Mother-Ed: When You Feel That You Have Insufficient Breast Milk

Some of the indicators of enough breast milk being produced are, the way the baby drinks breast milk, the frequency and even amount of stool and urine of the baby, and the body weight of the baby.
Slight obstruction of the breast milk or even the baby’s crying is not the indicator of insufficient milk. It gradually stabilizes just as you continue to breastfeed the baby.

There can be numerous other causes of the symptoms that are making you think that you are not producing enough breast milk. For example:

Baby cries frequently, wakes up while sleeping, and starts crying. There can be reasons other than insufficient breast milk for a baby’s crying. The baby can be in a bad mood or is a light sleeper.
The baby wants to nurse more frequently than usual. The reason can be that the breast milk is light and is digested quite easily and quickly, it is a common occurrence that babies want to nurse more frequently. It also depends upon the baby’s growth. There will be periods when the baby grows more quickly and he will want more breast milk.
Your breasts don’t get engorged. The breastfeeding mothers’ breasts might stop getting engorged after a few weeks of pregnancy. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not producing enough breast milk.
Your breasts are getting smaller. It has been found that breast size has nothing to do with the amount of breast milk.
Your baby takes in small amounts of breast milk. Different babies take in different amounts of breast milk. What you should be keeping in check is whether the baby is losing weight or gaining weight.
A little amount of breast milk is expressed. It has been found that the amount of breast milk secreted and the amount of milk baby drinks are different.

Signs of a Baby Not Gaining Adequate Weight

The baby grows less than 18 grams per day.
The baby hasn’t started to recover his birth weight by the third week
The baby’s growth curve doesn’t show a rising line.
The baby sleeps for long hours in order to conserve energy.
The baby is crying with a high pitch cry and he seems lethargic.
The urine output of the baby is not a reliable indicator of growth. Urine output can be normal or low for different reasons
The baby has fewer stools or sometimes none.
The baby consistently stays at the breast.
The baby might have a worried look and has hanging folds of skin.

(Source: UNICEF WHO, “UNICEF/WHO Breastfeeding Management and Promotion in a Baby-Friendly Hospital, an 18-hour course for maternity staff”, 1993, p. 69).
(Caution) Poor weight gain can be caused by much more than just breast milk so consult a doctor instead of judging it by yourself.

There are mainly two types of breast milk insufficiency.

In case of lack of breast milk intake and hyposecretion of breast milk, refer to the following strategies for coping with the issue. Moreover, consult your doctor or an expert such as a midwife or a lactation consultant.

1. Lack of breast milk intake

Insufficient breast milk intake because of the incorrect style of breastfeeding and the baby’s poor sucking.

Counter Strategy

Find out how you position the baby while breastfeeding and modify it accordingly. Also, check how to assist your baby to latch on.
Do not try and limit the duration and frequency of feeding, make sure the baby is nursing as much as he wants and as many times as he wants.

2. Breast Milk Hyposecretion

It is the insufficiency of the production of breast milk.
Insufficient breast milk intake can be a cause of hyposecretion It is divided into two types:
Primary breast milk hyposecretion can be caused because of medical reasons including mammary gland hypoplasia. Secondary breast milk hyposecretion, however, happens when the breast milk production ability is there but is not supported in an appropriate manner, and in this situation, the amount of breast milk secreted may decrease or increase.

Counter Strategy

If there are medical reasons behind breast milk hyposecretion, breast milk production will decrease and you need to take some supplements to tackle that.

Sometimes, it so happens that one breast is producing insufficient milk. In this scenario, enough breast milk can still be taken from the other breast. breast milk secretion can also be affected by milk expression.

Supplementing breastfeeding when the amount lactated is insufficient, in order of priority