Monday, March 9, 2009

Breastfeeding 452 - Oversupply and Prenatal Warning Signs

I call this "course 452," because in my opinion, oversupply in breastfeeding is a very difficult and largely overlooked issue. Many women struggle with other breastfeeding problems, such as incorrect latch-on, sore nipples, or undersupply. However, as they say: too much of a good thing can go badly; and for some well-equipped women out there, having too much milk for our babies is just as problematic and frustrating as not producing enough.

Furthermore, oversupply seems to be a relatively rare issue among women, meaning that literature or advice on ways to deal with too much milk is hard to come by. While scavenging my area's breastfeeding groups for help, I attended fully 9 groups before I found one where the leader took me seriously as I walked in the door and declared, "I have too much milk." Needless to say, I latched-on to that group!

It sounds rather like an oxymoron: "Too much milk? How is it possible to have too much milk? What a gift! Pump it, freeze it, donate it! Count your blessings!" However, what most people don't realize is that making too much milk often leads your breasts to take liberal license with prolonged engorgement and the letdown function. This means that long after most women have resolved their engorgement issues, each time the oversupplying woman attempts to feed her baby, she is basically drowning him in a non-intentional, yet ever water-boarding-fashion. It's no wonder the infant of an oversupplying woman doesn't want to nurse at the breast!

I mentioned earlier that one of my very first problems with breastfeeding lay in the fact that I never anticipated oversupply until I was already in the thicket of it! Instead, try to learn to read your body's signs during your prenatal (pregnant) time, in order to prepare for what your body may do after the birth of your baby.

First, don't believe the myth that oversupply is related to breast size (aka. only very large women are at risk for a struggle with oversupply). As in the case of women who are worried about undersupply due to a small bust, breast size has nothing to do with milk supply! Before pregnancy and even now that I am nursing, I have an average bust of about 36-C to 36-D, depending on the bra. I am a very tall person, so my bust simply fits well within my frame. In contrast, a woman in our breastfeeding group who is large-busted struggled quite a bit to make enough milk for her new baby. I realize this example is quite anecdotal, but it makes the point: Supply is NOT related to breast size! I have not experienced that this problem is common in my family either, as neither my grandma, mom, or sister have had such problems. However, for your own sake or for support, you may want to ask your mom or sisters if they have struggled with this issue.

Second, be aware that most women have some amount of leaky breasts before their babies are born. When this happened to me, I assumed it was a normal hormonal change, and did not seek any advice about it. However, what I didn't realize is that my experience with leakage was far out-of-the-ordinary. I started leaking something close to colostrum about week 8 of my pregnancy. By the time I was about 16-20 weeks, I was leaking through my shirts if I didn't have some kind of pad in my bra. In the mornings, I would wake up with two big wet spots on my nightgown, and by the end of the pregnancy I soaked through my sheets at night.

If any of these things are happening to you, consider whether you may need help with oversupply/over-letdown. Because all groups differ slightly, it's important to find a breastfeeding group and/or organization that fits your "chemistry." All groups have solid advice, but it comes in different forms and variables. As mentioned before, I was attending my tenth breastfeeding group before I found a leader who took my overproduction seriously, and whose style of instruction matched my needs for learning. If you are not sure where to start looking for a group, ask at your OB/GYN's office if they can refer you to a local postpartum or breastfeeding meeting. You can also ask the same question at your future pediatrician's office.

In the next week, I'd like to divulge further the intricacies of managing oversupply, as it really can be quite difficult to find a lactation consultant with a good base of knowledge in this area. (Please remember, I am NOT a lactation consultant; I speak only from my own experience and research!) However, I've learned so much about how to approach this problem, I feel it would either be: (1) informational overload to put it all in one post, or (2) simply unfair to abbreviate the information in order to merely be succinct. Thus, "sleep on" the current information, with more to come tomorrow!

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