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New mothers can have a lot of concerns. They might lose their sleep over them too. But worrying about low milk supply? It’s one of the things that most new moms might fuss about. They wonder if the are making adequate milk for their baby. Fretting over milk supply is one reason many women quit breastfeeding! They don’t understand that they might be generating sufficient milk but don’t get the signs that they do.
The best way for you, as a mother, to know that you are making a sufficient amount of milk is by watching your baby gain weight (especially if it is exclusively breastfed). Your baby pees at least six times a day, which is another sign of a good quantity of milk production. When nursing on one breast, if your other breast begins to leak, it is a sign that you are making adequate milk. But if you have no medical reason to make less milk, it could be more because of poor breastfeeding management. Here are a few reasons:
1. Sticking to the clock
If you feed your baby as per your timetable, you are likely to not give your baby enough. A baby feeds the best when he is hungry. When you feed your baby when he doesn’t show hunger cues, she will draw little milk from your breasts. You need to remember that the more your baby can suckle and draw milk from you, the more milk you will generate. With lesser milk release, you will generate lesser milk. This apart, women have different storage capacities in their breasts. If you are a mother with a small storage capacity, your baby might need to be fed very frequently in comparison to mothers with large storage capacity. Your baby would also have his biological clock that makes him look for a feed. But if it is a newborn baby that sleeps for prolonged periods, it needs to be woken up for the feeds.
2. Extra milk during hunger pangs
Sometimes your baby might go in hunger pangs. You might want to keep your expressed breastmilk ready if you can’t be available at that moment. Instead, if your baby is fed formula milk in such situations, your breastmilk supply might decline. This is because your baby would begin to draw less milk from your breasts.
3. Sleep training
If you are sleep training your baby before she is ready for it, she might end up sleeping longer. It will mean that she feeds less which in turn will impede your milk supply.
5. Using a pacifier or a dummy
If your baby is put on a pacifier or a dummy, it could lead to nipple confusion. When your baby suckles on your breasts, it involves a different mechanism than when it suckles on a pacifier or dummy. It will lead to your baby suckling on your breasts less efficiently which would in turn cause low milk production.
6. Delayed feeding
You might be enticed into giving your baby a dummy to suckle upon if you are busy. But a delayed feed will mean that she won’t suckle well enough, eventually causing less milk supply.
7. Less suckling time
If your baby is not allowed to latch on to you for the time that he wants, then he will not be able to draw the required amount of milk. Less suckling time can negatively influence your milk supply. Your baby can be allowed to suckle for 45 minutes on your breasts!
8. Wrong positioning and latching
If your baby is not positioned properly, she would not be comfortable enough to latch on properly either. With suboptimal positioning and improper latching, she would not be able to draw the required amount of milk. This will eventually lead to less milk production in you.
9. Tongue tie
As a rare case, your baby could have a tongue tie which can make it difficult for her to suckle out the milk from your breasts. A tongue tie restricts the movement of the tongue and therefore your baby cannot suckle enough resulting in low milk supply. You might want to seek a lactation consultant’s help in such a case.
