It’s common for women to think that their breast milk production is low. A lot of the time your breast milk production is adequate even though you may feel like it is not. This may be due to your breasts not feeling as full or because you are not leaking milk from your breasts like you use to. These things are normal and are signs that your body is adjusting to your milk production. In fact it is not very common that a women cannot produce enough breast milk. Most of the time simple adjustments to how often you feed your baby and making sure you drink enough fluids and get enough nourishment can fix the problem.
Simple Ways to Help Increase Breast Milk Production
One important thing is to make sure you are breast feeding and pumping often enough. If you are not feeding your baby whenever they are hungry or only feed them for a certain amount of time you may be depriving your baby of how much food they would like to have and in turn reduce how much breast milk your body will produce. Using formula to supplement your breastfeeding can also decrease how much breast milk you produce. If your body realizes that you are not using as much breast milk it will reduce production. If you have to leave your baby for periods of time you should use a breast pump and store your breast milk in the freezer for whoever is going to feed your baby while you are gone.
Making sure your baby is latching on correctly can also be very important. If your baby is not latching on your breast far enough they may not be able to pull down as much milk, it can also cause painful breast-feedings which can make the mother not want to breastfeed. Talk to a lactation specialist if you are having problems with your baby latching on correctly.
Nipple confusion can also be a problem. If you overuse bottles and pacifiers your baby may get use to these things and be as comfortable feeding from the breast. A baby’s suck may not be as strong if these things are overused which makes it hard for your baby to get as much milk when breastfeeding.
Make sure you try and relax. Having a newborn can be stressful and difficult. If you do not get enough sleep and are over stressed your body will continue to have problems with producing milk. Try and get someone to help out around the house and someone to help take turns waking up in the night to care for the baby. This is when using a breast pump can be important so that dad can take a turn at feeding the baby.
Try and breastfeed or pump more frequently. The more often you do this the harder your body will try and produce more milk to keep up with the demand.
Certain foods and herbs may also help with breast milk production. Some people report oatmeal, asparagus, and sweet potatoes can help increase the production of breast milk. Certain herbs can also help in production of breast milk. Some of the most popular herbs are Fenugreek, Blessed Thistle, Red Raspberry, Anise, Fennel, Dell, and Nettle. Some people may be skeptical about using an herbal supplement, but a few different studies have found Fenugreek and a couple other herbs to help increase prolactin levels. For people who would like to use a supplement there are a few supplements out there produced by companies such as Legendairy Milk Singapore, that are known to help with breast milk production. Reglan has often been prescribed by doctors to help increase breast milk even though it was not made for this purpose.
