Breastfeeding 101

Is Breastfeeding Right For You?

Okay so first off, in true baby care classes fashion, a feeding disclaimer. Breasts are amazing, and breastmilk is beneficial to babies. Breastfeeding is recommended for the health of the breastfeeding parent and the baby as a first choice of breastmilk. HOWEVER- the benefits do not outweigh the choice. If you cannot breastfeed, or if you choose not to breastfeed for whatever reason,

* You will never find any judgement from us. *

Preparing For Breastfeeding

When I had my daughter I thought I knew everything. With already a decade of experience working with newborns, as a newborn care specialist, I thought I thought breastfeeding would come naturally. The one thing that I didn’t educate myself in was breastfeeding. I didn’t read books, I didn’t take a class, I didn’t ask friends or family.

I had worked with enough parents that breastfed to understand the basics. I knew how to store milk safely, how often to feed ect. I also thought that it was a biologically normal mechanism and I wouldn’t need any help.

Um. Boy was I wrong.

My newborn baby latched on perfectly, but by day three I was in extreme pain and my milk still wasn’t coming in! I was pumping and cup feeding after nursing sessions to make sure that something was happening. By day four I took to the internet to read anything and everything about breastfeeding. And it was a video like this one that saved my life…well, saved my latch. Nobody had ever taught me the mechanisms behind the breast before, and from that moment forward I knew I wanted to prevent other parents from having the same experience that I did!

The Parts of the Breast

THE FIRST THING TO REMEMBER

The size of your breasts has almost NOTHING to do with how much milk you can make.

Outside of the breast [parts you can see]

• The nipple. The nipple is actually is porous and shoots out many streams of milk vs one “hole”. This can be surprising the first time you watch your milk eject into a pump!
• The areola. The areola is the dark area around the nipple which darkens in pregnancy to help the baby visually identify it.
• Montgomery glands. These are the small bumps on the nipple. You may have wondered your whole life why you have them. They create a natural lubricant and help kill bacteria! Thanks little bumps.

Inside the breast [parts you can’t see]

Let’s go over a VERY simplified process of how the breast creates milk

• Milk is produced in small cells called Alveoli, which are part of the mammory gland.
• When the nipple is stimulated [usually by a mouth or a breast pump] it signals the pituitary gland in the brain. This signals two more things
  1. The body to create more breastmilk from the nutrients in your blood [frequent nursing/pumping signals the body to continue to create more milk]
  2. For the cells around the Alveoli to contract

• The milk is then ejected from the Alveoli through the lactiferous ducts, to the nipples [many women can feel this “let down”]
• Viola. Milk

Supply and Demand in Breastfeeding

After the initial, automatic process of making milk, the only way you can keep making milk is by removing milk from the breast — thus feeding the baby triggers your body to make more milk.

Stimulating the nipple sends a message to the brain that says, “Hey! There’s a baby stucking on our nipples! That baby might want to eat. Let’s make it some food!” The other major signal comes when the baby removes the milk from the breast. The empty breast sends a message to the brain that says, “Hey! This breast used to be full of milk, and now it’s empty. There must be a baby drinking it. Let’s make it some more food!”

The next time baby nurses, the whole process starts again — nipple stimulation and the newly empty breast tell the brain and the breasts to make more milk. If we interrupt this process and stop removing milk from the breast, the body will think there’s no baby to feed, and will stop making milk.

There are other hormones and chemical swimming around the body that can affect milk production — estrogen and progesterone from pregnancy, any stress hormones from birth, and anesthesia or pain medication. But the basic rules of milk production is of supply and demand — breastfeed that baby, and your body will make more milk.

Pumping and supply/demand

If you plan on feeding your baby exclusively breastmilk, but you aren’t wanting or able to latch your baby on, [or if you just want/need to take some time away from your baby] then please know that you need to pump in rhythm with your baby. If your baby is feeding from a bottle every 3 hours, then you need to pump every 3 hours. If your baby is feeding every 2 hours, then you need to pump every 2 hours. It’s extremely important to pump consistently because your pump is telling your body how often your baby is hungry. If you begin to miss pumping sessions then your body assumes that your baby is feeding less often and will regulate supply accordingly.

Has My Milk Come In?

Milk “comes in” usually 3-5 days after birth. It doesn’t happen all at once. It’s a slow and gradual transition from colostrum to breastmilk. You may feel hard and uncomfortable when it happens, or you may feel no change at all! Your breasts may increase in size or they may stay exactly the same.

Bottom line. You’ve got this.

Now that we have a solid understanding of HOW the milk is being made inside the breast, we can understand the changes in our own bodies and in our babies. If we run into issues with latch and milk supply, understanding the anatomy and physiology of a lactating breast will help us understand WHY we’re having trouble and HOW to fix it (we’ll talk more about that in another post). You can also just sit and marvel at how a group of glands — much like the salivary glands in your mouth or sweat glands under your arms — are all your baby needs in order to grow.

If you need help. Ask! Most insurance policies will cover lactation support. Often support in the hospital is not enough. The first two weeks are the hardest, and if you can get latch and supply established then it is usually smooth sailing for the months or years to come.

We have so much more to say about breastfeeding! Continue reading our blogs or check out our video series.