Last week was our summer Birth Professionals Forum—a quarterly meeting of birth professionals from across the region tackling our most pressing maternity care issues. The topic this quarter was breastfeeding and how to better support breastfeeding women in our community. In a room full of midwives, doulas, lactation cosultants, La Leche League leaders and WIC representatives we came up with several great ideas.
As part of this effort, Bloom Spokane created the Breastfeeding Resources Flyer which contains all of our local breastfeeding support professionals, classes, organizations and support groups. You are encouraged to print out as many copies as you’d like to hand out to friends, clients, patients or anyone else who might need support.
Making Enough Milk?
One thing I found interesting was this statistic presented by our speaker, Karen Querna, RN, IBCLC: “87% of women leave the hospital breastfeeding in Washington state. Yet, among them, 22% have quit by 4-weeks postpartum.”
There are obviously many reasons for this huge gap—the difficulty of going back to work while breastfeeding among them—but we were surprised to find out that the number one reason women said they stopped breastfeeding was that they didn’t have enough milk.
I’m here to tell you, women of Spokane, you almost definitely have enough milk! Low supply, while it does happen, is very rare.
The best way to tell if your baby is getting enough milk is if he is wetting 5-6 diapers a day (6-8 cloth diapers), and gaining weight. If he is getting bigger every week (4-7 ounces per week after the 4th day of life is a good average) and wetting plenty of diapers, then you can be confident he is getting plenty of milk.
La Leche League offers up these Good Ways of Telling if Your Baby is Getting Enough Milk:
- The baby nurses frequently, averaging 8-12 feedings per 24 hours.
- The baby is allowed to determine the length of the feeding (talk to breastfeeding support if you feel your baby has abnormally long or short feeds).
- Baby’s swallowing sounds are audible.
- The baby is alert, active, and appears healthy, with good color and firm skin.
The following list includes INACCURATE ways to tell if your baby is getting enough milk:
- Breast size. Breast size has no affect on milk supply, and small breasts are just as capable of feeding a baby (or even 2!) as large ones.
- Breasts no longer leaking. Some women leak milk for their entire breastfeeding relationship. Most, however, experience diminished leaking, or even no leaking at all, after breastfeeding has been well established.
- Breasts no longer feeling “full”. Breastfeeding works on supply and demand, and once your milk adjusts to your babies needs you may not experience the feeling of fullness or engorgement that you did during the first few weeks. This doesn’t mean that you are no longer producing enough milk, just that you are producing the perfect amount of milk.
- Baby constantly hungry. Babies experience several growth spurts during the first few months of life- commonly at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, and 3 months. During that time you may find that your baby is suddenly ravenous, nursing both more frequently and longer. Rest assured that if you follow your babies lead, breastfeeding as often and long as he likes, your milk supply will increase along with his need. That rule of supply and demand I mentioned before works both ways- the more you breastfeed, the more milk you will produce! After a few days of “extreme nursing” your milk should be increased and your baby back to his normal routine. Breastfeeding is also about so much more then food. Your baby may be fighting an illness, beginning to teethe, on the brink of a new stage of development, or nervous about visitors in the house. He may miss you because you have been gone a bit more then usual, or adjusting to a new change in routine. All common reasons for a temporary increase in breastfeeding.
- Only getting a few ounces, or even under an ounce, while pumping. Breast pumps, even the best breast pumps, just aren’t as efficient as your baby. So the amount you pump is not indicative of the amount that your baby is receiving while breastfeeding.
Get Help With Breastfeeding
But what do you do after you’ve out ruled all the common misconceptions, and even worse, you have counted diapers and your baby doesn’t seem like he’s wetting enough diapers? Get help from one of Spokane’s many Breastfeeding Support Resources. See our events calendar to find breastfeeding support groups across the region. There is somewhere to go for help every day of the week! Many support groups have baby scales available for you to weigh your baby, including Wednesday’s Mother Baby Time at Sacred Heart Hospital, and Thursday’s Mindful Mamas group on the South Hill. They ALL have supportive breastfeeding experts, as well as moms, that are full of tips about how to increase your milk supply if needed.