pumping stops helping and needs a closer look

If pumping has helped one part of your feeding but made another part harder, that isn’t a complete disaster.

It’s information.

When patterns start to overlap, unsettled feeds alongside rising supply, colicky behaviour alongside pumping increases, or mastitis appearing after things had been stable, that’s usually a sign that the system needs interpreting, not tweaking.

At that point, adding more advice or trying another adjustment often creates more confusion.

This is where personalised feeding assessment matters.
Not to tell you what to do, but to look at your MumBo™ — your body, your baby, and how feeding is actually unfolding — and work out which change mattered, and why.

Because with pumping especially with basic, outdated or incorrect advice, can make things worse, not better.

When these patterns persist, overlap, or intensify, the appropriate next step is personalised feeding assessment — not more tips, tweaks, or experiments... because I know that you just don't have endless amounts of time or energy to keep circling.

Geraldine Miskin is the creator of the MumBo™ lens and the Miskin Method®, and specialises in personalised feeding diagnostics for complex breastfeeding patterns.

For ongoing diagnostic insight into feeding behaviour, follow @GeraldineMiskin on Instagram.