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In one breast milk is not enough - what to do? How to breastfeed

Experiences of young mothers about the fact that there is not enough milk in one breast often occur. Discussions on women's forums of this problem are common. What to do and how to improve the situation? The reasons for which one of the mammary glands produces less milk than the other, there are several.

Breast Imbalances: From Genetics to Toddler Habits

Breast asymmetry can be caused by their anatomical structure (with an insignificant difference within the same size, it exists in almost 70 percent of women). The more noticeable discrepancy between these parameters is much less common, and it is associated with genetic hypoplasia of the glandular tissue, in which the breast does not increase even during pregnancy, although a small amount of milk still produces it. In addition to congenital asymmetry, the apparent difference in breast size also arises from the shape of the nipples. In the period of breastfeeding, the right breast may become smaller than the left breast, or, conversely, because of unequal emptying.

An unequal request for the amount of breast milk may vary under the influence of:

  • Decrease the patency of the outflow ducts due to their non-identical width;
  • Improper application to one of the mammary glands;
  • Uneven pumping;
  • Preferences in terms of comfort to support the crumb of a more comfortable breast (for example, if the mother wears it in a sling next to him);
  • Night feeding on one side (at this time of day, the maximum amount of milk is produced, and if the baby sucks only one breast, the other will become noticeably smaller);
  • Treatment of lactostasis with the help of some folk remedies (vodka, alcohol or camphor, which suppress the production of the hormone oxytocin, which helps to get rid of stagnant phenomena at the same time as lactation disappears).

Pathological problems can also be the reason that milk is not enough in one breast. These are various injuries of glandular tissue, transferred operations or diseases: inflammation, lactostasis, mastitis. A great role in the uniform sucking of the mother's milk is played by the habits of the baby. For example, a child does not completely grip the nipple, which leads to painful cracks. Because of discomfort, a woman feeds the baby with such a breast less often, the milk flow is blocked and the iron decreases in size.

Prolactin reflex - what is it?

The wise mother nature has provided that the breast during the feeding is constantly replenished with milk. Therefore, the mechanism of stimulation of the nerve endings of the nipple is triggered each time the baby begins to absorb food. At this time, the nerve signal enters the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland, responsible for regulating lactation processes and producing milk thanks to the corresponding hormone. Stimulation of the nipple, which causes an increased secretion of the product and its entry into the gland, is called a prolactin reflex. The use of special food and abundant drink is only a nutritious basis for milk production. Applying the baby to the breast as often as possible and the process of sucking allow you to maximize the glands of the nursing mother. The amount of milk in them also increases.

Anxiety Mom

In women, for whom the appearance of the first-born was a real event, insufficient lactation in one of the mammary glands can cause great experiences. Experts warn that it's not worth to get upset about this. According to medical statistics, less than three percent of new mothers suffer from an inability to breastfeed. This condition is due to severe hormonal disorders. Under normal conditions, in the first months after childbirth (within two to three), the breast of a nursing mother undergoes a natural adaptation process.
Smaller mammary gland, as a rule, should be subjected to stimulation more often and more often. In this way, you can align requests for product development, thereby equalizing the bust in sizes on both sides. Specialists have long found out that the amount of food produced for a child does not depend on the size of the glands. It often happens that the breast does not produce a lot of milk, and women with the first number feed the kids for a year or more. In the reviews there are examples of GV in mothers with a small size of up to a year and a half and even a year and eight months.

Causes of pain in the breast during feeding

Discomfort in the nipple and mammary glands as a whole in the nursing mother during the normalization of the lactation process can be associated with a powerful inflow of milk (in the form of a light burst) and causing injuries to the tender skin of the nipples that are not coarsened to a sufficient degree (usually about two Weeks). If a woman regularly applies crumb to the glands in accordance with the regime and rules, the natural pain in the breast during feeding very soon passes.

If the unpleasant sensations arise not in the first days of lactation, but much later, when the feeding regime is already balanced, then their causes can be:

  • A powerful inflow of milk directly during the process;
  • The formation of cracks and wounds on the nipples, the infection of injuries by bacteria or fungi;
  • Milk congestion (or lactostasis);
  • mastitis;
  • Mastopathy.

