With the arrival of the baby, the mother-to-be will not be able to enjoy the happiness of being a mother for the first time and will have to go into a new and protracted war of breastfeeding. A good start is half the battle, and it’s a skilled job to make a good start and get back to breastfeeding in a healthy and proper way. Today’s article will hopefully help you have a beautiful start and a perfect one.
Milk Opening
Volume – From something to nothing, from little to much
After a long pregnancy, our breast tissue is ready and waiting. But it doesn’t mean that once the baby is born, the milk will come in like a flood. Often the milk starts to increase slowly during the first week, it’s a gradual process, don’t be in a hurry. High estrogen and prolactin exist together before pregnancy, but high estrogen levels tend to suppress prolactin so that we don’t lactate a lot during pregnancy and waste our child’s future “rations”. After the baby is born and estrogen is out of the picture, the lactogen finally hits its stride and starts to build up slowly, making the milk production increase every day. In the first few days, the milk is not as thick and white as we thought, but a transparent liquid, do not underestimate the small amount of colostrum, which is rich in many protein antibodies, is the most precious and nutritious food for babies. The baby’s sucking reflex makes the body lactation hormone advantage gradually obvious after one month after delivery, the milk volume will slowly increase. Some mothers don’t understand this gradual process and try to squeeze their breasts very vigorously immediately after delivery, trying to increase the amount of milk through this process. In fact, this is because they overexerted themselves, causing small capillaries in the mammary glands to rupture and bleed. Take good care of this pair of “granaries”, respect the laws of nature, and keep the water flowing.
Diet
Breastfeeding is a time-consuming and labor-intensive activity, so mothers must eat a balanced diet to make it last. You can eat more soups, such as peanut and pig’s foot soup and carp soup with red beans to replenish your strength. The Chinese medicine can be supplemented with some Wang Bu Liuxiang, Tong Cao, etc. However, you can’t rely too much on diet for milk, after all, everyone’s glandular volume is different, the field size is different natural harvest is not the same. Here to popularize, not the bigger the breast the more milk, depends on the composition of the breast is more fat or glandular, fat is not milk production, only the glandular will be a constant source of milk production. So it can explain the confusion of many patients why my breasts are so big but there is no milk, and also give some friends with small breasts a comfort, small breasts but relatively more glands, the key is to look at the ratio of glands to fat, small breasts can also be a big milk producer. In order to have more milk, let the child suckle as much as possible to increase this stimulation, one to increase mother and baby communication to deepen the relationship, and secondly, also facilitate the production of more milk.
To sum up, if you want more milk, eat more and feed more, the more you eat, the more you have.
Breastfeeding posture
Breastfeeding is a technical task, it is not as simple as putting the nipple into the baby’s mouth. There is still a lot to be said for the wrong posture, even if you have milk again, the baby will not appreciate it. I would rather have a bottle than your breasts, so that the bottle, which does not produce milk but is just a milk carrier guys to steal your thunder.
Find a comfortable position for DD to sit or lie down, hold your baby on your chest or let your baby sleep next to you. The baby’s whole body should be facing the mother, not just the head.
Help your baby suckle in the correct position. The baby should hold the whole nipple, including the areola. Help your baby to hold the nipple in the center of her mouth, the more of the areola you hold, the better. If necessary, press the breast down a little to provide enough breathing space for your baby.
Adjust your position and your baby’s position at all times while breastfeeding. The more relaxed you are, the smoother the breastfeeding process will be.
The whole process of breastfeeding is a growing and learning process for your baby along with your mother, and it requires patience and persistence on her part. Let’s work together.
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding time
Breastfeeding is a win-win situation for both mother and baby. For mothers, breastfeeding reduces the incidence of breast cancer and provides relief for breast enlargement, while for children, breast milk is the most natural food, rich in various nutrients and immune antibodies. Therefore, we recommend breastfeeding for at least six months. However, for various reasons, mothers need to return to breastfeeding. It is important to know the right way to do it.
Natural breastfeeding
For mothers who have very little milk, reducing the number of breastfeeding sessions and lengthening the interval between breastfeeding sessions will inhibit the neurofeedback mechanism mentioned above, and the brain will order the breast to produce less and less milk, and the milk will be returned successfully in a week or so.
Medications
Ethylene estradiol or estradiol benzoate: can be taken orally or by intramuscular injection of estrogenic drugs. As mentioned earlier, high doses of estrogen have an inhibitory effect on lactogen, using this principle to cause high estrogen levels in the body, which will generally work significantly in about a week.
Bromocriptine: 2.5mg twice daily for 2 weeks, up to 21 days if necessary. More should be said about this drug in particular about its adverse effects. Some patients may experience nausea, and very few may experience dizziness, fatigue, vomiting or diarrhea, but not so severe as to require discontinuation of the drug. So it is recommended that mothers who choose this way of returning milk should avoid driving or some work that requires high concentration while taking the medicine.
Vitamin B6: Mothers with less milk can choose this method, but remember to take a larger dose, usually three times a day, 10-20 capsules at a time, don’t worry about the damage caused by such a large dose, vitamin B6 is water soluble, the amount that cannot be absorbed is excreted naturally from the urine. This method is not recommended for mothers who have a lot of milk
Chinese herbs.
Fried raw malt: please see, it is raw malt, not cooked malt, and the amount of water to soak enough to drink to about 1L per day, generally not alone as a method to return milk, need to cooperate with other methods
It’s not suitable for long term use because of its bitter cold nature.
To sum up, choose the right method according to your own situation, there are a few reminders.
TIP1
Many articles mention that you should not express milk when breastfeeding, which is a bit one-sided. I think that for mothers with a lot of milk, breastfeeding should be done gradually, reducing the number of times and lengthening the interval, and definitely not expressing milk, which will cause excessive filling of the mammary glands and pain, and even mastitis (see “Acute mastitis on the bumpy road of breastfeeding”).
TIP2
There is no scientific evidence to correlate with the occurrence of breast cancer in the future. Proper use of medication is safe and effective.
TIP3
It is normal to have a small amount of milk for several years and there is no need to overstress (see “Common Breast Problems that are not “Diseases””).
Finally, I have finished this article, which summarizes the usual large number of clinical problems to give you mothers a comprehensive introduction. This is a good thing, new mothers, hurry up and be happy!