Coming to Terms with Low Milk Supply

Not giving enough breast milk for one’s baby is among the worst nightmares of a new mom!  For a mom who has early on decided to nurse, not producing enough milk is major cause of stress!   My previous guest post is about a mom’s struggle with her milk supply and how she was able to move on.

If you’re among those moms who struggle with very low milk supply, read on for some points to keep in mind.

For moms who just gave birth, these are some ways to start producing breast milk:

Directly breastfeed your newborn as frequently as possible.

During his first weeks, he may need to nurse every three to four hours. If for some reason,  baby can't directly nurse, pump pump pump! This is what happened to us. Baby got held up in the NICU for almost a week so i pumped like there's no tomorrow during the time he spent there.

Consume lots of malunggay products.

They come in the form of capsules, powder, tea, cookies or chips. Malunggay or moringa is a well known milk supply booster.

Eat a lot! I really noticed that when I eat more, I get more milk when pumping at the office. Dieting right away after giving birth may not be advisable for moms who want to breastfeed.

Think twice about supplementing.

Supplement may come in the form of  breast milk donations or formula.  I dare say that supplementing should be a last resort, especially for those with newborns. Direct breast feeding triggers milk production. So if you feed baby through the bottle (with breast milk or formula), you decrease baby’s time at your breast.  During the first weeks, direct nursing prompts your brain to produce more milk.  Also avoid giving pacifiers. All his sucking should be on the breast.

When you feel your supply is not enough

Seek medical advice to check if your milk supply is genuinely not enough. We can’t measure the amount milk your baby drinks when he’s directly breastfed.  So you must look for other telling  signs that he’s getting enough. Among the tell tale signs that your baby is getting enough is he's not gaining enough weight and if he's not regularly passing stools and urine. Consult a breastfeeding-friendly pediatrician for the correct diagnosis. Read here for signs to watch out for when choosing a nursing-friendly doctor.

Be informed!

Do your homework even before D-day. In the Philippines, where formula feeding is the norm, getting sound advice from other moms, or peers or even doctors can be a challenge. In the US, they even have La Leche Leauge hotlines for moms  having trouble with breastfeeding.  Try to get in touch with breastfeeding advocates like Latch and Breastfeeding Philippines.  I've tried emailing Latch once about my nursing issue and they responded so kudos to them! The internet offers a wide variety of breastfeeding sites that are a gold mine of good information about nursing, among the best is Chronicles of a Nursing Mom.

[caption id="attachment_1934" align="aligncenter" width="220"] Even nursing mother dogs need some prodding from caretakers during the first days post partum!                   Source of Photo: austintexas.gov[/caption]

Below are some good suggestions for moms having problems with low milk supply:

Have a nursing goal.

Set your nursing goal early on and assess this goal regularly. Decide until when you want to nurse, until baby’s 6^th month? Or do you have plan to nurse until his toddler years? For moms will ultra low milk supply, being able to nurse until the 6^th month can be quite a feat.  While those with rich supply might not think of weaning until baby’s first year! Really ask yourself if long-term breastfeeding is  for you.  By setting that target, you can manage your expectations.  Most moms will be happy knowing that they've achieve the nursing goal she set.

Avoid comparison.

Never compare your own situation with other nursing moms. Keep in mind that every body is wired differently. Some moms have abundant milk supply, even able to donate milk by the liters. And for some lucky ones, nursing comes naturally. Don't ever dare to pity yourself for not doing so.

Learn to accept

Come to terms your own nursing situation! When you’ve tried virtually everything and that supply still won’t come up, acceptance is the next best step. Be at peace, knowing that you tried your best to breastfeed your child!

Breastfeeding isn't the end-all and be all of being a mom. Nursing is just one of the million or more skills we must master to raise the little one! But it would not hurt if you try to nurse for as long as you possibly can!

Also worth reading:

• How you could be wasting breast milk

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Guest Post: Tales from a "Nursing Failure"

Our latest guest post is from mom Kristen Hurst. In her post Kristen shares her struggles with low milk supply and how she initially wanted to breastfeed exclusively for six months but was able to do so only until her baby's four month. Although she considers her nursing career a "failure", I consider it a success because i felt she tried everything to make nursing relationship last. Low breast milk  supply is still better no breast milk at all! 