To find out what causes chest pain while feeding, and to get advice on how to avoid nipple injuries, to establish the correct process of providing the baby with mother's milk, or to cure the disease, it is necessary to visit the doctor immediately.

What causes lactostasis and how to cope with it?

Seals in the chest, which result from the fact that the mother's milk does not come out of the clogged lobules, is a phenomenon common among young mothers who first encountered the soreness of the glands. What can cause lactostasis?

It:

  • Too long pauses between feedings, causing stagnation of milk (tips to save the product to last for the evening, lead to seals!);
  • A limited period of food intake, when the baby has time to drink only the front milk, and heavier for sucking, but fat and nutritious remains in the chest, clogging the ducts;
  • Feeding in the habitual position, when the same lobules are emptied, and in others compaction occurs;
  • Prolonged sleep on one side (face to the child), leading to the appearance of lumps in the axillary region;
  • Close and uncomfortable laundry;
  • Fatigue and chronic lack of sleep;
  • Homogeneous homework;
  • Prevalence of fatty foods in the diet;
  • A sharp cooling (it is worth paying special attention to the prevention of lactostasis).

As a result of the impact of any of the negative factors in one of the mammary glands, little milk becomes. What to do in this case? Gynecologists advise to exclude mechanical kneading of lumps in the chest with hands, which can harm, aggravating the situation. In addition, you can not limit the intake of liquid. The myth that it is forbidden to breast-feed a child affected by lactostasis is untenable. This must be done necessarily, because the baby with the help of sucking can most easily and qualitatively release the clogged lobules from the stagnation of milk. Only before breast-feeding, you need to arrange it so that the child's chin is directly under the seal - so you can achieve maximum effect, because most of all the child stimulates the gland with a vacuum under the tongue during sucking. Applying the crumb in different poses, Mom can achieve a soft devastation of all the lobules. If the child is difficult to fully drain the mother's milk, then its remains must be expressed.

Lactation crises

If during the feeding the child shows anxiety, then, probably, he does not have enough breast milk. Such situations arise to varying degrees in every woman, thanks to the leaps in the development of Malish, when his nutritional needs increase. The first stage of a lack of milk can appear on the 21-45 day after birth, the subsequent fluctuations in the ratio of "supply and demand" can become visible at the 3rd, 7th, 11th and 12th months of breastfeeding. The duration of lactation crises is individual and can range from 2-3 days to a week. This does not mean that the mother has less milk, just the glands during this time have time to adapt to new requests. During this period, primiparous women, worrying that the child does not gorge, can make the mistake and start luring the compounds.
The result is often the unwillingness of the baby to suck breast milk, especially its rear nutrient. Therefore, pediatricians recommend that the baby be applied at this time as often as possible to the breast and fed longer than usual, including during the night-time favorable for milk production. Harmful are tips to give babies a pacifier, dopaivat water, use bottles with nipples, to doubt the availability of sufficient amounts of mother's milk and to give up, without bothering to struggle for the natural feeding of a child.

Different amount of milk in the mammary glands is not an excuse for weaning the baby from the breast

In the first three months after childbirth, a balance is restored between the needs of the baby and milk production from the mother. Over time, the ducts expand, the product becomes not so fat and its quantity begins to return to normal, corresponding to the needs of the child. But if more milk comes to one breast, then the woman experiences discomfort: the overcrowded mammary gland is aching and aching. It is often prone to lactostasis. The child is uncomfortable, grasping the nipple, choking and simultaneously swallowing portions of air, which subsequently leads to regurgitation and painful colic in the abdomen. Mothers in this case, feeding also causes not only pain: milk from the nipples is beaten out in dense streams, dripping, wetting clothes and leads to the appearance of irritation on the skin. In addition, the excess product provokes the appearance of striae (stretch marks).

What are the rules to follow in order not to experience discomfort when feeding? Necessary:

  • Baby to breastfeed for once;
  • Follow the technique of capturing the nipple baby (wrong capture of the areola makes inaccessible the nutritious back milk, and the sweet front is absorbed quickly - the hungry kid asks to eat, stimulating new production and the influx of more and more product);
  • A full chest is necessary before feeding a little to express, to enable the baby to easily take the nipple.

