Do you have questions about increasing milk supply?

I'm planning out a podcast interview with Diana West about her new book (out later this year) Making More Milk.  Diana is the founder of the the Breastfeeding After Reduction website, an incredible resource for mothers who have had breast surgeries, and Low Milk Supply, a great resource on milk supply issues.

If you have non-urgent questions about how milk supply works, or how to make more milk, please leave them as comments below.  I'll work them into my questions for the interview!

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Comments

[Nola]

Since different solutions work for different underlying causes of low milk supply, how are nursing mothers supposed to find what the underlying cause of low milk supply is? Doctors are uneducated in this area (and useless in my experience). Nurses and lactation consultants usually offer general suggestions (skin to skin contact, different herbs, etc). But who is actually trained to diagnose the actual problem?

[Carter-Ann]

Does she have any advice about what to do when you are pumping for a premature baby but still not increasing milk supply? Any suggestions with what you can do to keep milk supply up even if pumping doesn't seem to be working?

[Maureen]

I seemed to experience "low milk supply" with my first born. Now I'm thinking that I just wasn't nursing often enough in those first few days. Isn't that the really the true cause, usually, of low milk? Supply and demand?

Or was the fact that I had a C-section partly to blame? Can things like brewer's yeast or a change in diet really help?

Thanks!

[Mary]

Science (and the survival to date of the species!) tells us that most women will be able to produce enough milk for their baby (or babies!). And yet so many women say that they don't produce enough milk, with many giving up breastfeeding altogether for this reason. Is this just a massive misperception? Or are other factors at work (in the Western world) such as older mothers, more surgical deliveries etc?

[Jane]

Would she have any suggestions for pumping at work and keeping up supply when most feedings are based on pumping? Also, how do I keep baby from being less interested in nursing when she is now more used to bottle feeding?

[Meg]

I am so thrilled to hear that you will be interviewing Diana West, Tanya! As a BFAR mother, her work has been utterly invaluable to me, and I can't wait for the release of her book on low milk supply in general. Cheers!

[Natalie W]

Milk supply issues are NOT a misperception! I was able to measure the ups and downs in my supply because I was pumping at work. When I began menstruating again, I experienced a severe drop in supply (at least 50%) during the luteal phase of my cycle (just before getting my period). I'd be curious to know what Diana West knows about this connection--I had a hard time finding much. I was pumping on a very tight schedule, so I couldn't pump more often to increase the "demand". More Milk Plus got us by--just barely. How much are milk supply issues connected to working and pumping?

[Susan Waldron, Houma, LA]

Hi,

I am a La Leche League leader and we are seeing a great increase in low milk supply issues from moms who have had their deliveries induced.

We are thinking there is a link between low milk supplies and induced deliveries. It seems that the moms bodies are not fully ready for milk making since the body has not chosen for the baby to be delivered and it is the medication making the decisions.

Please advise with some awesome words of wisdom.

Thanks!

[Crystal]

I went back to work when my baby was 3 months old. He's now 8 months old and has never had a lick of formula -- and I'm now a very practiced pumper! He's a big baby with a big appetite, and I need to pump at least 16oz a day to give him his usual 4 bottles. (Yikes!)

I'd also be interested to hear more about how working mom's can maintain supply, and if there's any studied effect of stress on supply.