[caption id="attachment_1901" align="aligncenter" width="265"] Not all moms are wired the same way. Some struggle with breastfeeding, while for others, nursing comes naturally.                                 Source of Photo: nih.gov[/caption]

I remember before my son was born, I just assumed all babies naturally latched onto their mothers, just like a nursling fawn to its mother doe, mother nature at her finest hour; no fuss, fretting or worrying about such things like sore nipples, mastitis and a feeble milk production.   Yes, indeed, I got a crash course in nursing, taught to me exclusively by my newborn!

Not only did my son not latch, he screamed and reared his head back, refusing to nurse, at all. No matter how hard I cajoled, rocked and bathed him and enticed him to try, over and over again, it was to no avail and now we were both in tears. In my exhausted and hormonal state, I began to break down my nursing allegiance and eye that forbidden baby bottle.  I did call the La Leche hotline one night, out of options and basically a giant emotional mess, where they calmly told me to put the bottle down, and walked me through the whole nursing process.    For my son and I, it ended up being months of pumping, but I did get the breast milk down him, just not the way I had ideally envisioned.  I never did manage to produce much milk, even with all my incessant pumping, which made me feel like a failure.  After all, shouldn’t my body have continued caring for my child even after birth?

I had this image of my child and I bonding and connecting, that final little piece of the parenting puzzle, where it wouldn’t matter if there was a devastating natural disaster, I could rise above any dangerous floodwaters or devastating ashes.  Just my newborn and my lactating lifeline who would thrive with all my maternal glory.  Yep, didn’t quite happen that way, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t try.

If this sounds at all like your breastfeeding experience, then I’ve got a few tried and true tips to heed and hopefully help you through the stressful first days of nursing.

• Breast milk versus formula: Let’s break down the differences so that as your child’s mother, you can make that best choice for them.  Breast milk is of course, designed as the perfect food for your child, it is balanced with gentle enzymes for ease of digestion, it has immunity boosting factors that can never be reproduced in a store-bought formula.  If you were like me, then you probably already know all about the unique qualities that breast milk has over commercially manufactured products, as a result I decided to supplement my meager breast milk with a couple bottles of formula.  As a fretful parent there is nothing more alarming than those weight charts, especially when your little’s ones weight has dipped into the ‘below’ average range.  My perfect medium became, pump, feed and then supplement.  And we went through this routine until I eventually dried up and he became strictly formula fed.


• Have a nursing plan: Like many pregnant mothers, I daydreamed of the day, when I held that tiny bundle, when he and I would find a cozy little spot to cuddle up together, just a blissful moment of feeding and nurturing.  So was the plan, and I had every intention of following up on it until of course, reality set in and thwarted all of my nursing dreams.  Fortunately, I was able to persevere and move forward and most importantly, care for my son with everything I had available.


• Support System: I can’t really complain here as I had great support, I remember my husband giving our son a tiny ‘cup’ of precious colostrum at three-o-clock in the morning, a miniscule portion I had painstakingly pumped out for him, as I knew that colostrum is an essential component for growing and developing newborns. My own mother came to visit and worked endlessly with the whole latching process, but at the end of the day, it just didn’t click!  Even appointments and consultations at the hospital and La Leche League failed to get the nursing going.  I had decided (sagely) that parenting was never going to be a perfect science for me.  It was time to go to a new plan, which meant ‘whatever works’.

Yes, parenting is an adventure and it starts right from the get go.  Don’t forget that what works for you and your family may not work as well for someone else.  I felt guilty at times when my son and I would meet for my ‘mommy/baby’ classes and I was the only one with a bottle.  I felt at times, they looked down upon me as somehowI lacked the same parenting philosophies or status that they all shared.   Of course, what they didn’t know was nursing had always been upfront and most important in my nurturing mind and my difficult decision to stop breastfeeding certainly wasn’t for lack of trying.

Many years later, my mother shared with me that her own mother had a lot of issues with breastfeeding and she fretted constantly about her own lack of milk and nursing prowess.  It all made sense to me, perhaps due to genetics and conditions out of my control, I truly couldn’t produce the same amounts of milk like some of my more successful nursing peers.

The good news? He turned out fine, but like I said about parenting, it’s never a ‘one-size fits all’ process, it’s a learn as you grow, one.

How about you moms, how do you measure breastfeeding success? 

Kristen is a stay at home mother of three who enjoys blogging.  She received her bachelor's degree in fashion marketing, and writes often maternity wear.  When she's not trying to juggle the lives of Casey, Austin and Ben, she enjoys painting and catching up with a great Jane Austen novel.

Also worth reading:

• Coming to terms with low milk supply


• How you could be wasting breast milk 

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