Feed it while it is better in a vertical position or holding the child at an angle (that the head was above the stomach). If in one breast milk is more than necessary to feed the crumbs at a time, the remnants of it are expressed in order to prevent the risk of stagnation (lactostasis) and the appearance of lumps. The breast developed in this way can leak, therefore it is necessary to put a hygienic absorbent pad into the bra. The second gland also needs to be expressed if the child is already full. The fact is that during excommunication (even temporary), mother's milk in the chest, in which it is small, quickly invokes.

Habits of the child: if he takes only one breast

From the very beginning of the natural feeding of the baby, mother's milk should be strictly monitored, so that the baby does not have a "beloved" breast. The habit of lying on one side in the tummy of a mother during pregnancy can cause him to give preference to that breast that is closer to his traditional position. It is necessary alternately to offer that right, then the left breast during feeding, memorizing necessarily, to which side the crumb was applied last time. During the lactation crisis, when there is less milk, you can use both breasts in one feeding, but for the next meal give the baby one that was previously the second. To stimulate the production of the product, experienced mothers are advised to apply the baby more often to the less mammary gland. And after the feeding session, you need to express everything to the drop. This will help increase the amount of natural maternal product in one breast (there is little milk in it, and therefore the child refuses to suck it).
Consultants for HW are advised to apply the baby more often to the breast at night, especially from 3 to 5 am, when prolactin is actively synthesized in the body - a hormone that affects the formation of milk in the female mammary gland. Moreover, a drowsy crumb does not notice that to satisfy hunger he was given not the chest he loves. Increase the amount of milk before feeding helps warm showers, compresses or trays with moderately hot water - procedures that promote the expansion of the ducts and facilitate the process of suckling milk to the baby. When choosing the optimum water temperature for such manipulations, care should be taken not to harm the tender skin of the nipples and mammary glands as a whole.

One breast produces milk, and the second - no

Why does it happen that in one breast milk is small, but in another is more than enough? After all, prolactin and oxytocin, stimulating the production of the parent product, enter each breast. Control over the production of food for the baby is carried out by the glands themselves due to the inhibitors contained in the parent product. If, for example, there is less milk in the right breast, these substances stimulate its further secretion with the help of glandular cells. Otherwise, they inhibit the formation of the product, protecting the gland from overfilling.
Nature provides a stopping factor for suckling a baby: in this case, along with milk, a "litmus paper" (inhibitor) is removed from the gland for further product formation. If there is more milk in one breast and the baby sucks only the areola on it, then the product will arrive precisely at this address, increasing the size of the gland. While on the other hand the breast will decrease, reducing lactation, if you do not express the milk regularly. Tips to eat more, drink special teas and "Apilak", healing herbs from herbs and other wishes will not be of use if the child does not suck a specific breast. In order for permanent milk secretion to occur, it is necessary that the crumb correctly and often stimulate the nipples.

Myths and Misconceptions

Erroneous opinions on how to breastfeed a baby, even in our enlightened age, there are many. For example, advice on the fact that a newborn breast can not be kept for more than 5 minutes to avoid the appearance of cracks does not stand up to the criticism of neonatologists. Their answer explains that the baby needs to be fed until the moment when he independently releases the breast. And the formation of cracks is associated with two reasons: excessive sanitation of the nipples (soap and green), which destroys the protective layer of the areola, and its incorrect capture by the baby for sucking.

Negative review of the patient, which the doctor recommended to save milk and infrequently feed the child, in order to have enough for dinner for him in the evening, was supplemented with a comment that in this case it is necessary to wait for a decrease in the amount of milk produced and worsening of the lactation process. The widespread opinion that children suck a sufficient portion of the mother's product in the first 5-10 minutes of feeding, is true only for older children. Newborns also find it difficult to saturate so quickly, because they are still learning to suck and not all are productive. In addition, a significant role in this process is the rate of milk ripening in the mother, because in some women the secretion of the product occurs in small portions and comes several times during one feeding.

In conclusion…

Making the breast of a nursing mom symmetrical is not difficult. To do this, it is necessary to pay attention at an early stage to the problem, to regulate the process of breastfeeding, giving the baby more than one breast, and both, observing the order of priority. Lesser gland should be used more often. If you can not understand the peculiarities of the correct GV yourself, you can consult a doctor who will help organize the process so that the feeding of the child brings pleasure to the mother and good health to the baby.

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