Imagine the difficulty a woman must have breastfeeding twins. She must nurse around the clock and never have any time for herself. Now imagine breastfeeding triplets! The endurance that she must have to keep up with the demand is incredible. The most important thing to remember with breastfeeding multip les is to keep up your supply. This can be a challenge for most women trying to juggle three babies. You should start by pumping your milk as soon as possible. When your milk supply is established, don’t be surprised if you need to line your nursing bra with a fresh breast pad every day hours to absorb your milk overflow. This is quite common for women nursing supertwins.
Many women are concerned about being able to breastfeed their triplets because of the work involved. Some mothers will be worried that they cannot supply enough breast milk for three babies. Pumping is a great way to establish your supply. By pumping in between feedings, you can build up your milk supply while freezing or refrigerating your pumped milk for future feedings. The best type of breast pump for these purposes is a double electric hospital grade pump. Some of these pumps may get pretty expensive so it may be worth it to look into renting a breast pump.
There are many positions in which to feed your babies. One of the most common positions for nursing twins would be to use a nursing pillow especially made for nursing twins like the EZ 2 nurse, and place them in the football hold, one at each breast. When there is another baby thrown into the mix, however, things can get a little dicey. A third baby may be placed in an upright position in a safe, bouncy seat. There is a great product on the market now made especially for hands free bottle feeding called the podee system. This is a feeding system that consists of a bottle and a long tube attached to the bottle nipple. This way, you can tandem nurse two of the babies and feed the third at the same time with the podee bottle. Tandem nursing is the most efficient way to nurse because let down is much quicker and you can get through feeding two babies in about as much time as it takes to feed one. You will need plenty of help feeding the triplets, especially in the early months. Another family member can also feed the third baby with your pumped breast milk.
It is important to remember to rotate your babies so that they can all get a chance to nurse at each breast as well as the hands free nursing system. This will improve their hand, eye coordination and help maintain your supply. If they do not get to use the bottle nipple from the start, they may acquire a preference for the breast and you will have a difficult situation in which you may have to nurse all three babies. Nursing three babies exclusively may be extremely stressful on the mother and the babies.
Because of the demand on the mother and the babies’ caregivers, it is reasonable to put the babies on a schedule. Most newborns need to nurse every two to three hours or so. It is easy to lose track of who ate when, so making a chart can be a useful tool.
The physical demand on mother breastfeeding triplets is extremely intense. She will need plenty of rest between feedings. In other words, find someone else, a family member perhaps, who can help with the housework or run errands for you. There is also the need for a much greater calorie intake. Women nursing one baby need an extra 1,000 calories per day to keep up with the nutritional needs of their baby. Women nursing, or feeding breast milk to their triplets exclusively, will need an extra 3,000 calories per day. It is important to make sure that the calories are made up of good, nutritious food and to avoid excess sugar or saturated fats which can lead to extreme fatigue.
Making meals and meal preparation is next to impossible while home with triplets. There are many outreach groups and support groups for mothers of supertwins that can assist you in meal delivery. Women who are mothers of triplets know how difficult it is in those first few months so they love to give back to their community by cooking meals for other families that need them. You may contact your local MOST (Mothers Of Super Twins) chapter or your local MOM’s (Mothers Of Multip les) club to find out more about getting assistance.
It is also very important to continue taking your prenatal vitamin to ensure that you and your babies are getting the proper vitamins and minerals that your body needs. The folic acid is essential for you not only during your pregnancy but also while you are breastfeeding. Prenatal vitamins are available at most drug stores and by prescription by your doctor or midwife.
Because your body is making not one, not two, but three skeletons, you need to consume extra calcium. If you don’t make an effort to eat more dairy products and green leafy vegetab les, you can take calcium supplements which are available over the counter at any drug store or supermarket. If you don’t get enough calcium, your babies will be fine but your skeleton may not. When you don’t eat enough calcium, your babies will take from your existing skeleton the calcium that they require. This can lead to osteoporosis later on in life.
The key to successful pumping for your triplets and maintaining enough supply is to go easy on yourself. This can be such a stressful time for you that it may actually be counterproductive to create more stress in the environment. If you occasionally forget to pump, don’t beat yourself up about it. If you have to put one of your babies down and she cries, that is all right too. And remember, this too shall pass.
Read about how to rent a hospital-grade breast pump.
My name is Wendy, and I began this website as a place to have one central location for breast pumping and feeding babies. I pumped breast milk for my daughter for over a year and during that year looked around on hundreds of websites to get the information that I needed. Since then, the website has grown and there is now tons of information and great products here at GotBreastPump.com. Thanks for stopping by. 
