The 240-minute Rule™

The 240-minute Rule™️

We have seen the 120-minute rule mentioned for the exclusively pumping community. We are not sure where this rule originated and we are not saying that this rule is inaccurate in any way. In our professional opinion (and from working with many of my clients), I feel that The 240-minute Rule™ for the first 12 weeks is a better baseline to effectively establish milk supply and potentially create an oversupply as long as there are no underlying conditions.

What is The 240-minute Rule™?

In our opinion, The 240-minute rule™ is a best practice to establishing and maintaining a supply as well as potentially creating an oversupply. This means that you should pump at least every 3 hours for 30 minutes for the first 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, you should reassess based on your breastfeeding goals.

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If you have an oversupply, you may want to consider dropping a pump session if you are interested in potentially reducing supply or you would like to pump less time. You can also drop a pump session and reallocate that session to your other pumps to potentially reduce the chance of decreasing supply.

If you are making just enough or an undersupplier, then you may want to maintain this schedule until you are ready to drop a session or accept that your supply may decrease with the dropped session and/or pumping less. You can also drop a pump session and reallocate that session to your other pumps to potentially reduce the chance of decreasing supply...