It is a happy thing for a woman to be a mother and breastfeed her baby with her own milk, but the lack of milk and reduced milk secretion after childbirth can cause problems for baby feeding, which often makes mothers feel very anxious and makes the family feel uneasy. We all say that it is natural for a mother to use her own milk to feed her baby, but in the past few years, the number of patients visiting our mammography clinic due to low milk production after childbirth has been increasing.
Now we will summarize the common problems during breastfeeding and answer questions in categories.
A. Nowadays, we hear more and more about new mothers who do not have enough milk or no milk after their children are born.
A: There are many reasons for less milk after delivery, among which lack of breastfeeding experience and wrong breastfeeding method are very important reasons. Many new mothers have misconceptions about breastfeeding, some of them do not have confidence in themselves and always feel that they have little milk, so they let their children use formula milk at an early stage, and the more they suck on formula milk which is easy to suck, the less the child is willing to suck on the mother’s nipple which is more difficult to eat. Because she does not know that the frequency of breast milk secretion is consistent with the frequency of the child’s sucking, in fact, only more sucking is possible to lactate more. This is why we advocate sucking more often. In the past, the concept was to breastfeed on time, but now we advocate breastfeeding on demand, for the same reason, as long as the child is hungry, you can feed the child breast milk, only then more contact and more sucking, no need to set a time, the mother’s milk can be a little more. There are also some patients who believe that they should rest more after giving birth and are unwilling to feed their children at night in order to get a good night’s sleep. In fact, the level of prolactin secretion is higher at night, so reducing the number of nighttime breastfeeding may also lead to less milk.
After the mother has given birth to her baby, the doctor will carry the baby to the mother, so that the baby can have a skin-to-skin contact with the mother and let the baby start sucking on the mother’s nipple.
A: It is very helpful. We advocate the principle of “three early”, that is, “early contact, early sucking, early opening of milk”. Early contact on the skin is good for establishing affection, early sucking, and prompting the formation of the lactation reflex as soon as possible, which is the only way to make milk early.
3. Some mothers think that their small breasts will affect breastfeeding and are the cause of low milk supply, is this true?
In fact, there is no relationship between the size of breasts and the amount of milk. The size of breasts is more related to genetics and influenced by estrogen and progesterone, while the amount of milk is greatly related to prolactin. On the contrary, we see many patients with small breasts, but the amount of milk is quite sufficient. On the contrary, we have seen many patients with small breast size but sufficient milk. Only a very small number of patients have low milk due to abnormal breast development. Therefore, new mothers should have confidence in themselves.
A friend of mine had enough milk, but then she got angry over a small matter and her milk was reduced all of a sudden. Are emotional factors also the cause of low milk?
A: You are right, emotional and mental factors are indeed quite important. During the examination, we found that her breasts were relatively full and she had a feeling of milk coming in. This is a type of liver depression and qi stagnation, which is said by Chinese medicine. Such patients must regulate their emotions to achieve the purpose of increasing the amount of milk and smooth milk secretion.
5. Some new mothers seem to be particularly weak, is this also one of the reasons for low milk production?
A: This is true, especially for patients who had a cesarean section, where the mother is weak in both blood and qi after delivery due to more bleeding or her already weak constitution. This type of patients usually not only have low milk volume, but also have thin milk texture. When we examine the patient, we find that the patient’s breasts are flaccid, the patient is thin, pale and weak when talking.
Sixth, there are various kinds of milk soup on the Internet, is it very effective to drink these soups?
A: The pig’s feet soup and crucian carp soup that we usually talk about have their own reasons, because they are rich in protein, so they are certainly effective for patients with deficiency of both qi and blood, but for patients with liver depression and qi stagnation, they should also be treated mainly by unblocking.
Seven, you just mentioned two common types of postpartum breast milk, namely liver-depression and qi-blood deficiency, which of these two types is more common in clinical practice?
A: There are more patients with liver-depression and qi-stagnation type. These patients belong to pseudo-lactation, that is to say, they have milk, and they feel their breasts are very swollen, but the milk just can’t come down, through the regulation of emotion and will, together with the technique of breast drainage and the use of Chinese medicine, they can completely achieve the purpose of sufficient milk, and the treatment period is short, some patients may have sufficient milk after 3-7 days of treatment.
8. Are there any tonics that can help unblock the milk ducts?
A: For patients with liver stagnation and qi stagnation, you can use some herbs to relax the liver and regulate qi, such as green peel and green calyx plum, which are both effective in regulating qi and safe. For some women whose breast channels are not so smooth, we can use some herbs to unblock the breast channels, such as loofah, lutong and leucomelia, which can also be very effective.
9: What other medicines can help to treat a woman with Qi and Blood deficiency, besides soup?
A: If it is the type of deficiency of both blood and qi, ginseng, poria, angelica, rehmannia and other drugs.