Dear Geraldine,
You visited a friend of mine and hope you can help me too. My baby is due next week and I am worried that I will not be able to produce enough milk as I had reduction surgery 12 years ago. How will I know whether I am able to produce enough milk or if I need to give my baby formula? I really want to breastfeed but don’t want my baby to starve.
Best wishes,
Penny White
Hi Penny,
Congratulations on your expectant arrival.
It is difficult to assess how much milk you will produce once your baby arrives. More importantly, we need to assess whether the milk that you do produce will actually make it down to the nipple.
You see, when ladies have their breasts reduced, the ducts that transport the milk from the milk producing sacs (alveoli) to the nipple, are often severed, so even if you were producing milk, there would be no way for the milk to come out.
The best thing to do is to keep an eye on your baby in the early days. Get yourself a copy of my Let’s Breastfeed Program as it has a detailed breakdown of what to expect on day 1,2,3 and beyond and what to do if you are not on target. It also as a comprehensive diagram based Bonus to teach you easy teachniques for getting your baby onto the breast without pain.
If your baby is not following or hitting the milestones I have set, you will need to top up. After day 5/6 depending on how your breasts feel (engorged or not), you can try to increase you supply. Do so very carefully though, as you may develop mastitis if the additional milk you produce has no way of leaving the breast.
It may be worth coming to see me in my Twickenham practice at this point.
Hope this helps and good luck with it all!
Kind regards,
Geraldine
I found this information very interesting and I am looking forward to more posts!