Increasing milk supply

Many moms go through this phase where they think their milk is not enough. I've heard the phrase "kulang ang gatas ko" often when discussing bfing, and most of the time this is enough reason for moms to decide stop bfing altogether. I went through this, or at least I thought my milk supply was low, but upon researching online figured that my supply was probably never low (Kellymom on low milk supply). Still I did a bunch of things to try to help it along, and all of this helped immensely, helped a little too much even that I ended up dealing with oversupply for a couple of months. Here's a rundown of advice from friends and websites I followed.

1. Fenugreek. The REAL galactagogue. My OB told me to take these. It can be pricey, P800 for a bottle of 60 pills (if i remember correctly) at Health Options stores. It is also available at GNC but for a much higher price, like 60% more. You'd need to drink around 6 pills a day to see an effect. It only took 2 days for me to notice that my supply improved, I kept taking it so ended up with too much milk. For most women once your supply improves it will stay that way even without the fenugreek.

http://www.sallybernstein.com/food/columns/ramachandran/fenugreek.htm

2. Drink lots of water. Lots and lots of water. Generally healthy for you anyway so no harm in doing it.
3. Relax. It is hard to be relaxed when your tiny little infant is screaming in hunger, I know this, but you have to do it. Breathe deeply, consciously let the tension your muscles go, and put yourself in a "bfing frame of mind." Look forward to the nursing sessions. When tensed up and stressed your letdown will take longer, this will make baby more and more frustrated because he will keep sucking on your breast and will get nothing out.
4. Co-sleep and spend a lot of time skin-to-skin. Dr. Sears had it completely right. Physical contact and constant close proximity to your baby will stimulate your body to make more milk. I was basically topless for a couple of months, and we had a lot of nursing sessions in the beginning when the baby was only in a diaper.
5. Get a good pump, and pump as often as you can. Breastmilk works on a simple demand-supply basis, the more you use the more milk your body will make. When you feed the baby expressed milk make sure you pump also so that your body knows the baby ate at that time.

Photo credit: Sulit seller Phershy (not endorsing! I bought mine from Shopwise) 

When you get a good supply going, watch out for oversupply. I got so obsessed about increasing supply that I ended up with too much milk which can also be bad for baby. The most telling sign of oversupply is green runny explosive poop, when that happens stop the Fenugreek and cut down on the pumping, then read up on oversupply and how to remedy :-)