The day I posted that I was conceding defeat and putting my baby girl on formula, I spoke to three different women who all told me they had had to stop breastfeeding before they wanted to for at least one of their children. That got me thinking. I’m not the only person who has had problems with their breastmilk supply. I went onto the internet looking for information that would tell me this is a common problem (or a problem for at least a certain percentage of mothers). I found the term “insufficient milk syndrome”, meaning the inability to produce enough breastmilk. Apparently, this only applies to 5% of mothers and the majority of the articles I read spent their time trying to argue that this ‘syndrome’ does not exist, it is only perceived.<\/p>\n
However, I found these on BabyCenter.com: ‘I feel guilty about quitting breastfeeding<\/a>‘ and ‘I feel like a failure for not breastfeeding<\/a>‘. There are 1201 reader comments on the first one and 360 comments on the second one to these readers’ statements. Many readers commented that they had had to quit breastfeeding before they wanted to. If all these women are having the same issues, wouldn’t you think this is a real problem?<\/p>\n I asked the health nurse (at my daughter’s last immunization) if she finds that there are a number of women who have problems with their milk supply. Her response was, “No, not really.” I asked my doctor (who has been practicing family medicine for over 30 years) if she finds this phenomenon and she answered an emphatic, “Yes!”. There are a lot of women out there with problems with their milk supply. And for various reasons, too. So why isn’t anyone talking about this? Why are mothers being left feeling guilty over their inability to adequately feed their babies?<\/p>\n The breastfeeding community says:<\/p>\n While many of these things are true, they do not paint the complete picture. And because of that, they communicate that breastfeeding is a choice for every mother and the reason they can’t breastfeed would be the mother’s fault.<\/p>\n Take my story, for instance. I had problems with milk supply for my first two boys, so I was bound and determined that this would not be the case for my daughter. However, she was almost 10 pounds when she was born (meaning she would need more milk right off the bat). At first, I was trying to feed her every 3 hours minimum (like the lactation consultants and health nurses were telling me) and I was constantly waking her up, trying to feed a groggy, tired baby that didn’t want to eat for very long but just go back to sleep. My doctor told me feed her every 4 hours instead and that greatly improved things. She was awake enough to feed for longer and she had good growth in the first couple of months. I would try to feed her when she indicated she was hungry, but usually I was feeding her before she showed outward signs of hunger (throw the theory ‘if you just let your baby feed as often as she wants, you’ll have lots of milk’ out the window). Beginning in her third month, when my baby would feed, she would feed for shorter periods of time. I changed the routine to feeding her every 3 hours to try to bring my milk supply up. It didn’t really work. My doctor told me that due to her size, I should start feeding her solid foods at 4 months (something I had also done for my other two boys and which was the accepted practice at the time). The first time I gave her rice cereal, she literally inhaled it. It seemed as if I’d been starving her the way she acted. I knew then that I definitely was not producing enough milk to completely satisfy her. I gave her the breast before giving her solid food to try to keep my milk production up. I pumped. I took fenugreek and blessed thistle for a time. These things helped, but not enough to fill her up. Over the next two months, she kept feeding for less and less time when I fed her until I got to the point where I put her on formula. To prove that my ‘insufficient milk’ was not ‘just in my head’, my daughter only gained 4 ounces from month 5 to month 6, so I certainly wasn’t producing enough.<\/p>\n There are many women who have been wholeheartedly committed to breastfeeding and have tried everything they could think of to maintain their milk supply and it still didn’t work. Yet they are told that its their fault – they were coerced by the formula companies, its all in their heads, they didn’t try hard enough, etc.<\/p>\n When is this going to stop? Mothers have enough to deal with concerning post-partum depression, sleepless nights, lifestyle change, etc. than to have to face the guilt and condemnation that comes with not being able to breastfeed.<\/p>\n There is evidence that shows that “insufficient milk syndrome” does not appear to have been an issue in previous centuries and that it seems to be much more apparent in Western society. (link<\/a>) However, I would not agree with the blanket statement that this is simply a perceived phenomenon or that it is always the mother’s fault. Perhaps there are other factors that have not been considered that might be contributing to this problem in Western society. Research should be devoted to considering these factors. Just like cancer researchers take a look at many different variables in certain areas where specific forms of cancer seem to be more apparent, maybe breastfeeding researchers should do the same with “insufficient milk syndrome”.<\/p>\n I wish the breastfeeding community would address this issue honestly instead of devoting all their energy to trying to prove it does not exist. It does exist! And mothers are suffering as a result of their breastfeeding extremism. Why not admit that the problem exists and then look for ways to help mothers continue breastfeeding or if they can’t, assure them that sometimes this happens and that it is NOT THEIR FAULT!<\/p>\n (feel free to leave a comment: I would love to hear of your breastfeeding experience)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n