When I was struggling to get my first child to eat (she refused bottles and I couldn’t make enough milk) the doctors all told me the same thing, “a baby won’t let itself starve.” This was a lie. My baby would have if I getting her to drink a bottle was the only option. Thankfully, there are lots of other ways to feed a baby so she was fine in the end.
Low Milk Supply: The Chorus of Lactation Consultants
Part of my low milk supply journey involved talking to lots of lactation consultants. I was never one of those people that had my heart set on solely breastfeeding, but my baby sure did. I heard the same thing for every consultant I asked: breastfeed more, pump in between…yet I was feeding her for 30 minutes every two hours and pumping for 15 afterward.. that left about 1 hour at a time that I didn’t have something on my breasts. Apparently that was too much time. At night I skipped the pumping but still woke up with an alarm and fed her every two hours. My life was a wreck. I had to basically shave my head because my hair was one big disgusting knot. Then they told me to try every 1 1/2 hours!
I have come to believe that the lactation consultants did not believe me–or maybe they just didn’t want to.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” ― Upton Sinclair
Out of curiosity, I looked up the what you need to qualify for an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant® (IBCLC®) certification. I expected it to be very little as every one I talked to said the same stuff without much thought to it, but it turns out that they have to do quite a bit of school (but not quite a degree) and around five years of clinical experience. So they must know something right?
The first thing anyone assumed was that low milk supply was all in my head. Something called “Perceived Insufficient Milk“. It was not.
Was I Not Trying Hard Enough?
Most lactation resources stress how rare low milk supply is, especially in America. They say you have to have one of a few serious problems–none of which I had–for it to be legitimate. Or the baby has a tongue tie–which may not even be a real problem.
Otherwise, not even implied but explicit stated, you are not trying hard enough. OR everything you are feeling is wrong and the baby is getting enough.
So, babies are fussy in the evenings and want to nurse constantly. That is standard and the experts say that it doesn’t indicate that you are not giving them enough milk.
Also, you can’t possibly tell that if you are giving the baby enough based on your own physical perceptions and observations. They are NOT VALID.
The only thing that is valid is the baby’s weight. But wait…these weight gain guidelines are based on the average baby and we all know statistically that averages can mean a lot of different things or even nothing. How can you compare babies from 5′ tall, 100 pound parents to those with 6′ tall, 200 pound parents? They just need something to go by here so the guidelines are rough.
So what do you do if feeding every minute of the day doesn’t work? Well, you could try herbs. Maybe you aren’t getting enough sleep (with all the nursing and pumping how could you)? The absolute worst thing they say is to supplement.
Should You Supplement?
All the breastfeeding professionals will attack this..they say absolutely not. It robs the baby of the breast milk that we still believe will magically come if you try hard enough. If you supplement, you are a baby robber or some such thing, even the American Breastfeeding Association says so.
We all know formula is gross. Read the ingredients–yuck. But as Emily Oster tells us in her fabulous book, Crib Sheet, their is no evidence that formula affects baby-child-adult outcomes. Of course, for believers this can’t possibly be true. As we know that breast milk is adjusted to the baby’s needs in the moment and includes immune cells–it probably is better for the baby’s health at the time, but I don’t think it makes them do better in school years later.
What does make them do better in school is probably parents who have the time to spend with their babies attempting to breastfeed them every two hours.
So my takeaway on low milk supply: don’t let them get you down and don’t spend your precious baby time crying for a letdown. Just hold your baby as much as possible and do what you need to do. They will be eating, or not eating, their broccoli in no time.
Let the Backlash Begin
I tried to find a reasonable voice online for low milk supply and I only found one. I wonder if it is because they got trolled out. I’ll wait and see.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema