Breastfeeding is HARD. It's a natural thing, yet it does not come naturally. At least not in my experience. It's a team effort including yourself, your baby, your primary care provider, your spouse/partner and often a lactation consultant!
Breastfeeding was a beast for me. I struggled through the first 4 days on my own wondering how this thing that was supposed to be so "natural" and "instinctual" was SO hard. My son never seemed satisfied. He would fall asleep feeding after 45-60min on my boobs and then wake up screaming 30min later and this cycle continued on repeat day and night. Finally, on the 4th night of not sleeping more than 30min at a time we tried formula. I was utterly devastated. In my eyes, formula equalled failure as a mother. Formula meant giving my son something that wasn't natural and that I was letting him down. But that first 60mL of formula also equalled sleep. I was so torn.
So started my mission to find anything and EVERYTHING possible to support my milk supply so that I could stop giving him formula. I saw a lactation consultant. I tried pumping after every feed. I tried these things you heat in the microwave and then place inside your bra to try to promote letdown. I tried a pumping schedule that had me up in the middle of the night when my baby wasn't even awake. I tried herbal supplements. I tried lactation cookies and galactagogue foods. I tried teas. I eventually tried Domperidone. Nothing that I tried provided me with enough milk supply to satisfy my son. Every time I gave him a bottle of formula, I apologized that I had to give him this "poison" full of unnatural ingredients and that I couldn't provide enough of the "liquid gold" I though he deserved.
As I work with more postpartum clients I see so many similarities to my story from other new mothers - low milk supply issues, struggling and exhausting themselves trying to keep up with pumping schedules, countless appointments with lactation consultants, spending hundreds of dollars on supplements and/or medication - all of them just trying to uphold this stigma that "breast is best." I even spoke with one mother that had someone in her postpartum care team tell her "you're just not trying hard enough." SERIOUSLY?!
What is the physiological reason that some
women can feed a small army of babies with
their excess milk and others cannot satisfy
the hunger of a single baby?
It's really made me want to know WHY low milk supply happens. Like what is the physiological reason that some women can feed a small army of babies with their excess milk and others cannot satisfy the hunger of a single baby? As someone with an exercise physiology background I always want to try understand what the root cause is for things that happen within our bodies. To me it's fascinating.
So I did a little digging and this is what I found...
There are some reasons that have been suggested that may affect milk supply (you can read the full article here):
Exhaustion (but what new mother isn't exhausted?)
Stress (again I feel like stress is a common piece of early motherhood)
Breast surgery, or any breast procedure that involves an incision near your nipple or areola that can damage the milk ducts
Hypothyroidism
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
A very difficult birth and recovery with complications
Certain medications
Being underweight, extreme weight loss, or obesity
Underdeveloped (hypoplastic) breasts
A retained placenta
An illness or infection
Lifestyle choices, including smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, or too much caffeine
The return of your period
Getting pregnant again
Breast cancer
Lactation failure (a rare condition)
When I found this list I couldn't find any reason for my low milk supply other than maybe some exhaustion coupled with an increase in my caffeine intake due to sleep deprivation. I didn't have any of these conditions. But seriously what mother isn't exhausted and sleep deprived? Other mothers with no issues producing milk are in the exact same exhausted boat living on a diet of caffeine and snacks you can eat with one hand, so this doesn't really explain why my supply was low.
Then I went back through the list and saw the words "underdeveloped (hypoplastic) breasts" and I thought hmmmm...I wonder...maybe that could have been a factor for me. I'm gonna be real here - I've always had small boobs. Until I was pregnant for the first time I wore an A or B cup and often went for a push-up bra just to try to fill out a shirt or dress. This article stated that "a small percentage of women have breasts that do not produce enough milk because of insufficient glandular tissue (IGT)." This doesn't necessarily mean their breasts are small - it means that they just didn't develop enough of the glandular structures to support a full milk supply, regardless of breast size.
MIND. BLOWN. So it's possible that regardless of how hard I tried, how often I pumped, how many supplements I took, my ANATOMY and PHYSIOLOGY could have been a factor in my body's inability to produce enough milk.
So my question is - where was this information in my prenatal classes? We talked about latch and lactation consultants and mastitis (clogged ducts) and how important breastmilk is for a baby's fragile immune system but nowhere was it alluded to that there is a PHYSIOLOGICAL POSSIBILITY that you might not be able to make enough milk.
Nowhere was it alluded to that there is a PHYSIOLOGICAL POSSIBILITY that you might not be able to make enough milk.
And how about this little nugget from the Australian Breastfeeding Association:
"Almost all women start out by breastfeeding, but less than half of babies are fully breastfed at 4 months. Sometimes this is because women don't get the right information and the right support, at the right time."
Did you get that? More than half of mothers are supplementing in some form after 4 months. Yet health care practitioners are not speaking about this with expectant mothers (in my experience). We hear "breast is best" and "breastfeeding is beautiful and natural" but mothers are NOT getting the right information or support when they need it.
These cookies came to fruition as a result of my breastfeeding journey with my first son. As mentioned above, I discovered very early on that I did not produce enough milk to satisfy the needs of my baby. I wasn't even aware that low milk supply was even a thing. I felt inadequate as a mother because I couldn't provide enough nourishment for my baby. This spearheaded my exhaustive quest to find as many things as possible that would boost my milk supply and help me feed my baby.
I received a recipe for Lactation Cookies from my acupuncturist while I was pregnant. I had no idea what they were or why they were useful for lactation but I gladly accepted the recipe. When I started my quest, I dug up this recipe and and whipped up a batch. As with most recipes, I usually make it the way the recipe says the first time and then make some adaptations to better fit my nutrition plan - this means tyring to reduce refined sugar, saturated fat and gluten. But they still had to taste good!
There is a category of foods called galactogogues that have been used help increase breastmilk production for decades in many cultures - such as Brewer's yeast, oats and flaxseed - these cookies are loaded with them! I've made them multiple times now and gifted batches of them to new mommas so they have a healthy, delicious snack that may help boost their breastmilk supply in the early days of breastfeeding. And if anything, they're a perfect middle of the night snack when you're a starving.
So that's how these cookies came to furition and I'm so happy to share them with you.
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