Photography by Crystal Keyes
Breastfeeding Challenges
Could it be low milk supply?
|by Sara Chana
IBCLC, RA (AHG)
I am bravely, yet confidently, going to make the
following statement—ladies hold back your
gasps—most women can produce enough
breast milk to exclusively breast feed their babies.
The concept of “low milk supply” is often a misunderstanding of what is really going on. When
women come into my office concerned with a
low milk supply, more often than not there is an
alternative issue—possibly an incorrect latch of
the baby onto the breast, or perhaps a baby with
a weak suck or suck disorder.
In fact, I would venture to say that if the breastfeeding is being managed correctly—which
means that the baby has not been trained on a
schedule and the mother has mastered a PAINFREE latch onto the breast—yet she still feels as
though she cannot satisfy her baby by nursing
alone, then it can be safe to assume the baby is
having the issue and not the mom. This fixable
problem is usually in the form of a “suck disorder”. Suckling disorders can be extra confusing
to moms because it seems as if nearly everything
is going according to the basic breast feeding
protocols—they are breast feed pain-free and
baby appears to be getting milk. The concern
blossoms once the babies are weighed before and
after breastfeeding on a digital scale that meas-
ures ounces, and much to the moms’ dismay, the
numbers on the scale have barely moved.
Here’s the good news, mamas! If your
breastfeeding problem is indeed with your
baby’s latch or baby’s suckle, consider yourself
blessed because most proficient lactation consultants can teach you how to fix these problems. Not to say a magical wand will wipe your
problems free, but with the right dedication and
some work, a mom with the help of her spouse
or partner, can learn how to suck-train her baby.
Once a baby is properly suck trained however,
it may indeed seem magical when the numbers
begin to jump on the scale before and after the
feedings. I don’t want to belittle the hard work
some of my clients are challenged with before
yielded with the cherished results. But in my experience, once a baby is guided on how to suckle
properly, the progress for the baby is usually
profound and extremely rewarding.
In rare cases, when it truly is the mother
with the problem, it would tend to be from
one of the following conditions:
Insufficient glandular tissue is a condi-
tion in which the straw-like tubes in the breast
that carry the milk, called ducts, never grew
properly during adolescence. This means that
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