How to Fix Lopsided Breasts When Breastfeeding (aka Lazy Boob)

Do you find yourself getting less milk from one of your breasts when you pump? It’s normal – though a little annoying – for one breast to be a “lazy boob” and underproduce compared the the other side. Here is why that happens and how to fix lopsided breasts when breastfeeding.

What causes uneven breasts when you’re breastfeeding?

There are a few things that can cause you to get (for example) 4 oz on one side and only 1-2 oz on the other. In many cases, there is a normal physical difference between the two breasts; it’s common for one side to have more working milk ducts than the other.

It could also be a result of your own or your baby’s preferences for one side earlier on. For example, if you favored doing breast compressions on one side, over time, that side will produce more milk. (I’m definitely guilty of doing more compressions on my left side, which is my higher-producing breast.) Also, if your baby preferred to nurse on one side before you switched to exclusively pumping (or if you single pump and have done one side more, for whatever reason), that also have caused that side’s supply to increase over time compared to the other one.

Four ways to fix lopsided breasts from breastfeeding

In order to increase your milk supply on the low-performing side, you are going to want to try to pump the same amount of milk from your good side, and more milk from the lazy side.

The more milk you baby – or in your case, you breast pump – demands, the more milk your body will supply. Therefore, you want to demand more milk from the lazy side, which means pumping more. Additional pumping can trigger more letdowns, which will result in more milk being removed from that breast, which then will result in your body making more milk in that breast.

Therefore, your goal in continuing to pump more milk from the lazy side is to convince it that it needs to make even more milk. (When you do this, make sure you don’t change anything with how much you’re pumping on the good side! You don’t want to jeopardize your supply on that side or end up with a clogged duct or mastitis.)

Here are a few ways you can do that. Note that it will take some time – probably about a week – to see an increase in milk output on the lazy side, because it takes a few days for your body to ramp up milk supply in response to increased demand.

1. At the end of a pumping session, keep pumping the lazy side for a few extra minutes.

To do this, after you finish pumping for your normal amount of time, you’d stop the pump and unhook your good side. (Put a breast pad on that side, because when your milk lets down again, it will let down from both sides and you don’t want to leak milk all over the place.)

Start the pump in the letdown phase and let it shift into the expression phase after a few minutes. You can stop either after the next letdown is finished, or after 5-10 minutes is up. (Even if you don’t get another letdown, the additional nipple stimulation may help.)

2. Do most of your breast compressions on the side that doesn’t produce as much milk.

Breast compressions can be a great way to get more milk when you pump. If you don’t want to pump any more than you already do, you can focus your efforts on getting more out of the lazy side while you’re already pumping.

To do breast compressions, massage the low performing side while you pump, moving your hands around and pushing as much milk out of the milk ducts as possible. Take a break every few minutes to let your hands rest and then start again. Note: it’s much easier to do this with a hands-free bra.

3. Add an extra pumping session for only the lazy side.

If adding a few minutes to each session doesn’t work for your schedule, you can try just adding one pumping session for day that is just for the low-producing side.

To do this, hook yourself up on just the lazy side, and pump for 10-15 minutes. As described above, you should have a breast pad covering your other nipple, because your milk will let down on both sides.

At the next pumping session, you’d pump as you normally would on both sides.

4. Power pump the low-producing side.

Power pumping is an attempt to simulate cluster feeding, and to do it, you pump on and off for about an hour – generally 12 minutes on, then an 8 minute break, though the exact intervals don’t matter.

More details about power pumping are available here, though obviously you’d just be doing it on one side instead of two.

Do I need to fix my lopsided breast situation?

No, having one breast that produces less milk than the other won’t hurt anything. If the difference in output or the appearance of the unevenness bothers you, then you should try to fix it. However, if not, having uneven breasts is totally normal and having a lazy boob won’t hurt anything.

Regarding the appearance of unevenness, it’s likely that other people won’t notice it. But if it makes you self-conscious, using a couple of extra breast pads in the low-producing side might help.

Have you successfully fixed a lazy boob? Let us know how you did it in the comments!