So I came across an article on Young Parents Magazine a couple of days ago. I think it was the march 2013 issue on abundant milk supply. The author was making a whoo hah on a lady who makes 1.5 litres of milk a day on a good day.
Pooh! 1.5 litres? That's nothing! 1.5 litres is my average! My tops was 1.97 litres with Warrick!
Ok the purpose of this entry is not to create milk envy. The plain facts is that actually every one can have abundant milk if you didn't do anything to your breasts which involved a surgical procedure.
I remember when I had wallace, I was really inexperienced. I didn't know how a proper latch looked like, how much milk production is normal and the proper milk expression techniques when using a pump. I had a really supportive boss who got me fenugreek capsules and a breastfeeding pillow, while my massage lady bought me fenugreek seeds to brew tea. And I still didn't have enough milk to feed wallace.
The thing is, I'm sorry to say but most new mothers just start wrong. They suffer cracked and painful nipples due to incorrect latch, they attempt to supplement with formula thinking that baby is hungry, they hear and believe that their milk compared to so-and-so is very little...
In today's technology age, Google is the new Ask. If you dunno the answer, Google it and I am sure you will find a semblance of the answer to your question if not the answer itself.
So armed with newfound knowledge, when I had Warren, I breastfed longer until he was about 4 months. Now with Warrick, I hope I can go up to 1 year!
Here's my advice to mothers trying to breastfeed. If baby is in hospital for the first 3 days, dun bottle feed her unless bb is severely premature or in need of medical attention. Just let bb latch. And dun worry that bb will go hungry, they have a 3 day food store built in their bodies for the purpose of waiting until your milk comes in.
By day 3 to 5, right before your milk starts flowing, your breasts will feel engorged and probably feel like a bag of rocks. Keep massaging. Fill a baby bottle with hot water and roll on the breast (not touching nipple or aerola) if it hurts a lot. I swear the painful engorgement goes away after 24 hours.
When your milk initially flows, its this yellow creamy milk. This is colostrum. Feed this to baby. Don't throw away! If you are away from baby and need to express, do so and store in fridge to bring to baby in hospital. Your first day or two of pumping will yield only 20ml max. This is normal!! Don't fret!! Keep pumping every two to three hours. My initial days were 8 pumps in 24 hours, even at night. At this time you will receive a lot of unwelcome comments that you have so little milk, so-and-so used to pump 500ml per pump, you are starving baby, wait longer between pumps, feed formula... Do not listen!!!! Ignore at all costs!!!
By day 6 to 8, your milk will transit to a whiter milk and you will pump about 60ml per pump. Again this is normal! Your days of 300ml per pump days will come, I assure you. Meanwhile, be patient.
Be sure to get yourself a very good electric double pump. I use the Ameda Lactaline Personal, aka Ameda Purely Yours. No... I don't get any commission from this recommendation... just sharing with you what I do use as a guide!
In the first 4 to 6 weeks, supply is regulated by hormones. So the faster and more complete your breasts are drained, your milk ducts will signal your brain that you need more milk. This is why if you pump regularly, you will be able to build up an entire freezer stash worth of milk.
After baby reaches his first month, us Asian women would have completed our confinement period where we had lots of soup and longan tea. This also coincides with the swap over of hormone driven milk production to demand driven milk production so that's when milk supply drops. Coupled with liberty (yay! Can go shopping!) many new moms will go out and then not pump their boobs for hours. This is bad because then the milk ducts will get emo and think they are no longer needed and will tell korkor brain to turn them off. Then slowly but surely your milk supply drops further and you will want to defrost/supplement and then the day will come where you can wave your supply byebye.
There remains hope as long as you still have milk. Take a lot of water, soup and drinks, stay home for a pumping and nursing vacation of about 3 days where you just pump regularly every 3 hours and your supply will come back like a flood (pun intended!)
Then from there don't go out so long anymore. Max of 4 hours at a stretch if you are pumping, else feed from the breast every time baby needs it.
And yes swallow... in my pic here, this is my morning consumption. 2x Blackmore Lactating Mom Gold capsules, 1x Fish Oil, 1x Domperidone, 5x Fenugreek and 3x Moringa. Then throughout the rest of the day I drink water, moringa tea, soup and take 2x 5 fenugreek capsules.
Cheers to mommy's milk and cheers to you!
